Customer Reviews

Teranesia

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Teranesia has the most satisfying conclusion of any of Egan's novels yet.

From a literary standpoint, his writing continues to improve. Here he sets himself some ambitious goals and achieves them with a lightness of touch that is refreshing.

The novel is certainly one of his most readable. It is more accessible than, say, Diaspora or Distress, with a story that is moving, human, and revealing of the author's values.

Egan continues his passionate advocacy of science as the one sincere path towards truth, and this was the only aspect that made me uncomfortable. He is persuasive when demonstrating the scientific method and its power, but like most passionate advocates, he loses some credibility when he sets out to discredit the competition. The novel's population comprises scientists and buffoons, and that's about it.

A series of religious straw men are set up and demolished to demonstrate that no good thing can emerge from religion. He does the same to post-modernism but since I agree with him there, that was much less alienating! As a religious person who would not dismiss a scientific hypothesis just because it conflicted with my beliefs I might just scrape into Egan's DMZ as one of the very few who are deluded but honourable.

Given what I have just said, it is a good thing that the story remains focussed on the scientists, and here there is depth of characterization. These are no stereotypes, but likeable, believable people, with plausibly messed up psychologies and mixed motives.

A thoroughly enjoyable book, with enough left unsaid to inspire further speculation about the implications of his remarkable invention.

...unfortunately not done nearly as well as it could have been. The characters are far better drawn than they have been in any previous Egan books, but the plot suffered. The ending is terrible. Nothing is resolved, nothing is connected from the story. Characters just disappear, without anything really explained.

The idea behind the book, as it always is in what Egan writes, is fascinating. It could have been used far more than it was, however; I got the feeling that Egan rushed through the writing of the book. The typeface is rather large and only lasts for 320 pages - this book should have been a good 50% longer. More of the ideas should have been illustrated by things happening instead of through implausible long conversations between characters.

"Teranesia" is worth reading simply for the brilliant ideas behind the text. But it's not worth buying, especially not in hardcover, when it only takes a few hours to read. Get it from the library instead.

Having read all of the previous titles, it was with high expectations that I tore into this latest creation of the new saint of SF. What a letdown, perhaps akin to watching Michael Jordan play baseball. Greg's understanding of the AI nature of technology futures is truely profound and he has the ability to weave this into a deeply moving, spiritual tale that keeps you on the edge. Now that he has proven that he can write deeply detailed characters with a patina of science, let's hope that he gets back in the kitchen and serves up some meat & potatoes.

Make no mistake, this is a character driven novel. Some of Egan's fans have apparently been put off by this. Don't be. This is a hard SF book, through and through, and it goes a long way towards dispelling the myth that hard science in SF means shallow plotting and characterizations. The central biological mystery, in particular, has a very satisfying and imaginative resolution.

Egan says that he'll be returning to dense physics in his next book, but that he's going to continue striving to make plot and character central elements of his works. I find this a refreshing attitude and wish him luck in doing so.

this is a pretty good book, and it's not hard to get through but egan really doesn't know much about molecular biology. if you don't either it may be enjoyable, otherwise be prepared for some problems. also it would have been cool to know how the virus thing he leads up to resolves itself.

I have read a few books by Greg Egan, such as Distress. I expect some serious science and good character development.

This book did not impress me at all. The story was somewhat interesting, but the conclusion was unsatisfying.

The main theme seemed to be built on a guilt complex. I found the rationale for the character quite illogical, and I did not like it much.

If I had my druthers, I'd give this a 3.5, rather than a 3. I agree with other reviewers who commented on how good this book was for the first three quarters and how mind-bogglingly obtuse it became in the last quarter. I really enjoyed the development of Prabir's character, and I liked him so much, despite his quirks, which I attributed to the incredible loss he suffered. This made the revelations later on about his feelings of guilt and perfidy even more interesting, because I had seen (and continued to see) him as a remarkably heroic character.

Then the book moves past the complex and compelling human interest portion of the story and goes into a nearly orgiastic recitation of genetic gobbledygook that, quite frankly, made my head hurt. I read it, but I didn't understand it, and all I wanted to do was get through it, in the hope that all that was so human and appealing about the story would return.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Still, the first three/fourths of this story were marvelous, and I took enough of a good impression away to be willing to read another Greg Egan book.

Tiranesia was a significant change of pace from the previous works of Egan, which showcased dazzling speculations in physics, but only artificial intelligences as characters. Tiranesia is a strongly character-oriented book, about Prabir, who was raised by biologist parents on a distant tropical island in the ocean near Malasia. They are trying to solve a biological mystery-- why are the butterflies of Tiranesia evolving so rapidly?-- but Prabir is more interested in exploring his little island and playing with his baby sister. When war comes to the island, however, everything in Prabir's world changes. Don't be mistaken-- there *is* some science in the book, with a few lectures about biology, and some far-out speculation about quantum mechanics. But first and foremost, it is a character oriented story about Prabir, and how his experiences change his life and his viewpoint about the world.

Teranesia is the name given to a small, uninhabited island in Indonesia by young Prabir Suresh. His parents are there studying the unprecedented genetic mutations of a breed of butterflies found only on the island. It seems like paradise for Prabir and his two-year old sister Madhusree -- until war breaks out and shatters their world and takes the lives of their parents. Prabir manages to escape with Madhusree and they eventually end up living with their mother's sister in Canada.

Jump ahead twenty years. Prabir believes he's saved his sister from Teranesia, but the phenomenon that began with the butterflies has now spread to higher life forms. Madhusree is now a grad student in biology attempting to carry on her parent's work. Much to Prabir's dismay, she manages to get in with an expedition heading back to Indonesia to study the mutations. Prabir knows it will eventually lead back to Teranesia so he follows her blindly. Much has changed in the twenty years since they fled, and not for the better. What is causing the mutations and are they beneficial or a deadly danger?

Most of the book takes place in a chillingly realistic near future. Egan's characters are very well drawn with tangled emotions that run deep. I especially appreciated how the fact that Prabir is gay plays such a small role in the story. It wasn't made to be a huge issue; it was just a part of who he is. It was a little disappointing that Egan didn't foresee a more positive world for his gay character. It seems 40 years won't make much difference in attitudes toward GLBT people.

I wish the rest of the book had been as well thought out as the characters. I highly enjoyed the first three-quarters of the book, but he lost me at the end. The deeper he tried to go into the technobabble of genetics and mutations the more and more he lost me. There are long, boring speeches by characters sharing their theories about the mutations, which was largely unnecessary and just served to break up the flow of the story. The ending felt rushed and really failed to resolve any of the major story lines. If Egan had maintained the same level of excellence throughout, it would have easily received five stars from me, but I felt so disappointed by the end that it ruined the whole book.

I'm a big fan of Greg Egan, so I was looking forward to reading Teranesia. The novel relies less heavily on technobabble than Egan's other work, so the author is forced to explore his characters more deeply than he has in the past. For the most part, Egan pulls this off, though some of Prabir's actions towards the end of the novel stretch the reader's credibility. The author's handling of Prabir's sexuality is also the most well-done I've ever seen in a sci-fi novel. The novel tends to suffer in its conclusion, however, which seems rushed and ultimately unsatisfying. Egan may have resolved Prabir's problems, for the most part, but exactly what is going on with the island is never really explained. If the author was going for a sense of mystery, he didn't really pull it off. I can almost recommend the whole book, though, on the strength of its hilarious satire of postmodernism. It would be even more amusing if so many of the ideas he satirizes didn't sound like they were lifted from papers delivered at last year's Modern Language Association convention.