One of the Best Works of Greg Egan. The long-awaited new novel from Greg Egan! Hugo Award-winning author Egan returns to the field with Incandescence, a new novel of hard bltadwin. The one place that they cannot go is the bulge, the bright, hot center of the galaxy.
The Amalgam spans nearly the entire galaxy, and is composed of innumerable beings from a wild variety of races, some human or near it, some entirely other. I am very much a fan of Greg Egan's hard scifi. Here he presents us with two stages in the development of society and intelligence.
One world that has reached, discovered and understood all there is, and struggles with finding balance and reason to live their eternal lifes. And one that is just in the process of awakening and developing a thirst for knowledge or so it seems. The story of the inhabitants of the splinter feels like a visit to a more substantial version of Abbott's Flatland.
Even I am very much a fan of Greg Egan's hard scifi. Even though not 2-dimensional, there are parallels in how the reader is transported into a world that is not understood. Egan let's the reader discover the world together with the protagonists by using for example foreign words to describe their geometry that only slowly start to make sense. And even though Egan tackles some difficult physics when he lets his heroes discover orbital motion, gravity and the space-time continuum, the user is not necessarily required to follow it all.
Because the main message of the book is not the physics, but the pretty universal dilemma that too much knowledge doesn't make you happy. Jun 03, Robert Laird rated it liked it. It's hard to complain about characterization when you're reading about aliens, their thoughts, actions and words, but Egan did a fairly good job with that.
Whether 3. Whether that was by design or not, I'm not sure. It distracted me a bit, but I forged on through the story and didn't let it bother me too much.
The ending wasn't very satisfying, but I can't fault Egan for it, because I couldn't think of anything else he could have done. A side note: in my mind, anyway, I could "sense" two different plot resolutions to the way the story was going, and I found it intriguing Egan didn't use either of them.
I can definitely recommend this for true hard-sf fans. Jan 18, ABR rated it it was amazing. I was a little skeptical of this one at first, owing to some of the reviews saying it's just a bunch of boring physics lessons. Well yes, but no. Imagine what it would be like to hear Galileo, Newton, Bohr, Einstein, and Feynman all going at it in the same room.
All working together, and moreover gifted with a fortuitous vantage point that allows them to conduct experiments and gain direct insight into phenomena within hours with simple instruments that took humanity hundreds of years and the he I was a little skeptical of this one at first, owing to some of the reviews saying it's just a bunch of boring physics lessons.
All working together, and moreover gifted with a fortuitous vantage point that allows them to conduct experiments and gain direct insight into phenomena within hours with simple instruments that took humanity hundreds of years and the help of sophisticated technology. Amazing stuff! The end of the book was both surprising and very satisfying.
I won't spoil it, but it seems that a number of people miss it on the first reading, so I'd advise to read the last chapter carefully The idea content goes far beyond the physics as well, covering genetic engineering and significant ethical questions.
Overall, one of Egan's best. This is the hardest SciFi I've ever read. It comes pretty close to a lyrical exploration of the physics of the General Theory of Relativity. Not knowing much of the physics, I found some of it a little hard to follow, but overall it was fun, and it looks like on the author's webpage www. I'd heartily recommend the book to anyone with an interest in physics, but even ignoring that, it was still a fun, beautiful This is the hardest SciFi I've ever read.
I'd heartily recommend the book to anyone with an interest in physics, but even ignoring that, it was still a fun, beautiful book. I did have a bit of a problem with the ending I felt like the Rakesh plot was not concluded in a very satisfactory to me way and the two plots didn't seem to come together in any meaningful way, which I kept expecting.
Maybe I missed something though. View 1 comment. Jan 13, S. Price rated it did not like it. Every time a bit of plot threatens to pop up, a physics lecture swoops in and nips it right in the bud. Apr 05, Lucas rated it liked it. This book was fascinating, unique, and ultimately frustrating.
I recognize that many of the things that frustrated me about it are personal; for example, there's a lot of high-level physics in the book, though explained in what are probably reasonably simple terms.
