Customer Reviews

Incandescence

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Greg Egan is one of my favorite science fiction authors, but he seems to be nearly unknown in the U.S. I have been waiting for this book to arrive for some time, so I wound up ordering a British edition from Amazon UK. This review assumes the text is the same.

Egan's story is set in the galactic core, inhabited by a race known as the Aloof, because they seem almost indifferent to any attempts at communication from the Amalgam, the loose network of civilizations that inhabit the rest of the galaxy. However, they do allow thrill-seeking members of the Amalgam to enter their transportation network, digitizing themselves for transmission at the speed of light across the galactic core, instead of the long way around it.

A chunk of rock containing DNA leads a couple to commit their efforts to tracking down the mystery of a lost alien race inside the Aloof-controlled core. That's the setup, but the real fascination of this book is the weird physics and civilization of the surviving aliens, who live on a fragment of rock in the gravity well of a neutron star. By a process of deduction and scientific measurement using primitive tools the inhabitants are able to deduce their true situation in the universe and also to come to understand the perils they face.

Much of the book consists of the scientific inquiries of the aliens, rendered in great detail, in particular the way they deduce their orbital mechanics by measuring the forces at work inside their world. It reminds me of Robert L. Foward's fantastic hard SF novel Dragon's Egg, which describes a race living on the surface of a neutron star, their bodies made out of degenerate matter, and also of Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity.

Egan tries to make his stories character-driven, and although we do wind up caring what happens to his characters, he really shines at the physics. If you don't have a good working knowledge of gravitation and the forces that act on a body while in an orbit or rotating, you won't really get much out of this book. Perhaps that dooms it to a relatively small audience. But if you like physics and you like speculative fiction, and in particular like thinking about the scientific method and how we came to discover what we know about the universe, you just might love it!

While the book has a wonderfully evoked sophisticated far future, that does not forgive the missing fundamental requirement that the plot go somewhere and make internal sense. The two, obviously converging plot lines don't converge. I had to go back and re-read the ending to make sure I hadn't missed something. Another reviewer here confirmed my confusion --- you can't tell if one plot preceeded or followed the other by a huge span of time. It is also possible that the Splinter of the "Splinter" plot line was NOT the populated fragment found in the other plot. The Aloof remain so from beginning to end.
I would only recommend this book to college physics students having a hard time and looking for a painless way to have orbital mechanics explained without math.
Given Egaan's earlier, much better work, I was very disappointed. Perhaps there is a sequel in the works that will tie things together. If so, would it have hurt to put a teaser to the next part so that we don't have to wonder if Egan and his editors went over the edge. Which brings me to the title for my review. Where were the editors? A published book is not just the work of the author. Decent editing could have saved this book. Likewise critical reading in draft form by some cogent sci-fi readers or authors.
If this is part one of an unannounced series shame on Egan and the publishing house. I don't mind buying several books to have one story told (although I would prefer one, fat book to three skinny ones) I don't like be lured into thinking I'm buying a complete work only to find I have a fragment. I actually prefer to sit back and wait until the series is compete and then buy and read them at once, in sequence.

Egan's first novel for 6 years is set in a very far future where an evolved humanity has spread out to inhabit the galaxy's spiral arms, where lifespans are measured in millennia and travel is possible almost anywhere in the galaxy. The exception is the central galactic bulge which is inhabited by the aptly named Aloof, who exist in splendid isolation and firmly but gently repel all attempts to go there.

Sounds pretty intriguing, doesn't it? The Aloof are a mystery. Obviously highly advanced, but unwilling to interact with humanity. Until two intrepid humans accept an invitation to travel to into Aloof territory to examine a strange rock world inhabited by sentient insect-like creatures.

Still sounds intriguing, doesn't it? As always, Egan is concerned with hard science - mathematics, physics, genetics and astronomy - and indeed the nature of scientific discovery. And therein lies the problem. Incandescence suffers from the same shortcoming as did Schild's Ladder - too much science, not enough fiction. Both the human and insectoid characters are painted far too thinly to arouse any real emotion and the dialogue serves mainly as a vehicle for explaining the science rather than giving any insight into the characters themselves. As a reader I felt a kind of intellectual detachment from the events - like I was watching but not particularly engaged. Rather like the Aloof, in fact.

