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Incandescence

3.45 of 5 stars 3.45 · rating details · 541 ratings · 84 reviews

The long-awaited new novel from Greg Egan! Hugo Award-winning author Egan returns to the field with Incandescence, a new novel of hard SF.
The Amalgam spans nearly the entire galaxy, and is composed of innumerable beings from a wild variety of races, some human or near it, some entirely other. The one place that they cannot go is the bulge, the bright, hot center of the gal...more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published May 1st 2009 by Night Shade Books (first published March 1st 2001)

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Oct 28, 2008 Bruce rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-fantasy

Maybe 3 and a half stars...

Greg Egan continues to write about the far far future in an intelligent thoughtful creative manner.

On the other hand, you have to be ready to deal with things like a large portion of the narrative of this book focusing on the discovery of newton/einsteinian laws of motion and relativity by an alien race. What made it more annoying to me was that all the terms were made up. So you have to remember that template mathematics means... algebra? and memorize (if you are real...more

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Sep 14, 2008 Leo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Leo by: http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=1064

This is the hardest SciFi I've ever read.

It comes pretty close to a lyrical exploration of the physics of the General Theory of Relativity.

Not knowing much of the physics, I found some of it a little hard to follow, but overall it was fun, and it looks like on the author's webpage www.gregegan.net there's some nice supplemental material to help understand what's going on.

I'd heartily recommend the book to anyone with an interest in physics, but even ignoring that, it was still a fun, beautiful...more

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Dec 23, 2012 Outis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, science, transhumanism

A much misunderstood book.
I don't think much of an interest in physics or math is needed to follow the narrative or understand what's going on. Certainly no education beyond high school and popular movies is required. An interest in geometry and the history of physics would however definitely make the book more interesting.
It seems many readers were either put off or very impressed because some characters are scientists and a small part of the book narrates their work in simple terms. While that...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Michele (Mikecas) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: space-opera-moderna, fantascienza, urania