But, because of how my brain works, in the absence of diagrams, I could not pick up what Greg was putting down. I was very happy for a character whenever they solved a problem with incomprehensible physicsbabble, but that part of the This book was fascinating, unique, and ultimately frustrating. I was very happy for a character whenever they solved a problem with incomprehensible physicsbabble, but that part of the novel was ultimately pretty hollow for me. On the other hand, I loved how unique the structuring was and, now that I'm a little more comfortable in a post-singularity universe, the worlds described herein were very compelling.
I could have just used a little more attention to the world and the plot, and less to the very clearly delineated rules for that world. Oct 25, Username rated it really liked it Shelves: paper , e-book.
Keep writing them! Oh, Yeah! Oh, and invent non-Euclidian geometry and calculus in the bargain. Who cares? In fact, t Oh, Yeah! In fact, two great stories interwoven. The drought of engaging, mind-hurting hard SF is over. Love the cover art. Oct 21, Tim Hicks rated it really liked it Shelves: science-fiction.
Whew, that's heavy stuff, but fascinating. And yes, the two plot lines ARE connected, but pay attention at the end or you'll miss it. Aug 11, Spencer rated it did not like it. Tedious descriptions of physics without any of the established nomenclature combined with an unsatisfying nonexistent ending. Maybe some would enjoy it, but not me. Incandescence by Greg Egan will be your physics homework for this weekend… Oops, let me explain.
Where others excel at world building, this man dabbles in universe building. No one knows who they are. Neither side seems to pose a threat to the other.
The Aloof even allow the citizens of the Amalgam to cross their territory but prevent visits. First is Rakesh and his companion being mysteriously allowed to enter the territory of the Aloof to solve a mystery that may herald the discovery of new life that is not part of either group.
The second is of creatures that seem to be unaware of the greater universe. They live hard lives within a rocky world. We follow along as they slowly discover that their world and civilization are at risk of being destroyed!
The chapters following Rakesh were enjoyable to me as I liked their search and the God-like existence of these far future humans. But the other half of the book was tough for me.
We follow Roi and her people. Their search for understanding relies heavily on their language and cultural concepts. I felt like I was aceing the test when I realized something that Roi was working at and made the discovery with her. But I struggled with their gravity measurements as they mapped their world and never once did the author use up or down. Rather we the reader were given a circular diagram with four points labeled shomal, sard, junub, garm and the null lines that cut through their world where gravity was absent.
This was one of those books that at the end I think I understood the final resolution but wanted to confirm it. I went online and I see that most of us came close to the same understanding.
So why do I tackle his novels if I struggle? Because I appreciate his universe building. He really is an amazing writer for his ideas. I enjoy the structure he creates and worry less on the story that he hangs off the scaffolding. View all 7 comments. Jan 07, Gamarjobit rated it it was amazing. I must not've run across his bks very often used or I'm sure I wd've read much more by him by now.
Perhaps he's not prolific. I'm glad that there's more for me to read. I pointed out to her that SF is often written by scientists. He specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness. Other themes include genetics, simulated reality, posthumanism, mind uploading, sexuality, artificial intelligence, and the superiority of rational naturalism to religion.
He often deals with complex technical material, like new physics and epistemology. Maybe Joan Slonczewski is a better example: " Joan Lyn Slonczewski is an American microbiologist at Kenyon College and a science fiction writer who explores biology and space travel. Her books have twice earned the John W.
With John W. She explores her ideas of biology, politics, and artificial intelligence at her blog Ultraphyte. She completed a PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University in and post-doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania studying calcium flux in leukocyte chemotaxis.
Since she has taught at Kenyon College, taking sabbatical leaves at Princeton University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Slonczewski's research focuses on the pH environmental stress response in Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis using genetic techniques.
At any rate, what I'm leading up to here is that Egan's Incandescence struck me as such hard hard science science fiction, despite elements of extreme fancifulness, that I have to wonder who wd read such a thing?!
I did. Sometimes I'm somewhat dismissive of visual artists whose scale is what seems to impress the rubes: 'Hey! I don't have any deep ideas at all so I'll just make the object BIG! That'll do the trick! Egan works on a large scale: "Lahl explained that she belonged to a synchronization clan.
