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"Egan is determined to make sense of everything - to understand the
whole world as an intelligible, rational, material (and finally
manipulable) realm - even if it means abandoning comfortable and
comforting illusions. This is fundamental to the whole project of
SF and it's why Egan's Best - and his Rest - is worth any number of
looks. -Locus What happens when your digital self overpowers your
physical self? A life in Permutation City is unlike any life to
which you're accustomed. You have Eternal Life, the power to live
forever. Immortality is a real thing, just not the thing you'd
expect. Life is just electronic code. You have been digitized,
scanned, and downloaded into a virtual reality program. A Copy of a
Copy. For Paul Durham, he keeps making Copies of himself, but the
issue is that his Copies keep changing their minds and shutting
themselves down. You also have Maria Deluca, who is nothing but an
Autoverse addict. She spends every waking minute with the cellular
automaton known as the Autoverse, a world that lives by the
mathematical "laws of physics." Paul makes Maria an offer to design
and drop a seed into the Autoverse that will allow her to indulge
in her obsession. There is, however, one catch: you can no longer
terminate, bail out, and remove yourself. You will never be your
normal flesh-and-blood life again. The question then becomes: Is
this what she really wants? Is this what we really want? From the
brilliant mind of Greg Egan, Permutation City, first published in
1994, comes a world of wonder that makes you ask if you are you, or
is the Copy of you the real you? Skyhorse Publishing, under our
Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range
of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera,
time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia),
fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy,
steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and
the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title
we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national
bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to
publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
A quantum Brave New World from the boldest and most wildly
speculative writer of his generation. "Greg Egan is perhaps the
most important SF writer in the world."-Science Fiction Weekly "One
of the very best "-Locus. "Science fiction with an emphasis on
science."-New York Times Book Review Since the Introdus in the
twenty-first century, humanity has reconfigured itself drastically.
Most chose immortality, joining the polises to become conscious
software. Others opted for gleisners: disposable, renewable robotic
bodies that remain in contact with the physical world of force and
friction. Many of these have left the solar system forever in
fusion-drive starships. And there are the holdouts: the fleshers
left behind in the muck and jungle of Earth-some devolved into
dream apes, others cavorting in the seas or the air-while the
statics and bridgers try to shape out a roughly human destiny. But
the complacency of the citizens is shattered when an unforeseen
disaster ravages the fleshers and reveals the possibility that the
polises themselves might be at risk from bizarre astrophysical
processes that seem to violate fundamental laws of nature. The
orphan Yatima, a digital being grown from a mind seed, joins a
group of citizens and flesher refugees in a search for the
knowledge that will guarantee their safety-a search that puts them
on the trail of the ancient and elusive Transmuters, who have the
power to reshape subatomic particles, and to cross into the
macrocosmos, where the universe we know is nothing but a speck in
the higher-dimensional vacuum. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night
Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of
titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time
travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy
(grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy,
steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and
the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title
we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national
bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to
publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
"Wonderful, mind-expanding stuff, and well written too."-The
Guardian Axiomatic is a wonderful collection of eighteen short
stories by Hugo Award-winning author Greg Egan. The stories in this
collection have appeared in such science fiction magazines as
Interzone and Asimov's between 1989 and 1992. From junkies who
drink at the time-stream to love affairs in time-reversed galaxies;
from gene-altered dolphins that converse only in limericks to the
program that allows you to design your own child; from the brain
implants called axiomatics to the strange attractors that spin off
new religions; from bioengineering to the new physics; and from
cyberpunk to the electronic frontier, Greg Egan's future is
frighteningly close to our own present. Included in this collection
are such wonderful stories as: "Axiomatic" "Into Darkness" "The
Safe-Deposit Box" "Blood Sisters" And many more! Axiomatic is the
perfect collection for any science fiction fan, especially one who
enjoys Greg Egan's work. The stories are imaginative and
insightful, and written only the way that Greg Egan can do so.
Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is
proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in
science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion,
near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery,
contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and
horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and
much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York
Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula
award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a
diverse group of authors.
