Greg Egan is known for hard SF stories and this collection is no exception. The main topic is mathematics. I enjoyed "Luminous" and its sequel "Dark Integers", both play with an interesting concept. "Oceanic" is the highlight and it's good to have it here in print again. The other 4 stories didn't convince me. They are well written but I didn't care for the characters and their fate. ( )

Greg Egan is known for hard SF stories and this collection is no exception. The main topic is mathematics. I enjoyed "Luminous" and its sequel "Dark Integers", both play with an interesting concept. "Oceanic" is the highlight and it's good to have it here in print again. The other 4 stories didn't convince me. They are well written but I didn't care for the characters and their fate. ( )

Superb collection.

Luminous

Luminous is a quantum computer which provides a spectacular twist at the end of this rip-roaring tale of near future industrial espionage. The big bad corporation (the poetically named 'Industrial Algebra') is after the two protagonists because of their new theory about competing 'realms' of mathematics. A perfect SF story where plot, character and big ideas all dovetail.

Riding the crocodile

A post-human couple decide, as a way to mark the end of their existence, to try to penetrate that section of space known as the Aloof, which rejects contact with the Amalgam, the galactic civilisation. They have infinite time and resources, which serves to make this a somewhat dragging tale about puzzle solving.

Dark integers

The sequel to Luminous. Contact has been made with the other mathematics 'realm' and peace prevails. However a mathematician in New Zealand comes up with a better way of analysing mathematical realms and upsets the 'other realm'. Not quite as blistering as Luminous but still playing with big, dazzling ideas.On a personal note, it is good to see an ex-employer, Victoria University, getting a mention.

Glory

An absolutely mind-boggling start which explains the super-science the Amalgam (a galactic civilisation) uses to insert two explorers into two warring states on a developing planet which once was home to an extinct race that possibly achieved complete understanding of mathematics.

Oceanic

A boy growing up on a devolved, lost, ex-colony world undergoes a religious experience which changes his life. However, he slowly discovers his faith is not what he thinks while the reader discovers more about the strange mutations wrought to human biology on this world. ( )

hard sf, short stories, mathematics