‘s science fiction is both audacious and understated – intellectual rabbit-punches delivered so elegantly that it is a pleasure to be stunned. The 12 stories in this collection cover a vast range.
A defect in number theory opens the way to dangerous inhabitants of the “dark integers”. Within a crystal supercomputer, brutal acceleration of evolution spawns virtual intelligences who could solve our problems but may choose not to. Playing quantum soccer leads to deep thoughts on immortality. Alan Turing debates AI with C. S. Lewis on live television. Immense galactic quests seek an impossible planet, a mathematical Theory of Everything and – above all – communication. Among adapted humans with disturbingly changed sexual mechanics, Egan focuses on the real-world roots of ecstatic religion. Closer to home, alternate-world asylum seekers get a frosty reception that comments angrily on the politics of Egan’s homeland, Australia.
Heady and highly intelligent SF.
Advertisement
Sci-fi special: The fiction of now
Gollancz