Da: http://www.webalice.it/michele.castel... .... Incandescence � indubbiamente un buon romanzo, anche se non certamente un capolavoro. Un romanzo di hard SF, con molta, forse troppa, scienza e una dose ragionevole di fantasia. La storia � flebile, con un finale che non � chiuso, come se ci potesse essere un seguito. Ma sicuramente non � la storia l'aspetto migliore di questo romanzo, bens� la descrizione delle diverse societ� che si vengono ad incontrare. La prima � la societ� dell'Amalgama, ch...more Da: http://www.webalice.it/michele.castel... .... Incandescence � indubbiamente un buon romanzo, anche se non certamente un capolavoro. Un romanzo di hard SF, con molta, forse troppa, scienza e una dose ragionevole di fantasia. La storia � flebile, con un finale che non � chiuso, come se ci potesse essere un seguito. Ma sicuramente non � la storia l'aspetto migliore di questo romanzo, bens� la descrizione delle diverse societ� che si vengono ad incontrare. La prima � la societ� dell'Amalgama, che si � creata nell'ampia zona dei bracci della Via Lattea, dove le stelle erano separate da anni luce, ma la panspermia di diversi replicatori biochimici, tra cui il DNA, avevano diffuso la vita ovunque. Una societ� che ha ormai superato il legame con uno specifico corpo fisico e pu� trasferirsi ovunque come informazione codificata, acquisendo ogni forma fisica a piacere. Una societ� di immortali senza ormai molti stimoli, perch� il limite relativistico della velocit� della luce li limita all'interno della Galassia, che ormai conoscono quasi completamente, nonostante i tempi necessari, misurati in millenni, necessari per spostarsi lungo la rete che ricopre tutta la parte esterna della Galassia stessa. La seconda � la civilt� dei Superbi, che occupano il Rigonfiamento, cio� la parte centrale della galassia, hanno una propria rete di comunicazione separata da quella dell'Amalgama e rifiutano sistematicamente ogni contatto diretto. Il passaggio attraverso il Rigonfiamento � normalmente possibile solo attraverso l'uso di chiavi di codifica quantistiche che garantiscono l'inviolabilit� dei dati personali. Il ritrovamento di un pezzo di meteora vecchio di 50 milioni di anni con tracce di DNA di tipo sconosciuto spinge i Superbi ad avvertire l'Amalgama ed invitare i "parenti" derivati da DNA a cercarne l'origine, permettendo l'ingresso nel rigonfiamento ad un individuo discendente dalla razza umana ed ad un suo compagno di origine "artificiale". Una civilt� basata sul DNA e sviluppatasi nella zona del Rigonfiamento, dove l'addensamento di stelle rende la vita delle stesse molto breve, � la terza societ�, e sicuramente la pi� interessante. Non avendo ancora sviluppato il volo interstellare, avevano visto il loro sistema solare stravolto dal passaggio di un buco nero. Si erano allora sviluppati in una razza capace di sopravvivere in un ciottolo di alta tecnologia capace di galleggiare nell'onda di particelle proveniente dall'orizzonte degli eventi del buco nero, traendo sostentamento da quello stesso flusso. Una societ� capace di vivere per 50 milioni di anni in quelle condizioni, ma anche capace di reagire ad eventuali situazioni critiche. La descrizione di come una parte di questi esseri riescono a sviluppare una conoscenza dell'universo in cui vivono, fortemente relativistico, dopo un incidente che ne mette in pericolo la sopravvivenza � la parte maggiore del romanzo, e scorre parallela alla "ricerca" da parte delle persone dell'Amalgama. Questa � contemporaneamente la parte pi� interessante e anche la parte pi� noiosa, dipendendo dalla capacit� del lettore di seguire gli "esperimenti" sul sasso in orbita al buco nero che portano a capire la sua dinamica spazio-temporale. Molti si sono lamentati dell'eccesso di descrizioni scientifiche, e della scarsezza della storia, che � in effetti tutta qui, perch� l'incontro tra le due civilt� � solo parziale, il finale � totalmente monco, presupponendo un seguito. Ma la mia opinione � che sia in ogni caso una lettura soddisfacente, un romanzo in cui la scienza � trattata in modo coerente, senza eccessive estrapolazioni, ed in cui � presentato un futuro molto remoto che � per� anche molto possibile, supponendo che l'umanit� possa sopravvivere tanto a lungo. Tutto sommato, niente di eccezionale, ma una buona lettura con diversi spunti scientifici estremamente interessanti.(less)

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Feb 20, 2011 Roger Eschbacher rated it 3 of 5 stars

Wikipedia defines hard sci fi as "a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both." By that definition "Incandescence" by Greg Egan is by far the "hardest" science fiction book I've read in my entire life. We're talking diamond hard here. If you're into the action-packed drama of space-time geometries, general relativity, and interstellar panspermia...have I got the book for you.

There is a decent story (lost alie...more

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Sep 26, 2010 Alan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Hard SF fans

Recommended to Alan by: Previous work and a back-pages ad in another Night Shade Press book

Greg Egan's science fiction is hard, hard, hard—it is "hard sf," usually as rigorous as Egan can possibly make it, which can make it hard to read without footnotes or a background in the hard sciences. And, sometimes, it's hard to like.

Incandescence is a textbook example of all three kinds of hard—the textbook in this case being something like Rediscovering Classical and Relativistic Physics. If extended descriptions of orbital mechanics and exposition about f=ma, thinly leavened with characteri...more

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Apr 04, 2010 WarBiscuit rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

I really wanted to like this book. The story was great. The characterization was excellent... Egan used to be critiqued for having flat characters in his earlier novels, and I think he tried to do better with Terranesia, but the characterization almost took over that book. This one, he got just the right balance. The plot drove the story, but you really got a good feel for the personalities of the different characters. I don't want to say too much about the plot, because it *was* a good plot if...more