Nonetheless, the science is intriguing, even for a non-scientific type like me, and the ideas are really big. So, if that's your thing, you'll probably enjoy it more than I did. For me, though, the biggest most intriguing mystery of all, the Aloof themselves, remained unsolved. Indeed, I gleaned little insight into their nature or their motives. For me they remained as aloof as ever.

I still think Egan is one of the best SF writers around, but Incandescence is not his most engaging work.

The science is thorough and well-thought-out, but the plot is flimsy and the characterization is dry as dust. It's difficult to develop an appreciation for anyone in the book. The main Arkdweller character, Roi, has less depth than "A. Square" of Flatland. The main "post-human" character, Rakesh, has basically no limitations to make him interesting. The most interesting character appears to be a synthetic personality.

"Incandescence" might have done much better as a short story. I ground on and on through the book hoping it would improve, to no avail.

People seem to think highly of this author, so I will try more of his work -- but this one was definitely a disappointment.

On an enclosed alien world, gravity works very differently than we are used to. As the story begins, the world's previously dormant culture embarks on a journey of scientific discovery to understand their world and its environment.

In a different story arch, the entire Milky Way has been thoroughly inhabited and explored by a peaceful amalgam of races. When given the opportunity to investigate the enclosed alien world in the Milky Way's core, one of the Amalgam's citizens take off, mostly motivated by the boredom stemming from the prospect that exploration is nigh-impossible.

In the center of the story is a scientific riddle. The idea is nice, but if you have read Larry Niven and know a bit of Newtonian physics and relativity theory, you can figure most of it out fairly early in the story.

As the story unfolds, we follow the aliens' scientific struggle to understand their world. Unfortunately, this is written in a rather abstract manner, so it quickly becomes quite repetitive to read.

Egan should be commented for writing a complete novel without having to resort to action writing. In fact, there's no conflict in the novel at all, and only a vaguely felt danger. As such, the scientific puzzle becomes the only real driving force in the story. If Egan had been able to pull this off, this could have been a really noteworthy piece of science fiction, but unfortunately, the book is just boring.

In these days of mammoth science fiction 'epics' bursting with filler, the book's short length is a redeeming feature.

This is an ambitious attempt at a serious science fiction novel for the discerning reader. Alas, it doesn't succeed.

In Incandescence, there are two parallel, loosely-related stories being told concurrently. Most readers will undoubtedly expect the two storylines to eventually converge into a unified plot, and indeed such a convergence would probably "pump up" the drama. But given the very different struggles of the two sets of characters, convergence is not required for those characters to reach resolution in their respective plots.

I've been reading and relishing Greg Egan for a while now, and I think to appreciate his stories it helps to align one's mindset with Egan's approach to storytelling. Egan's stories don't follow traditional plot arcs with identifiable components like rising actions, climaxes, and resolutions. Instead his stories tend to be about big ideas depicted through characters grappling with those big ideas. His main characters' motivations and struggles tend to center around issues of identity and purpose (what other issues could there really be for a far-future immortal post-human?), and his stories seem to arc broadly on his main characters' understanding of, confrontation of, or enlightenment about those fundamental issues. Sometimes supporting characters in an Egan story may function only as extra "lights" meant to cast Egan's various scientific ideas into better relief. On his journey through any story, Egan enjoys exploring adjacent detours off the main road, and one gets the sense that this is due more to his own interest in the adjacent material than due to any role it may or may not play in forwarding the plot. Egan occasionally flirts with rising plot suspense (perhaps accidentally) that rarely pays off... at least not in any conventional or expected way. Therefore, any reader who prioritizes deep character development and plot resolution over the exploration of big ideas at the limits of science may be exposed to disappointment.

I agree that the most fascinating (absentee) characters Egan has devised in a long time are the Aloof. Their mystery and impenetrability is as seductive to me as it is to Egan's citizens of the Amalgam. I'm salivating for more exploration of the enigmatic Aloof in future Amalgam stories from Egan.