Immortality can be yours . . . at a price Permutation city is the
tale of a man with a vision - how to create immortality - and how
that vision becomes grows beyond his control. Encompassing the
lives and struggles of an artificial life junkie desperate to save
her dying mother, a billionaire banker scarred by a terrible crime,
the lovers for whom, in their timeless virtual world, love is not
enough - and much more - Permutation city is filled with the sense
of wonder and dread. Can what makes you human be distilled into
data? And what happens if you can't afford to pay? Readers are
having their minds blown by PERMUTATION CITY: "Egan tells the story
masterfully. I can only marvel at how he finds his inspiration for
a high-tech tale in an ancient wisdom like Kabbalah, and then
proceeds to out-Kabbalah even the Kabbalists with his creativity" -
Goodreads reviewer, "Egan questions what it really means to be
human in a way that it's quite unsurpassed in my mind" - Goodreads
reviewer, "THIS is why I read SF. THIS is the sense of wonder I'm
looking for in a SF story. Forget everything you read about virtual
reality, artificial life & consciousness - nothing compares to
the concepts and the worldbuilding in this book. This is ultimate
postcyberpunk ever" - Goodreads reviewer, "I can say without
qualification that Greg Egan is the greatest science fiction author
I've ever read" - Goodreads reviewer,
Greg Egan is arguably Australia's greatest living science fiction
writer. In a career spanning more than thirty years, he has
produced a steady stream of novels and stories that address a wide
range of scientific and philosophical concerns: artificial
intelligence, higher mathematics, science vs religion, the nature
of consciousness, and the impact of technology on the human
personality. All these ideas and more find their way into this
generous and illuminating collection, the clear product of a man
who is both a master storyteller and a rigorous, exploratory
thinker. The Best of Greg Egan contains twenty stories and novellas
arranged in chronological order, and each of them is a brilliantly
conceived, painstakingly developed gem, including the Hugo
Award-winning novella "Oceanic", a powerful account of a boy whose
deeply held religious beliefs are undermined by what he comes to
learn about the laws of the physical world. This book really does
represent the best of Greg Egan, and it therefore takes its place
among the best of contemporary SF. Startling, intelligent and
always hugely entertaining, it provides an ideal introduction to
one of the most accomplished and original writers working today.
This is an important and provocative collection, and it deserves a
place on the serious science fiction reader's permanent shelf.
After the extinction of humans, how do you define humanity? Since
the Introdus in the twenty-first century, humanity has reconfigured
itself drastically. Most chose immortality, joining the polises to
become conscious software. Others opted for gleisners: disposable,
renewable robotic bodies that remain in contact with the physical
world of force and friction. Many of these have left the solar
system forever in fusion-drive starships. And there are the
holdouts: the fleshers left behind in the muck and jungle of
Earth-some devolved into dream apes, others cavorting in the seas
or the air-while the statics and bridgers try to shape out a
roughly human destiny. But the complacency of the citizens is
shattered when an unforeseen disaster ravages the fleshers and
reveals the possibility that the polises themselves might be at
risk from bizarre astrophysical processes that seem to violate
fundamental laws of nature. The orphan Yatima, a digital being
grown from a mind seed, joins a group of citizens and flesher
refugees in a search for the knowledge that will guarantee their
safety-a search that puts them on the trail of the ancient and
elusive Transmuters, who have the power to reshape subatomic
particles, and to cross into the macrocosmos, where the universe we
know is nothing but a speck in the higher-dimensional vacuum.
Readers are having their minds blown by DIASPORA: 'Diaspora is a
work of staggering imagination' - Goodreads reviewer, 'Diaspora is
one of the greatest science fiction books I have ever read. Reading
it brought into my mind a sense of wonder and of sheer visceral
infinity that I hadn't felt for years' - Goodreads reviewer,
'Absolutely stunning concepts are fired at you every couple of
pages . . . Spectacular' - Goodreads reviewer, 'Egan takes us into
areas of multi-dimensional maths and wormhole physics that stretch
the readers' minds . . . all told with a clarity and skill that
makes Egan one of the finest and most important writers working in
SF today' - Goodreads reviewer, 'Totally mind-blowing sci-fi. It
manages to be plausible but audaciously imaginative' - Goodreads
reviewer,
In Yalda's universe, light has mass, no universal speed, and its
creation generates energy; on Yalda's world, plants make food by
emitting light into the dark night sky. And time is different: an
astronaut might measure decades passing while visiting another
star, only to return and find that just weeks have elapsed for her
friends. On the farm where she lives, Yalda sees strange meteors
that are entering the planetary system at an immense, unprecedented
speed - and it soon becomes apparent that more of this ultra-fast
material is appearing all the time, putting her world in terrible
danger. An entire galaxy is about to collide with their own. There
is one hope: a fleet sent straight towards the approaching galaxy,
as fast as possible. Though it will feel like weeks back home, on
board, millennia will pass before the collision, time enough to
raise new generations, and time enough to find a way to stop the
ultra-fast material. Either way, they have a chance to save
everyone back on the home world.
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Mission Critical (Paperback)
Jonathan Strahan; Peter F. Hamilton, Yoon Ha Lee, Aliette de Bodard, Greg Egan, …
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R289
R238
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Houston, we have a problem... Life is fragile. The difference
between success and failure can come down to nothing - the thread
of a screw, the flick of a switch - and when it goes wrong, you fix
it... or someone dies. Mission Critical takes us from our world,
across the Solar System, and out into deep space to tell the
stories of people who had to do the impossible. And do it fast.