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Dec 01, 2010 Yupa rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Una domanda: scrivendo cosiddetta fantascienza hard, avere alte cognizioni di fisica, astronomia, matematica e quant'altro, esime comunque lo scrittore dal tentativo di, non dico dare una sorta di spessore ai personaggi, ma almeno imbastire una qualche larva di trama che non sia una mera successione rigidamente lineare d'eventi utile solo acché possano spiegarsi (nel doppio senso del termine) svariate teorie scientifiche, fossero pure le più affascinanti?
Perché il libro di Egan questo è, e nient...more Una domanda: scrivendo cosiddetta fantascienza hard, avere alte cognizioni di fisica, astronomia, matematica e quant'altro, esime comunque lo scrittore dal tentativo di, non dico dare una sorta di spessore ai personaggi, ma almeno imbastire una qualche larva di trama che non sia una mera successione rigidamente lineare d'eventi utile solo acché possano spiegarsi (nel doppio senso del termine) svariate teorie scientifiche, fossero pure le più affascinanti?
Perché il libro di Egan questo è, e nient'altro. E non si tratta del piagnucolio da lettore poco aduso all'impervia scalata concettuale di dialoghi tecnospecifici, impervia poi unicamente nei contenuti, non certo nella forma. Piuttosto è la pretesa che, appunto, un minimo di forma vi sia, di forma narrativa.
Esistono scrittori in grado di elaborare intrecci notevoli, ma deboli nello stile, ad esempio Dick.
Esistono scrittori in grado di ideare soggetti assai interessanti, senza riuscire a elaborarli in un intreccio soddisfacente, ad esempio Murakami.
Incandescence sta al di sotto anche di tale soglia. È meno che un canovaccio, è una lunga lista d'appunti che, per trasformarsi in narrazione, esigerebbe ancora diversi, molti passaggi.
Ed è un peccato, perché in titoli precedenti (Teranesia o Distress) Egan aveva mostrato di avere potenzialità per riuscirci, lavorandoci.
Non solo, qui mancano anche quelle prese di posizioni così nette, spesso molto radicali e, proprio per questo, assai stimolanti, sull'individuo, la società, le macchine e il futuro, che non poco spazio avevano in suoi altri libri. In Incandescence si riducono a un brusio eto-antropologico di sottofondo, debole e trascurabile, se non per qualche guizzo nelle ultime pagine; pur con dei perplimenti anacronismi: è plausibile che in una civiltà galattico-informatica lontana centinaia di migliaia di anni nel futuro si discuta di "rispetto della privacy" e "consenso informato"?

Merita una citazione il racconto italiano posto in coda al volume: vorrebbe essere una fantasia trasgressiva a tinte forti, per scioccàre il lettore pudibondo e titillare quello in cerca d'emozioni selvagge, ma si rivela invece un eccellente esempio di comicità involontaria.(less)

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Jun 12, 2012 Derek Broughton rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

Brilliant. Hard SF at its absolute best.

It's almost impossible to imagine a galaxy-spanning civilization in a universe still bounded by the absolute limitation of the speed of light, but Egan manages to do it, and do it well. Yet, the galactic civilization is almost a throwaway in this tale. The true story is about a microcosmic society in a hidden backwater.

The people of the Splinter (from the start, clearly recognizable as some kind of orbital habitat) are clearly post-apocalyptic, their scie...more

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Apr 15, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: may-june-2009

All critics who considered Incandescence were fascinated by it. They loved Egan's descriptions of a galaxy-spanning, posthuman civilization and the intellectual acrobatics necessary to understand how bugs on a splinter of rock think about their universe. But as with many of Egan's books, one's enjoyment may not be complete unless one can keep up with the physics, of which there is no shortage. "Especially when he's showing how Roi's people derive what amounts to Einstein's theory of relativity i

...more

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Apr 07, 2010 Graham Clements rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Incandescence is a science-fiction novel set millions of years in the future. Humans have evolved into immortal data streams that can travel through the galaxy on cosmic rays and reconfigure themselves in any shape they desire. They are know as the Almalgam.

At the core of the galaxy live the mysterious Aloof, who have rejected any attempts by the Amalgan to expand into their territory. The Aloof allow the Almalgam to travel through their territory, but not to stop.