P.S. The Aloof's introduction in Riding the Crocodile -- Egan's short story and "prequel" to Incandescene -- is not to be missed; its events are referenced in Incandescence. In fact, I found Riding the Crocodile to be ultimately a more satisfying story.

I loved the mind-bending hard-science aspects of the story. Sometimes it reads like a physics text - characterization is definitely not a priority in this book - but what really irritated me is that it's a broken zipper of a story. It alternates back and forth between two plots, and the plots seem to be meshing together in the end. But then they don't come together! There's no relation between the two plots, other than the protagonists of one plot encountering what are presumably the distant cousins of the protagonists of the other plot. What kind of story-telling is that?

As those of us who scan bookshop shelves can testify, the category "science fiction" is often stretched way past its limits. Often you head for what looks like a generous SF section, only to find it mainly composed of Tolkien and his imitators, a mass of sword-sandals-and-sorcery epics, and (most recently) Buffy and her vampire-fighting (or vampire-loving, or both) pals.

Greg Egan is at the opposite extreme: mostly science, and just enough fiction to gain entry into the genre. He is in excellent company, of course: great predecessors who wrote the same sort of novels include Arthur C Clarke, Hal Clement, and Robert Forward. Gregory Benford is also primarily a "big ideas" writer. Egan's books remind me especially of Clement's famous "Mission of Gravity" and "Cycle of Fire" - which is the highest kind of praise. These authors relish the task of extrapolating what we know into the (sometimes very distant) future, and constructing scenarios that are consistent with what we understand about the universe. While often putting their characters in dramatic situations that challenge them to show heroism, they don't have much time for characterisation, sex, or the distinctively human forms of conflict. And that's fine, if you like your SF extremely "dry".

(Incidentally, my two other favourite contemporary SF authors - Charles Stross and Alastair Reynolds - are also qualified scientists, and their books include generous rations of hard SF. But they have both chosen to put more suspense, sex and violence into most of their books than Egan does. It's just a matter of style).

I found "Incandescence" extremely satisfying, because I accepted it for what it is. Egan has chosen the highly exacting task of imagining the far distant future, and he confronts it head-on. His "post-human" characters aren't really at all human, although I suppose they can adopt shapes that we would recognise. So advanced is their technology that they can spend millions of years abstracted as patterns of charge in tiny computing devices, while perceiving the most detailed and varied virtual worlds. They can transport themselves right across the Galaxy - although they are excluded from its central "bulge" by an apparently even more advanced civilisation called "the Aloof". Then suddenly, with no warning at all, two of them are invited to visit the bulge as guests of the Aloof, in order to research traces of DNA that may lead to a hitherto unknown sentient race. (Even though it is made clear on page 1 that by no means all citizens of the Amalgam are "children of DNA"). When they are depicted, for instance, eating rice, I couldn't help being reminded of the way 1950s writers such as A.E. van Vogt would describe 25th-century men as wearing hats, or using computers that were still the size of houses.

The post-humans contribute one strand - the slighter one - of the book. The greater part relates to the lost "genetic cousins" themselves, who inhabit one of the strangest environments ever conceived by an SF writer. In the course of their fantastically demanding (and perhaps not altogether credible) efforts to master the secrets of spacetime within a few short months, these creatures begin with experiments like Galileo's with falling weights, and rapidly chin themselves to the level of general relativity. Without at first having any clear idea of what kind of animals they are, we quickly start to empathise with their plight and admire their valiant efforts to save themselves. Indeed, it is easier to identify with them than with the post-humans, who are necessary to the plot but much more sketchily depicted.

I won't give any spoilers, because - as other reviewers have pointed out - the main interest of this novel lies, not in the intricacies of plot and characterisation, but in the fascinatingly depicted environment itself. I hope this review helps you to decide whether "Incandescence" is your kind of book. There is one more thing to add, in case you are still in doubt: it is a very good book indeed, of its kind.

(By the way, please believe me when I say that I had not even seen Paul Potts' review when I wrote this! I was amazed at the similarity of our views about Egan's relationship to previous writers such as Clement and Forward).