Its members roamed the galaxy, traveling alone, but had agreed to remain in contact by meeting regularly at prearranged locations, and doing their best to experience similar periods of subjective time between these reunions.
She was on her way to the next such event, in a planetary system twelve hundred light years out from this node. Given that the meetings took place just once every hundred millennia, travel plans could be made well in advance, and there was no excuse for tardiness. Roi approached them to inspect their offerings. Each male had separated the two hard plates that met along the side of his body, to expose a long, soft cavity where five or six swollen globes sat dangling from heavy cords.
Not all of the seed packets were plump and healthy, but Roi made a conscious effort not to be too finicky. With her own carapace split open along her left side, she used her mating claw to reach into the males' bodies, snip the globes free, and deposit them inside herself.
I guess the males don't have mating claws or they'd be able to jerk off those unwanted appendages. Given that this is partially all happening in a malleable cyber-space their friends give them a farewell that dramatically stresses the seriousness of the decision they're making: "Two robust, seasoned-looking planks lay on the deck, neatly slotted through a convenient gap below the guard rail to protrude over the edge, Rakesh supposed they might be carried on ships like this for the sake of repairs.
That prospect struck him as somewhat cheerier than if they'd been brought along with only their present purpose in mind. The novel follows a fairly standard structure that alternates between 2 disparate stories that eventually merge. In the garmside, it blew in from the Incandescence at the sharq edge and battered its way through the porous rock of the Splinter, finally escaping at the opposite edge. In the sardside, the flow was reversed. Between these opposing winds lay the Calm. The pattern of the wind was something related to the pattern of weights, but the nature of the connection was far from obvious: the wind certainly didn't blow the way things fell.
The Null Line lay in the middle of the Calm, but the Calm extended far beyond it, encompassing a whole plane that stretched out in the shomal and junub directions, as well as the Null Line's rarb and sharq. Curved lines seem to depict lines of force, presumably wind lines. Understanding these directions becomes key to following the plot. Born in a scape, descended from a software that had ultimately been authored—rather than translated from any kind of organic intelligence—she seemed to relate to bodies the way Rakesh did to vehicles.
On the garmside, though, the circle will be slightly smaller, and on the sardside, slightly larger. The natural motion that corresponds to these circles must involve slightly different orbital periods, but the Splinter is a solid object, it has to move as a whole.
Because every part of it must complete an orbit in the same time, there's a mismatch between the speed at which things are moving and the speed of a naturally circular orbit. Wherever there's a mismatch like that, the natural path can't be circular any more. If you're a reader looking for an adventure story you'll still be able to find something to grasp but you'll be missing alot. Personally, I think it's well worth the effort to read Incandescence regardless. Roi's culture is in a rut, a rut that its inquiring minds are about to break it out of.
After trying out many unwieldy designs, they had devised a system in which two spiral coils of metal ribbon were joined at their centers to small shafts. The first and larger of the coils was tightened by turning its shaft with a lever, and then the force as it unwound was eked out slowly and employed to feed a gentle, to-and-fro rocking of the other coil's shaft.
The importance of accurate measuring comes to the fore. Roi's people have a very limited conception of what their environment is. They mostly exist to keep on keepin' on.
What if they're inside a spacecraft after having since lost the knowledge of what a spacecraft is or what's outside it?
Maybe two or three tunnels. If the Splinter now feels roughly the same force from the wind on the garmside as it does on the sardside, we can shift the balance by letting some of the sardside wind pass right through, delivering no force.
Meanwhile, the 2 plotlines grow closer. At some point they might have built star ships, or engineering spores. They might have left this world behind long before it was broken up. Of course, that couldn't happen in the Age of the Amalgam; there was no conceivable cosmic threat out in the disc that could not be detected and neutralized.
Such vulnerability had been relegated to history. If you see a Google Drive link instead of source url, means that the file witch you will get after approval is just a summary of original book or the file has been already removed. Loved each and every part of this book.
I will definitely recommend this book to science fiction, fiction lovers. Your Rating:. Your Comment:. Home Downloads Free Downloads Incandescence pdf. Read Online Download.
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