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This page is merely TheAuthorsDue |
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This page is merely TheAuthorsDue |
Greg Egan is a computer nerd like me. This must be why I like his books so much. The science in there is hard science, if usually stretched quite a bit beyond traditional limits. The philosophy is appealing as well - Egan's views on consciousness and the mind take after DanielDennett quite a bit, explicitly so in the case of one short story, Mister Volition. The characters are usually well fleshed-out and engaging. Some of his books are just wonderful - PermutationCity, Diaspora - others are more disappointing - Teranesia?, Distress? - which tells me that he's a writer who takes risks and doesn't keep churning out the same tired thing; this I like, a lot. -- LaurentBossavit
GregEgan is consistent and predictable. When you read one of his books, you know you'll get:
You also know that his ideas will revolve around:
Even where they are dubious, or impossible, his ideas will always be entertaining. They are novel, creative and well thought out, where Egan bothers to give his attention.
Now for the bad news.
Poor characterization
GregEgan's novels lack any compelling characters. From four books, only one character, Prabir Suresh, was compelling to this reader. Even StephenBaxter managed to create Lieserl and IainBanks created Ethlomiel despite the handicap of not possessing even a tenth of the writing skill GregEgan does. Meanwhile, JoanSlonczewski created at least one compelling character in each of her books, and JosephHeller tried to create a different one in each chapter of CatchTwentyTwo.
What is a compelling character? It's one whose experiences, thoughts, feelings and actions resonate deeply with the reader. JS succeeds in creating one in each book through two means.
First, she does not completely subordinate her characters to the action and ideas in her books. The main character of Diaspora can be summed up as Orphan Created by the Conceptory.
Second, JS provides more than just one main character. The most compelling character in BrainPlague? to this reader wasn't the protagonist, but Rose. And the one in TheChildrenStar? was the girl who saw Death take her away from Hell.
In other words, JS' characters have an inner life while Egan's do not and her secondary characters have more of an inner life than his main ones.
Egan's Four Obsessions
Egan's writing suffers from his four obsessions. These are identity, Luddism, LQG, and lack of mental novelty.
Identity Issues
Egan obsesses over identity. Are you the same person who went to sleep yesterday? That sort of stuff. He will forcefully insert identity issues even if they have no place in the story and make no sense at all to the character.
In his books, Egan discusses copying of personality (Copies, Ndoli), divergence of personality (viewpoints), merging of personality (intimacy) and singularity of personality (Qusp). Unfortunately, most of these identity issues are not improved by putting them in a science fiction setting and they become tedious.
All Luddites, All The Time
The characters in Egan's books are all Luddites with literally insane sensibilities. These include Egan's body fetish, and the singularity of consciousness (Qusp).
The Qusp doesn't merely raise identity issues. It raises 19th century preconceptions of identity. Does it make any sense for people who learn quantum mechanics as children to cling obsessively to a classical conception of their identity? No, it does not.
Neither does it make any sense for his characters to so obsessively cling to the human body. In Schild's Ladder, the most important scientific and political event in all of human history is controlled by body fetishists who don't have the sense to make themselves smaller when conditions are too crowded. In Diaspora, the acorporeals don't have any native bodies and senses so they use icons of human bodies. Does it make any sense for a polis of acorporeals to travel "in the flesh" despite being limited to a small fraction of the speed of light this way? No, it does not.
Loop Quantum Gravity
LQG is a peculiar and quirky theory of physics that is entirely discredited in mainstream theoretical physics. This wouldn't be a problem for Egan except that he keeps going back to it even when it doesn't make any sense.
Egan appeals LQG in Diaspora. This would be tolerable except he uses the opportunity to slam superstring theory and spread the LQG propaganda. He pushes the idea that superstrings is only an intermediate theory and will have to be merged with LQG eventually.
But it becomes a problem in SchildsLadder?. In it, LQG gives rise to the Sarumpaet rules in a century, which give rise to No Rules twenty millenia later. This makes no sense since superstrings is the equivalent of No Rules now.
No new mentalities
One might think that with all the new technology and new substrates for human consciousness, there would be new modes of thought, feelings, and mentalities. But there are not.
Viewpoints, memes, Mediators and mind editing are explored but they give rise to no new mental phenomena. Except for personality merging, there is not a single novel mental phenomenon in Egan's books. Even IainBanks has explored more novel mental phenomena than GregEgan, and Banks is a narrow-minded racist. [Please discuss this at IainBanks.]
But it's more than a lack of new mental phenomena. There is also a conspicuous lack of new social organizations, new politics and new economics. In Diaspora, the only social organization ever shown was a chat room, and only one instance of democracy and one of ostracism were even told of.
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