Rakesh is a bored member of th...more Incandescence is a science-fiction novel set millions of years in the future. Humans have evolved into immortal data streams that can travel through the galaxy on cosmic rays and reconfigure themselves in any shape they desire. They are know as the Almalgam.

At the core of the galaxy live the mysterious Aloof, who have rejected any attempts by the Amalgan to expand into their territory. The Aloof allow the Almalgam to travel through their territory, but not to stop.

Rakesh is a bored member of the Amalgan who has spent decades looking for something exciting and challenging to do that has not already been done. He is approached by a traveller who was woken during a journey through Aloof territory and told about a meteor that contained traces of DNA. The Aloof want a child of DNA, an Amalgan, to examine it. Rakesh accepts the challenge and sets off with a friend to travel for thousands of years into Aloof territory.

Roi and Zak are bug like creatures living inside a translucent rock world called the Splinter that orbits in a sea of light called the Incandescence. Roi and Zak's scientific curiosity make them outcasts in a subsistence, duty bound society, as they try to work out the true nature of the Splinter. When the Splinter is shunted out of orbit and begins to experience intervals of darkness, Roi and Zak start recruiting others to find out what happened.

Incandescence is hard science-fiction, in both concept and content. Roi and Zak discover many scientific qualities of the Splinter, which are described to the reader in words when diagrams might have been more appropriate. Egan does include a couple of diagrams but I think he could have attached an appendix with more. At the least, a glossary would have been welcomed, as his scientists made up names for a lot of their discoveries.

This reviewer has only year 12 physics and found it hard to understand Incandescence in places. Without a desire to find out how the two separate stories would interlink, the novel might not have been read to the end. This would have been a shame because Egan does some interesting exploring of why society's stagnant.

The Splinter society is one of unquestioning duty, where everything has been done the same way for eons and people haven't the energy to question the world they live in. They are emotionally inert, which is why I found some of the scenes where concerns where shown for their offspring to have a tacked on quality. It felt like Egan needed a reason for the Splinter's stagnating, uncreative society to want to survive the looming catastrophe.

The ending is both satisfying, in theme, and unsatisfying, in plot. Incandesence is not as good as the high concept Quarantine or as well written as the character driven Teranesia. A reader who has a physics degree or perhaps the patience to continually re-read sections, might rate the novel higher.

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Apr 12, 2013 Spock rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

per quale motivo uno scrittore deve autocompiacersi del suo sapere e trasformare, se non richiesto, un libro in un ibrido fra narrativa SF e bigino di fisica avanzata ?
Certo se lo scrittore fosse Jostein Gaarder potrebbe scrivere "il mondo di Sofia", se lo scrittore fosse Oliver Sacks potrebbe unire l'alta cultura medico scientifica alla narrativa e al saggio antropologico, se fosse Robert Gilmore potrebbe ambientare Alice nel mondo della fisica quantistica, ...
ma se non e', perche' ammorbare l...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Nurture Waratah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, library-book, maths, science, science-fiction

This book was very, very difficult for anybody other than a scientist or mathematician to read. I persisted, however, because despite all the jargon, the basic plot was quite interesting. I don't know why I bothered. The book had two separate story-lines, giving the impression that these would eventually come together. This did not happen. The two stories were not properly combined, leaving the reader with the sense that the book just ended suddenly, as though the author just ran out of words. T...more

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Apr 22, 2013 pjreads ♫ rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-fantasy

Challenging science fiction about physics, mathematics and scientific thinking.

"instead of things like left/right, inward/outward, or even +x/-x, there is garm/sard, rarb/sharq and shomal/junub"
-- Stephen Cass http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/sci...

