Pretty awesome book. Would be cool if someone could recommend sci-fi that equally good.
It’s not an easy read, but Blindsight by Peter Watts has some equally unique and compelling synthesis of scientific concepts into a big concept plot.
Permutation City (1994)
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Re: Permutation City (1994)
#22(1994)
Re: Permutation City (1994)
#23My book review from last September: > Reads like a “consciousness and computers are cool” story written by an engineer. A few incredible ideas padded by weak storytelling and philosophical exposition. Probably would’ve been better as a short story. [0] https://taylor.town/books#permutation-city If you like this book, I recommend Accelerando , Piranesi , Dick's Ubik , and Ted Chiang's collections.
I liked the expansion of the ideas. I was bored a couple of times so it could be compressed a bit into maybe a novella half the size of the book, but a short story would have left me wanting.
Re: Permutation City (1994)
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, is that the one with the incredibly explicit, and incredibly unnecessary, sex based around the authors obsession with fucking dead bodies and fucking and impregnating his daughter? I’m very far from a prude, but JFC. Its clearly the authors vehicle to play out his fantasies, masquerading as a scientific-fi novel.
You could try his other writings, such as The Curators, which I just finished and can recommend. It has some sex in it but much more normal, and the violence is mostly abstract (like destroying a planet by teleporting it into its star). Available at his website http://localroger.com/ .
Thanks for the rec, but my issue is less with the book and more with the author. And his non-existent editor.
Re: Permutation City (1994)
#25Egan is the only great Australian science fiction writer I’m aware of. I principally recommend Diaspora for far future post-human history with a strong focus on physics and maths, and Quarantine which is a sort of heist thriller with a unique quantum physics hook in a relatively near future Northern Australia setting where First Nations people have gained independence and positioned themselves as an Asian financial /…
Egan’s Diaspora is a strong book that I’d definitely recommend to hardcore sci-fi lovers.
Re: Permutation City (1994)
#26It's great classical sci-fi. Reminds me of Lem, Watts, Dukaj. Ideas and science matters more than special effects, action and characters.
Re: Permutation City (1994)
#27My book review from last September: > Reads like a “consciousness and computers are cool” story written by an engineer. A few incredible ideas padded by weak storytelling and philosophical exposition. Probably would’ve been better as a short story. [0] https://taylor.town/books#permutation-city If you like this book, I recommend Accelerando , Piranesi , Dick's Ubik , and Ted Chiang's collections.
Why Piranesi? Seems more straight up fantasy.
Re: Permutation City (1994)
#28Just finished it! It's so good.
Re: Permutation City (1994)
#29Fun to see this on HN today; I just finished it last night, on a recommendation from a friend. It was great, and left me full of unfinished thoughts -- just what you want from a good SF yarn.
For folks who enjoyed the ideas in it I can heartily recommend qntm's short story Lena (https://qntm.org/lena), which explores some of the same ideas but with a hefty dollop of (implied, but all the more intense for it) psychological horror.
Re: Permutation City (1994)
#30I just finished it. It's extraordinary. It's awesome. It goes way beyond ideas I'd seen half assedly developed before.