Diaspora, by Greg Egan

I've been away for awhile--as you can see my pace has slowed down a bit. A major distraction has been Tiger Woods 10 for the Wii. Maybe I should have blogged about that, but probably not. In any case, I have started reading science fiction again, not available for free this time but pretty cheap.

Diaspora is a sprawling novel in the tradition of other universe-spanners like Mike Resnick's Birthright: The Book of Man or Asimov's Foundation novels. But Egan's twist is always mathematical--the explorers are post-human software constructions, running as personalities inside "polises" of different flavors. Their efforts to save ordinary humans from destruction from a collapse of neutron stars lead to the discovery of an alien species that predicts a much larger disaster for the whole galaxy.

This is a truly twisted and difficult read, the mathematics are just on the edge of readable for a math tyro like me (I only took the major calculus sequence), and several of their adventures are dead ends. I couldn't finish it and couldn't give up either, because I really like other things Egan has written. But I can only recommend this one for his biggest fans. 2 stars, maybe

Favorites: When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth, by Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow is perhaps the foremost champion of free literature on the internet, and I've read most all SF he's published. When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth is probably my favorite story of his. It presents a very interesting picture of how system administrators, behind their negative-pressure secure doors, might survive a societal breakdown and help to rebuild. The geeks-rule sensibility has much appeal for me, and it's quite well told. Read it and go hug a programmer.


Reads of the Day

Emma Bull is one of my favorite authors, so when Free SF Online picked up several new postings by her and Will Shetterly, I bookmarked several for reading. Today I read What Used To Be Good Still Is, a nice little story about a girl preserving the spirit of a mined mountain. The story touches lightly on the effects of copper mining, but doesn't have nearly the punch of, say, Paulo Bacigalupi's The People of Sand and Slag. Probably didn't intend to. A nice diversion, but that's all. 2 stars.

Also read an early piece by Greg Egan, Neighborhood Watch. Egan started his career writing horror, but it is as well crafted as his later hard SF. But I'm not a huge horror fan, so I only give it 2 stars

Oracle, by Greg Egan

Oracle is a very well-told story roughly following the life of Alan Turing, with SF elements added to explicate the story. Richard Stoney is being persecuted for his homosexuality, and is rescued by a mysterious protagonist. The highlight is a very rigorous intellectual debate between him and a well-known fantasist, John Hamilton. I give it 3 stars

Egan is right up there with Ted Chiang as the best hard SF writer currently active. He includes thorough explanations of seriously abstract mathematical and logical topics, much like in the Golden Age but with far more art to them. You feel like you could pass an upper division logic course after reading one of his books or stories. That might mean they are not for everyone, but they are for enough that he's won a Hugo and gotten eight other nominations. My favorite of his so far is Dark Integers, where mathematical proofs are used as a communication device. That one has the "could really happen" feel to it that the above story lacks in order to be really good.