Greg Egan writes about the intimate perception of scale.
In Diaspora, he induced vertigo in his readers describing the search for consciousness through boundless dimensions. In Schild's Ladder, a personal quest for purpose was echoed by universe-changing wave that spanned hundreds of light-years. In Incandescence, Greg Egan tackles time and what lies beyond purpose. But how can you write an intimate story that covers 50 million years?

With a skill that he has honed since Permutation City, Egan let us slip effortlessly in the mindset of the long descendants of his "copies", consciousnesses in digital form, to set up the protagonist's plight: what is there left to do in such an age of technological marvels? Explore the last remaining mystery when the opportunity is offered? But why?

Taking a page from Vernor Vinge's book (namely, A Deepness in the Sky), the answer comes from a second storyline seen from the viewpoint of an alien. I don't know if Egan was inspired by Vinge, but his bug-like "arkdwellers" and the changes they go through were as alien and as convincing to me as Vinge's spiders, even more so when you consider their level of animality and their non-industrial society. I particularly liked Roi's dialog and behavior in the first few chapters and I was surprised to go through the same culture shock she experienced when her society began to change.

Yes, the book could have skipped some of the scientific details - I would have trusted Egan to be true to the science even if he had taken more shortcuts like the "template frames" - but some moments of insight and discovery make the detailed explanations worth it (the first experiments in the Null Chamber, the adoption of "parallel computing", etc.).

As for the reviewers who complain about the apparent lack of resolution or correspondence between the two story threads, Egan does go against expectations, but there *is* a big reveal in the end that ties everything together, even though it's disguised as an innocuous dialog line (reread Haf's last words if you don't believe me).

As always with Greg Egan's writing, this book leaves me with a great feeling of hope for humanity and with new ideas almost too big for my head to contain.

Incandescence is set in a far future in which sentients live virtually forever, able to shift their consciousness between physical bodies and virtual realities at any time, and to transmit their consciousness across the galaxy at will. There are eleven known origins of sentience in the galaxy, one of which is human DNA, and the descendants of these eleven "replicators" make up the galaxy-spanning Amalgam civilization. However, the center of the galaxy is inhabited by the mysterious Aloof, who do not communicate with the Amalgam and repel virtually all attempts by the Amalgam to visit or observe the galactic center.

Rakesh is a "child of DNA" who is approached by a stranger with a tale of a mysterious encounter with the Aloof. The stranger explains that the Aloof showed her a meteor with DNA-based microbes that appeared to originate from an unknown area in the galactic center. The stranger does not have time to investigate, and offers to turn the information over to Rakesh if Rakesh promises to journey to the galactic center and investigate.

In a second thread of the narrative, we are introduced to a farmer named Roi who encounters Zak, a scientist who is investigating how weight changes with location in their world. Living underground and in a state of low technology, most of Roi's six-legged race seem concerned only with the details of their work, with no interest in pursuing arts or sciences. But outcast Zak is interested in science, and having "recruited" Roi, the pair are able to deduce much of the physics of their world.

Most of the Roi storyline focuses on discussions with Zak about the physics of their world. Early on, I recognized the orbital mechanics forces they were describing, and I quickly skimmed the long passages describing their theories, but other readers with less of a physics background may be interested in these discussions. Other than these long discussions, there is little depth to the characters of Roi, Zak, and the other aliens.

As the drama of the two storylines builds during the first 200 pages of the book, I think most readers will be expecting a climactic encounter between Rakesh and Roi's people. However, the conclusion of Incandescence is completely unsatisfying and fails to resolve the fate of several major characters, as well as leaving some major plot issues unresolved. The ending is so abrupt that it feels as if Incandescence should be part one of a two- or three-part series. However, there is no mention of a sequel.

I have been a fan of Egan's for years, having read all of his novels. I particularly enjoyed Diaspora and Schild's Ladder. I also enjoyed Robert Forward's Dragon's Egg, which shares some similarities with Incandescence. I recommend any of those three books to most readers. But Incandescence was a huge disappointment, and I cannot recommend it.