Featuring stories by Peter F. Hamilton, Yoon Ha Lee, Aliette de
Bodard, Greg Egan, Linda Nagata, Gregory Feeley, John Barnes,
Tobias S. Buckell, Jason Fischer & Sean Williams, Carolyn Ives
Gilman, John Meaney, Dominica Phetteplace, Allen M. Steele,
Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Peter Watts.
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Axiomatic (Paperback)
Greg Egan
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R312
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THE HUNDRED LIGHT YEAR DIARY - Scientists can bounce messages from
the future back to the present, but there's no guarantee they'll
tell the truth ... LEARNING TO BE ME - Crystalline minds may take
the place of human brains, but where does the self really lie?
CLOSER - Lovers exchange bodies and minds, but their experiments go
just that little bit too far, proving that you can have too much of
a good thing
Cass has stumbled on something that might be an entirely different
type of physics, and she's travelled three hundred and fifty
light-years to Mimosa Station, a remote experimental facility, to
test her theory. The novo-vacuum she creates is predicted to begin
decaying the instant it's created, but even so short-lived a
microscopic speck could shed new light on the origins of the
universe. But instead of decaying, Cass's novo-vacuum is wildly
successful and begins expanding, slowly but inexorably taking over
the universe ... SCHILD'S LADDER: a wild ride through the far
future by one of the world's most respected and acclaimed writers.
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Oceanic (Paperback)
Greg Egan
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Collected together here for the first time are twelve stories by
the incomparable Greg Egan, one of the most exciting writers of
science fiction working today. In these dozen glimpses into the
future Egan continues to explore the essence of what it is to be
human, and the nature of what - and who - we are, in stories that
range from parables of contemporary human conflict and ambition to
far-future tales of our immortal descendants. Return to the
universe of the meta-civilisation known as the Amalgam, which Egan
explored in his critically acclaimed novel Incandescence: 'Riding
the Crocodile', which recounts an epic endeavour a million years
from now to bridge the divide between the Amalgam and the reclusive
Aloof; 'Glory', set in the same future, in which two archaeologists
strive to decipher the artefacts of an ancient civilisation, and
'Hot Rock', where an obscure, sunless world conceals mind-spinning
technological marvels, bitter factional struggles, and a
many-layered secret history. This superb collection also includes
the title story, the Hugo Award-winning 'Oceanic': a boy is
inducted into a religion that becomes the centre of his life, but
as an adult he must face evidence that casts a new light on his
faith.
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Distress (Paperback)
Greg Egan
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R321
R264
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On the utopian, man-made island, Stateless, Nobel Prize winner
Violet Mosala is close to solving the greatest problem of her
career - the quest for the ultimate Theory of Everything (TOE) is
almost over. Burned out by recording the abuses of biotech for his
TV news syndicate, Andrew Worth grabs the chance to follow Violet's
story. In contrast the world of theoretical physics seems like an
anaesthetised mathematical heaven, where everything is cool and
abstract. He could not have been more wrong. One by one Mosala's
rival quantum physicists are disappearing from the scientific
summit at Stateless. But why? Is it something to do with Violet
herself, or is there some other, more esoteric, force at work
undermining the Theory of Everything Conference?
It's late in the 21st century and bioengineering is now so common
that people are able to modify their minds in any way they wish. It
is an era which has been shaped by information systems so vast that
security, in any form, is easily breached. Now you can be whatever
you want to be, and do whatever you want to do. On Earth anyway.
One night, thirty three years ago, the stars went out. 'The Bubble'
- a perfect sphere centred on the sun - appeared in the sky,
isolating the solar system from the rest of the universe. For
thirty-three years, humanity has lived with the religious cults and
terrorism which spawned in the wake of the darkness. We are now
alone. Humanity has been cut off. Quarantined.
In the near future, journalist Martin Seymour travels to Iran to
cover the parliamentary elections. Most would-be opposition
candidates are disqualified and the election becomes the non-event
the world expects. But shortly afterward a compromising image of a
government official captured on a mobile phone triggers a
revolutionary movement that overthrows the old theocracy. Nasim
Golestani, a young Iranian scientist living in exile in the United
States, is hoping to work on the Human Connectome Project - which
aims to construct a detailed map of the wiring of the human brain -
but when government funding for the project is canceled and a
chance comes to return to her homeland, she chooses to head back to
Iran. Fifteen years after the revolution, Martin is living in Iran
with his wife and young son, while Nasim is in charge of the
virtual world known as Zendegi, used by millions of people for
entertainment and business. When Zendegi comes under threat from
powerful competitors, Nasim draws on her old skills, and data from
the now-completed Human Connectome Project, to embark on a program
to create more lifelike virtual characters and give the company an
unbeatable edge. As controversy grows over the nature and rights of
these software characters, tragedy strikes Martin's family. Martin
turns to Nasim, seeking a solution that no one else can offer...
but Zendegi is about to become a battlefield.
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