"The directions within the Splinter are:
��garm = closer to the Hub (the unknown object that the Splinter orbits) / sard = further from the Hub;
��rarb = the direction that the Splinter orbits / sharq = opposite the direction that the Splinter orbi...more

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Nov 03, 2010 Brad rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi

The couple of Greg Egan's books I read prior to this one were chock full of mind blowing science fiction ideas. Ideas that require a certain amount of familiarity with science to really understand what was going on in the story. That is why I was excited when I saw a new book by Greg Egan I was hoping for an exciting hard sf read. While this book clearly had some exciting and interesting science in it, I felt the story was a little bit disappointing. Too much scientific detail that just got bogg...more The couple of Greg Egan's books I read prior to this one were chock full of mind blowing science fiction ideas. Ideas that require a certain amount of familiarity with science to really understand what was going on in the story. That is why I was excited when I saw a new book by Greg Egan I was hoping for an exciting hard sf read. While this book clearly had some exciting and interesting science in it, I felt the story was a little bit disappointing. Too much scientific detail that just got bogged down and the characters started out interesting but just became mechanical constructs walk through the pages with a few interesting moments here and there.

***********Spoiler below***************

Also the ending bothered me. At the end of any novel that has two separate plot lines one would expect that those stories would merge. But I am still not sure how that happened in this. Clearly there is supposed to be some connection but I am not sure what it is. The stories could have taken place at different times. The Roi story taking place long before the Rakesh one and the place Rakesh finds is the Splinter that survives to his time. I think that The Aloof is the end result of the successful evolution of Roi's people after they get safe and then create a barrier to keep people out. But then I am not sure about who Zey is and in what time Rakesh finds her.

In short the ending is confusing and not in a good way. I hope someone has a good theory or can point me towards one. A novel full of interesting ideas but falling a bit short in my opionion.

Update. Haha.

After spending a night sleeping on this book I thought about this book a bit more. I still think the Aloof are the descendants of Roi's people who are like Rakesh said are so advanced that they just sit back with a few sentinels waiting for the universe to show them something new. That Roi and her fellow primitve people were able to discover the laws of physics to save themselves and then develop into an advanced civilization. Becoming Aloof when the universe had given up all its mysteries. Roi's storyline takes place in the far distant past.

Rakesh's storyline is the present and his journey takes him not to the Splinter but to the descendants of Roi. Zey and her people are the descendants of Roi's people who decided to go back to sleep after figuring out how to save themselves from the black hole trying to eat Splinter. But then engineered to wake up and keep watch should trouble arise in the future.

One last thought. Well at least for the moment. To the Aloof the citizens of the Amalgam are the hatchlings. They are the ones who need protecting that is why they are kept from galactic center except for the occasional visitor that is allowed in. This is kind of interesting because we think of the Amalgam as being way more advanced than Roi's people when we meet them. Roi's people are primitive, figuring out things as they go along. Rakesh by comparison has the entire knowledge of the Amalgam at at his disposal. But then Roi and her descendants surpass even that becoming the extremely advanced Aloof. I think this goes to the heart of the novel that primitive people can learn physics.

I am not sure all of this makes sense or is right. Still while the novel is full of the interesting ideas you would expect in a Greg Egan book the narrative falls flat.

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Jan 11, 2011 Peter rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: popsci, fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 20, 2009 William rated it 4 of 5 stars

I "really liked" this book as seen by the start rating, but I have to warn most people against reading it or at least warn that the writing is very physics heavy. If you have little experience with physics and little interest in thought problems about what could be done with extremely advanced technology, this book may bore you to tears. Not particularly well written but very accurate scientifically, in order for the narrative to grab you, you need either a good understanding of physics or a wil...more

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Jun 11, 2009 Don rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A somewhat enjoyable read, but very heavy on the physics discovery that the residents of the Splinter undertake. Their process of discovery is interesting, though I was unwilling to invest the effort and notes to really follow along with them. Someone more interested in the process of learning or the physics might enjoy it more; for me it slowed down reading the rest of the novel.

