Crystal Nights and Other Stories [Hardcover]

Greg Egan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2009

The nine stories in Greg Egan's new collection range from parables of contemporary human conflict and ambition to far-future tales of our immortal descendants.

In "Lost Continent", a time traveler seeking refuge from a war-torn land faces hostility and bureaucratic incompetence. "Crystal Nights" portrays a driven man s moral compromises as he chases an elusive technological breakthrough, while in "Steve Fever" the technology itself falls victim to its own hype.

"TAP" brings us a new kind of poetry, where a word is more powerful than a thousand images. "Singleton" shows us a new kind of child, born of human DNA modeled in a quantum computer who, in "Oracle", journeys to a parallel world to repay a debt to an intellectual ancestor.

"Induction" chronicles the methods and motives behind humanity s first steps to the stars. "Border Guards" reflects on the painful history of a tranquil utopia. And in the final story, "Hot Rock", two immortal citizens of the galaxy-spanning Amalgam find that an obscure, sunless world conceals mind-spinning technological marvels, bitter factional struggles, and a many-layered secret history.

Greg Egan is the author of seven novels and over fifty short stories. He is a winner of the Hugo Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Subterranean offers readers a representative sampling of Hugo winner Egan's distinctive hard SF, drawing from previously uncollected stories. Two of the nine stories are from the 1990s, two from the early 2000s and five postdating Egan's hiatus from writing while he campaigned for refugee human rights in Australia. Steadfastly reductionist, Egan nevertheless makes room for the moral implications of the treatment of refugees in Lost Continent, while Crystal Nights offers a pointed critique of technologists enthused by the idea of enslaved creations. Unfortunately, Egan can be heavy-handed at times, as in Oracle, where the character Jack serves as a straw-man version of C.S. Lewis. More conventional SF puzzle stories like Hot Rock and Tap and a forcefully worded introduction on the ethics of artificial intelligence round out the volume. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Subterranean; First Edition edition (September 30, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596062401
• ISBN-13: 978-1596062405
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,173,352 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a science fiction writer and computer programmer. You can find information, illustrations and interactive applets that supplement my books at www.gregegan.net

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard Science and Deep Philosophy, September 17, 2009

By 

Luc Andre Mandeville (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crystal Nights and Other Stories (Hardcover)

One of the problems with brilliant writers is that some of their short stories can find themselves duplicated in different collections of theirs. This book in an excellent example of such an occurence. The contents of both collections 'Crystal Nights' and 'Dark Integers' can be found in the larger 'Oceanic' collection, available from amazon.co.uk, except for two stories: 'Luminous' already present in Egan's previous anthology of the same title, and 'TAP' available online at the author's site. Of course, one might argue that two smaller volumes are easier to handle than a larger one, although acquiring the two may end up costing you twice as much. There can be no argument however about the sheer scientific brilliance and the profound philosophy in which Greg Egan continually excells. I thought of giving this book four stars because of this publishing duplication, but after all, there is only one Greg Egan. (Grand Master Egan, again I bow down at your lotus feet!)