Zendegi

Quizás ’Zendegi’ sea el libro más asequible dentro de la bibliografía de Greg Egan, el famoso autor de ciencia ficción hard. Y digo asequible, que no simple, ya que aunque el peso de terminología científica es mucho menor en esta obra, las ideas que maneja son de gran calado. Egan deja esta vez las grandes ideas especulativas para centrarse en una historia más de ámbito social y ético, donde priman las experiencias y relaciones de los protagonistas. Parece que esta vez la ciencia ficción es una herramienta que utiliza Egan como trasfondo de lo que realmente nos quiere contar, que no es otra cosa que lo que estaría dispuesto a hacer un padre por amor a su hijo.

Egan sitúa ’Zendegi’ (palabra que significa vida en persa) show more en Irán, en un futuro cercano. La primera parte de la novela es una carta de presentación de los personajes y de sus vidas, donde se nos dan a conocer los dos hilos narrativos de la trama, así como los dos personajes que los sustentan: Martin Seymour, un periodista australiano destinado a cubrir las elecciones iraníes, y que se ve inmerso en medio de los acontecimientos posteriores; y Nasim Golestani, una exiliada iraní en Estados Unidos, dedicada a trabajar en un proyecto que intenta mapear el cerebro humano. Ya en la segunda parte, es donde empieza la historia en sí, y donde entra en juego Zendegi, un espacio de realidad virtual.

La novela de Greg Egan no es de acción, todo lo contrario, tiene un transcurrir pausado y tranquilo, donde sabemos de las vidas de los personajes, así como de sus logros y fracasos, que junto a los avances tecnológicos, sirven de reflexión sobre la familia, la mortalidad, los cambios sociales, etc. Se plantea también el enfrentamiento, el debate moral y ético, entre las posibilidades que nos ofrece la ciencia para emular duplicados de cerebros, de personas, y los derechos que éstos deberían tener, que me ha parecido los más interesante de la novela.

’Zendegi’ no es que me haya disgustado, pero tampoco me ha entusiasmado en exceso. Resulta una buena reflexión de un futuro cercano, pero está lejos de las ideas y especulaciones científicas a que nos tiene habituados Greg Egan en otras obras suyas, como ‘Axiomático’, ‘Cuarentena’ o ‘Diáspora’. Realmente, espero otro tipo de historias por parte de Greg Egan. show less

Egan posits popular VR games as the main drive to the development of AI to consciousness in this hard sci-fi novel about what it is to be human. Set in Iran during turbulent times, this novel's main protagonist is an Australian journalist attempting to use the development of an VR proxy to guide his son after his death.

There is an old Saturday Night Live skit where William Shatner addresses a bunch of sycophantic trekkies at a star trek convention and tells them all to get a life. Zendegi feels like Egan's 'get a life' polemic in novel form aimed at the transhumanist/singularity crowd. Being one of the most prolific writers of hard scifi and held in high esteem amongst the aforementioned crowds, Egan seems to have worked extra hard in this novel to undermine any notion that the stories he is most famous for are at all representative of his current real world views. From the choice of location, to the type of technologies discussed, every aspect of this book betrays a sense of guilt from an author whose past work has been taken much too seriously and show more now wants to rectify this by writing about the important things he thinks we should be thinking about--democratic political activism in repressed countries, raising thoughtful and moral children, and technology that actually has a foundation in established science rather than fantastic future speculations. Unfortunately, the story was dull and terribly anti-climactic and therefore I have no choice but to give a low rating. I understand Egan's motivation for this book, and I share in some of those sentiments, but that still doesn't excuse a boring book whose only interesting parts are insider jokes only futurist geeks will get. show less

Unlike typical Egan novels. this one stays not only in the very near future--beginning in 2012-- but very close to reality throughout the book, and is almost entirely set in a non-English setting, namely Iran. The two main SFnal themes are virtual reality and uploading -- or more accurately copying-- the memories and thought patterns of humans. As with his other novels, Egan works very hard to develop his technological speculations as rigorously as possible. But this doesn't begin to happen until nearly halfway into the book. Before that we follow Martin, a journalist embedded in Iran during a new revolution, and Nasim, a Iranian computer scientist, who has returned to her homeland. Martin is our window into Iran and Iranian culture show more while Nasim is our window into Egan's technological speculation. In this book, the human story, especially Martin's, takes precedence, and is quite moving.

Recommended, especially if you found other Egan books hard to keep up with, and you don't mind the SF, however prominent, taking a back seat. show less

(...)

Aside from the science, Egan shows himself a keen observer of humanity. Zendegi is also a book about bias, and Egan is, via Martin Seymour, an honest, soul searching commentator on these matters, with a sensibility for diversity and bigotry seeped in respect for what it means to be human, never pointing fingers, but not flinching away from judgement either. Even though I only mention it at the very end of this review, this bias isn’t some trivial matter: it is at the heart of the entire narrative.

Definitely recommended for Egan fans, and because it is very accessible without being superficial, it’s also recommended as an introduction to his work

Full review on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It

I assume America in this near future has strapped a jetpack to the continent and blasted off into space. I think it would be less jarring if the story was set in the future democratic North Korea (at least that's just one war away from normalcy). I don't mind the focus heavily shifted from sci-fi to the father-son relationship but the whole socio-political story around it was tiresome and the overall saccharin levels made the premise feel more contrived. Please, more planet consuming AIs, fewer middle-eastern fairy tale markets.

A really interesting Greg Egan book which makes an *excellent* audiobook. It's set in a post-Iranian reformation Iran, in a world with interesting VR and AI. As an audiobook, it's even better, since it's read by a Persian woman; it's cute how she gets all the Farsi words right and then has trouble with some of the more obscure English words.

Amusingly, it was written in 2009; I was going to fault it for being too "of the minute" if it had been written today. 6 years ago, it was fairly prescient.

Unlike most of my other favorite Egan books, there wasn't much "fundamental science" in this -- at least, I think if IT/tech (my field) as more implementation and engineering and messiness than anything fundamental like general relativity or show more quantum mechanics.

Another unusual thing about this book -- it has actual characters with personal problems and you end up caring about them as people, watching their motivations evolve, and remain true to their core principles; it's more like "literature" than genre fiction in a lot of ways.

My only criticism of the book is that the end seemed a little rushed, and since Egan doesn't tend to do true sequels, we're never going to see more in this universe.

If someone isn't into sci-fi in general, I'd strongly recommend this book as an introduction. If you're an Egan fan, or a fan of hard sci-fi, it might not be the absolute top book, but it's quite good, and definitely worth reading. show less