My other issue with the novel is surely my fault in understanding, but I simply cannot glean the connection between t...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Bryan added it · review of another edition

"Incadescence" is simultaneously intriguing and frustrating. Egan takes on the daunting challenge of deriving and explaining both special and general relativity without any mathematics at all. But I was left wondering whether the plot was up to the task. Two alternating plot lines gradually build to a crescendo, but both terminate abruptly without a satisfying resolution, and without a strong enough connection between them. I also question the value of a novel that requires the reader to have a...more

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Feb 10, 2009 Jack rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: physics geeks

Shelves: sf-hard

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The book's focus on the discovery of physics by an alien race is lovely in its own way, but I was desperate to have more of the aliens' situation explained from an external POV. While I'm sure the descriptions of orbits and tidal forces and the effects of being within the accretion disk of a neutron star were all rigorously correct, I simply don't have the mental tools to follow along readily. Egan made up terms for the basic directions that apply to an orbiting body, but I don't think those wer...more

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Nov 03, 2008 Ron rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Science fiction scrupulously adhering to solid scientific speculation and with a plot largely concerned with the development of scientific knowledge. There's a dramatic story, but since most of the characters are virtually-reconstituted post-humans or completely alien aliens, it might leave some readers flat. The drama that is there emerges from the characters in one narrative thread needing to understand the nature of their part of the universe -- the relativity-distorted orbit of a neutron sta...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Kam-Yung Soh rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-and-fantasy

An interesting book with two threads: in one, the inhabitants inside a world called the Splinter struggle to understand their surroundings, in the process discovering Newton's laws of gravitation and then Einstein's General Relativity - all without observing the outside universe. What they learn enables them to discover that their world may be doomed unless they can rally around an audacious project to save their world.

In the other thread, two travellers are invited to enter the territory of the...more

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Jun 27, 2010 David rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I finished Greg Egan's Incandescence and I thought it was okay. Egan is *so* far out in his premise that I had a hard time getting into the book at first - multi-millenial-aged disembodied intelligences? Bioengineered lifeforms living on the inside of an asteroid orbiting a neutron star which is eating a nearby sun? Wow. Egan tosses out more ideas in this one book than many SF authors would use in a series, but the characters all have a kind of cool detachment which didn't draw me in. If you lik...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Dave rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Swing and a miss for Greg Egan. This had amazing potential, Egan set up an interesting universe with a nice, if fairly straight-forward protagonist. He then adds what should be an interesting plot. And then he alternates these chapters with a boring physics lesson (and I'm a physics teacher!).

And then he ends the story with little resolution, the two plot-lines never actually coming together, and nothing feeling complete.

Sadly, it seems Egan peaked with Diaspora and has never really managed to g...more

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Dec 12, 2012 Brent Werness rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, hard-sci-fi, math-or-physics-fiction, sci-fi, sci-fi-first-contact

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 02, 2012 Ben Babcock rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: via-io9, to-buy, 2012-read, from-library, posthuman, science-fiction

Much like Diaspora , Incandescence is more of a fictional treatise on esoteric ideas than it is a novel. A loosely convergent tale of two plots, Incandescence is a showcase of Greg Egan's ability to think big--really, hugely, mindbogglingly big. Once again, Egan sidesteps the traditional boundaries of consciousness and identity. There is nary a human to be seen in this book--personalities descended from DNA, yes, but nothing we could call humanity. Incandescence is posthuman to a very literal de...more Much like Diaspora , Incandescence is more of a fictional treatise on esoteric ideas than it is a novel. A loosely convergent tale of two plots, Incandescence is a showcase of Greg Egan's ability to think big--really, hugely, mindbogglingly big. Once again, Egan sidesteps the traditional boundaries of consciousness and identity. There is nary a human to be seen in this book--personalities descended from DNA, yes, but nothing we could call humanity. Incandescence is posthuman to a very literal degree.

The first plot follows Rakesh, “a descendant of DNA” and his friend, whose origins are not so mundane. They travel by transmission into the centre of the galaxy, territory held by the aptly named "Aloof". The Aloof eschew communication with the larger Amalgam society that inhabits the outer area of the galaxy. But they have made an exception by reaching out to Rakesh, who pursues a chance to find a heretofore unknown planet where DNA-based life might have evolved. It’s the type of discovery of a lifetime Rakesh has been yearning for in an age where everything has been seen and done.

The second plot follows Roi, a member of a species that lives within an asteroid in the halo of a neutron star. At the beginning of the story, Roi is content with tending the crops on the surface of the asteroid. Then she meets Zak, who piques her interest in the natural mysteries of their world. What follows is an Eganesque development of physics, from Galileo to Newton to Einstein, in the language and frame of reference of these very alien beings. The more Roi and Zak discover about their world, the more it becomes apparent they need to learn even more in order to save it from impending disaster.

