Egan's imagination never flags: a constant flow of Neat Ideas
I think I'll dispense with the plot summary this time - if you like Egan,
you've read a review or two by now. If not, look below.
What I'll try to convey instead - since the reviews I saw didn't - is a
sense of the richness and density of invention here. Egan is one of our
very best, and he's playing the hard-sf game with a taut net and a
wicked backhand...
[quote]A spasm passed thru the victim's body. A temporary pacemaker was
forcing his damaged heart to beat - operating at power levels that
would poison every cardiac muscle fiber with electrochemical by-
products, in 15 or 20 minutes at the most. Pre-oxygenated ersatz blood
was being fed to his heart's left atrium, in lieu of a supply from the
lungs, pumped thru the body once only, then removed via the
pulmonary arteries and discarded. An open system was less trouble
than recirculation, in the short term. The half-repaired knife wounds
in his abdomen and torso made a mess, leaking thin scarlet fluid into
the drainage channels of the operating table..."
It's 2055. Reporter Andrew Worth is covering the temporary revival of
a murder victim.
[quote]His expression shifted rapidly; thru the pain there was a sudden flash
of pure astonishment, then an almost amused comprehension of the
full strangeness - and maybe even the perverse virtuosity - of the feat
to which he'd been subjected. For an instant, he really did look like
someone admiring a brilliant, vicious, bloody practical joke...
Then Daniel Cavolini... began to scream. I watched as they pumped
him full of morphine, and waited for the revival drugs to finish him
off.
* * *
[quote]My pharm programmed a small skin patch on my shoulder to release
carefully-timed and calibrated doses of melatonin, or a melatonin-
blocker - adding to, or subtracting from, the usual biochemical signal
produced by my pineal gland... I woke up every morning from 5 hours
of enriched REM sleep, as wide-eyed and energetic as a hyperactive
child... I wouldn't so much as yawn until 11:45, but 15 minutes later,
I'd go out like a light... I'd tried caffeine a few times; it made me
believe I was focused and energetic, but it turned my judgement to shit.
Widespread use of caffeine explained a lot about the 20th century...
* * *
...when we undressed and fell into bed together, and my vision
lurched, I thought it was just a side-effect of passion. When my arms
went numb, I realized what was happening... Stricken, I said, "I don't
believe this. I'm sorry." ... I forced myself to concentrate; I reached over
and hit a button on the pharm. "Give me half an hour."
"No. Safety limits - "
"Fifteen minutes," I pleaded. This is an emergency..."
"There is no emergency. You're safe in bed..."
--and we're only up to page 43! What more can I say? An astonishingly
good book, absolutely not to be missed.
"Distress" is a look at Vinge's Singularity from a very different
perspective. Egan's imagination never flags: a constant flow of ideas,
rich and strange, layered in baroque complexity. Half a dozen places
where the hair rose up on the back of my neck... I don't know about
you folks, but this is why I keep reading this stuff.
What are you waiting for?
[..]
Superb Extrapolation - Wild Plotting
If there were just one book here, it would be easier to review.There is the book about life in 2055, in a world completely transformed by biotech. This book deserves more than 5 stars. I wish I was going to be around to see how much Egan got right.
There is the book about how an actual working anarchy might behave and come to be. This is fascinating, and far different from the usual rightish libertarianism to be found in political SF. Four stars for this part.
And then there's the scientific book. You have to seriously suspend disbelief here, to take the threat to the universe seriously. But if you can do that (and I could), it's an extremely exciting and well put-together plot. Two or three stars for science fiction, or six for fantasy.
It's a mind-bender.
Some of the reviews here seem to think it's anti-religious. I don't read it that way. In fact, the ending seems suffused with an eloquent and most unusual mysticism. Whatever this is, it's not so simple as a cold, mechanistic, purposeless universe. As Violet says in the book, the Theory of Everything is what lets us touch.
Give it a chance. It's worth the trouble.
Perhaps Egans best so far.
Distress is aptly named, and should, perhaps, be the subtitle of all his novels. This is because you WILL find your mental faculties in considerable distress while you read. Thought provoking is an understatement in this, as well as all his works. The author sometimes gets carried away in his explanations, as if he has to hammer home the point that he KNOWS what he is talking about, but in my opinion the stories would be just as good without. However, for those of us who love Hard Sci-Fi, the explanations are part of the fun!I came away liking this book quite a bit, I found the end satisfying. As for those who have existential/religious problems with the book, I too noted some of the "attitude" there, but I just didn't take it personally, and took it as one man's opinion. That allowed me to enjoy the book.
One problem I do have with this and another of his books (Diaspora), is his use of asexual characters (although their use in Diaspora is more understandable), and the "V" pronouns that he uses for them. It seems to me to be an uneccessary convolution to an already complicated story. I "get" the point he is trying to make about relationships, etc, but I found it dehumanizing nonetheless. I don't think people would ever choose such a path in the forseeable future. Now that I've read it in two of his books, I think the idea is getting silly.
That said, this is my favorite book by this author, and now that I have read 5 of his works, I feel my brain has grown in at least another 3 or 4 dimensions.
Read the Originals !
Very strong start in a familiar city of tomorrow changed by broadband communications and biotech. Interesting character development. Then it goes to a floating island and much time is spent describing its infrastructure and politics. Pretty convential techy sci-fi, minus much action. Many characters, characters lecture each other and posture. As far as Egan the "idea man," well.....
The scenario of the butchered man revived for questioning is Alfreds Bester's The Stars My Destination.
The mob of New Agers besieging the cosmologists is Isaac Asimov's Nightfall.
And the computer that triggers the end of the universe by calculating ultimate truth is Ray Bradberry's The Nine Million Name of God.
.... All of which were better than Distress
too much philosophical lecturing, unreasonable plot
Not everyone agrees with me (judging by the other reviews), and you may not either, but I find more effective a novel which *shows* me the possibilities of human nature, rather than lecturing me on it. Egan's other novels (the two i've read) do a much better job of that. But in this one... For the first half of the book, the scenes don't develop the plot at all; they're just triggers for the protagonist to spout another philosophical or ethical lecture. These tend to be not very deep and most of the people reading this book will probably agree with them anyway.
The actual plot doesn't start being developed until page 200 or bette, and when it comes, it may disappoint a lot of hard science readers. The thesis that intelligent beings somehow have a special place in the laws of the universe (rather than obeying the same laws of particles, forces, quantum mechanics, etc. as all other objects) is very weak---much weaker than the similar theme put forth in Egan's other novel "Quarantine".
And in the end, the plot's resolution doesn't come out of the desire to have a good story; it's just a final shot at delivering the main philosophical message (and yes we do get a final "lecture" at the end), which is that it is impossible for people to really understand each other.
(32 reviews)
