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Diaspora: A Novel

Greg Egan · 2 HN comments
HN Books has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention "Diaspora: A Novel" by Greg Egan.
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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.
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If you like Permutation City, you might also enjoy another of Egan's works, Diaspora. http://www.amazon.com/Diaspora-Novel-Greg-Egan/dp/1597805424...

"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."

Egan's books have been some of the most thought-provoking I've ever read as far as science fiction technology. A lot of the works were out of print until recently; I'm glad to see there's been a resurgence of interest in his writing, and the availability of his works.

⬐ ngoldbaum
Another Egan book well worth reading is Schild's Ladder, which reminds me a lot of Diaspora and was recently reissued in the US:

http://www.amazon.com/Schilds-Ladder-Novel-Greg-Egan/dp/1597...

⬐ ChrisClark
Those are all great, in fact I'd recommend reading pretty much all of his books. I've got a shelf full of them. :)
⬐
I have to second this. It took me years to thoroughly grasp some of its parts (and I have a math background) but Diaspora is without a doubt my favorite book of fiction.

The first chapter of the novel is particularly approachable & worthwhile. It's titled Orphanogenesis and is a beautiful, detailed (~30 page) account of the digital birth of a new AI consciousness, from embryo to newborn to gaining self-awareness.

Next year several Greg Egan's books will be reprinted. Diaspora comes out January 6, 2015!

http://www.amazon.com/Diaspora-A-Novel-Greg-Egan/dp/15978054...

* * *

If you want a softer approach to Egan's fiction, check out his short stories. Reasons to be Cheerful is my favorite one as well as Egan's. It's part of the Luminous collection, available as a $3 kindle ebook:

http://www.amazon.com/Luminous-Greg-Egan-ebook/dp/B00E84BABW...

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