These two plots converge in a very obvious way, but most of the time I found myself more entertained by the latter. It’s intriguing to watch Roi, Zak, and their colleagues deduce, derive, and hypothesize new theories and laws of physics that we take for granted as the received wisdom passed down to us through the institutions of high school and university. I love reading about the history of science and learning how exactly we came to know what we know. Here, Egan shows us how a species that lives in a radically different environment from what we are familiar with on Earth could deduce the same laws of physics through different observations. It’s clever and fun, and even if you don’t know a lot of physics, you should still be able to derive some satisfaction from watching Roi and Zak’s knowledge grow.

The search for the missing DNA world by Rakesh and his friend interests me less. Firstly, it’s kind of boring. Nothing bad ever really happens to them; there are no real threats. We hear that the Amalgam might not let them return to civilized society, on the grounds that this is all some kind of plot by the Aloof and the Rakesh who returns might not be the real Rakesh … but nothing ever really materializes from that. Secondly, as much as I want to sympathize with Rakesh’s desire to make a big discovery and alleviate his wanderlust and boredom, he is curiously ethical and moral. Are there no bad people this far into the future? He eventually wrestles with a genuine moral conundrum, and I admit I liked that. But for most of the book, he essentially does the right thing all the time, as does his friend.

Incandescence also doesn’t quite live up to the expectations set by the jacket copy. I was told that the convergence of these plots would reveal the motivations of the Aloof—and that really intrigued me. I wanted to know why the Aloof were so different from the Amalgam and why they had chosen to make this communication at this time. But we never really learn the answer to such questions. In fact, we never really learn anything. Egan takes us on a great ride, but there is no free T-shirt at the end of it. You just get thanked for riding and unceremoniously kicked out of the amusement park—see you next year.

As a novel, Incandescence fails to sustain interest or present much in the way of a compelling plot. Its virtues lie entirely in Egan’s ability to explore and explain science through very alien points of view. That’s certainly impressive … but I can’t say it’s sufficient to make this book great. In the end I’m still looking for a good story, and that’s where this book doesn’t deliver.

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Oct 05, 2009 Adam rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-meh, read-in-2009

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 15, 2008 Hans rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The plot is interesting enough that it kept me reading, but the most fascinating part is the description of the formalisms of physics; namely special and general relativity. Considering that I just took a class in Classical Mechanics it was a joy to read what I had been studying as equations for the last part of the semester. The descriptions of the physics experiments do get a bit tedious and the ending is a bit of a mystery. I recommend it to feel the experience of discovery.

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Apr 06, 2009 Rob rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is formatted such that alternating chapters are alternating viewpoints. I quickly found that only the odd-numbered chapters were readable (although, to be fair, I don't know if any artist could have made a society of small lobsters living on an asteroid going through the process of discovering classical mechanics from first principles an interesting fictional device) and those only somewhat. So, I'm giving two stars to the odd numbered chapters and calling this a mildly interesting boo...more

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Feb 21, 2011 Chris rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I definitely enjoyed this book for the most part, for what it is; which is mostly a long scientific discussion as pre-industrial aliens develop general relativity in order to save their strange world.

There's also a second plot thread involving a pair of explorers millions of years in the future, which adds some background to the alien's world. The two plots don't really seem to come together, though Wikipedia claims I'm missing something. I dunno.

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About Greg Egan

Greg Egan specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness. Other themes include genetics, simulated reality, posthumanism, mind transfer, sexuality, artificial intelligence, and the superiority of rational naturalism over religion.

He is a Hugo Award winner (and has been shortlisted for the Hugos three other times), an...more

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“Parantham finally realized that selecting a star on the map enabled a sub-menu with the unassuming option "Go to star". Choosing this did not change the map's viewpoint or magnification; rather, it caused the map to inquire politely, "Are you sure you wish to travel to this star?” — 2 people liked it

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