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Quarantine

(Subjective Cosmology #1)

Greg Egan

3.90 · Rating details · 3,952 ratings · 245 reviews

It causes riots and religions. It has people dancing in the streets and leaping off skyscrapers. And it's all because of the impenetrable gray shield that slid into place around the solar system on the night of November 15, 2034.

Some see the bubble as the revenge of an insane God. Some see it as justice. Some even see it as protection. But one thing is for cert ...more

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Paperback, 280 pages

Published January 1st 1995 by HarperPrism (first published 1992)

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Feb 11, 2019 BlackOxford rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, australian

Mods, Moods, and Modes

To measure something is to change it, to cause it to become fixed by eliminating its infinite possibilities. This is a well-established principle of quantum mechanics. If that is true, human beings have much more to answer for than we thought. As our techniques of measurement have become more refined and better able to reach further into the far reaches of the cosmos, we have left a path of destruction literally as far as the eye can see.

The really spectacul ...more

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Apr 26, 2019 Manuel Antão rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

Eigenstates: “Quarantine” by Greg Egan

“[character referring to quantum entanglement and wave function collapse] ‘so, what should they call it?’ ‘Oh...neural linear decomposition of the state vector, followed by phase-shifting and preferential reinforcements of selected eigenstates.’”

In “Quarantine” by Greg Egan

“’So...where’s the problem?’

‘The problem is: before you mak ...more

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Jun 21, 2018 Bradley rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018-shelf, sci-fi, transhumanism, reality-bending

I've had Greg Egan on my radar for a long time but aside from a lucky chance encounter with a novella, it still took me almost two decades to finally break down and read him! It wasn't his fault. That lies entirely with me. I'm absolutely ashamed.

Why? Because this hard-SF novelist is unashamedly tackling some of the hardest quantum physics interpretations, (smearing possibilities and collapsing the wave functions of reality) to very, very courageous levels.

The writer runs with a loa I've had Greg Egan on my radar for a long time but aside from a lucky chance encounter with a novella, it still took me almost two decades to finally break down and read him! It wasn't his fault. That lies entirely with me. I'm absolutely ashamed.

Why? Because this hard-SF novelist is unashamedly tackling some of the hardest quantum physics interpretations, (smearing possibilities and collapsing the wave functions of reality) to very, very courageous levels.

The writer runs with a loaded gun with a safety off. It's pretty awesome. The risk he takes from turning a cyberpunk Private Investigator novel into a completely sidelined thought experiment including the mythical Observer and the death of all the wave functions to create a single reality, multiplying it by a few observers, and then eventually to the whole Earth, is not an end ANYONE ought to miss. I cheered. I gasped. I whooped.

Am I explaining this too esoterically? Possibly. Okay, let's back up. The Earth is suddenly quarantined in a quantum bubble to protect the rest of the universe from summarily changing realities willy-nilly because we THINK it into being. It starts out as quantum tunneling on the macro scale, cheating at cards, getting hugely improbable number sequences right, but then we go deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole where multiple worlds can be chosen from at will, thousands, hundreds of thousands, and each die as the "best" possible world becomes real. Now let's throw that into the stew and add more people. How about adding everyone to that powerful quantum schedule? What happens when we all get the ability to be gods?

Yeah, Egan attempts just this. :) Brilliant attempt, too!

So why didn't I give it 5 stars? Because great ideas don't always equate great fundamental stories with plot and characters. There's nothing wrong with this one, but most the plot and characters are puppets to the need to make clear what is going on, science-wise. I like good exposition when I need it to follow the intent of the author. In this case, it's absolutely necessary. And delightful. But it necessarily slows down the plot, too. Like, to a crawl.

Fortunately, it was never boring to me. Just uneven. No harm, no foul! And what we have here is a novel of quantum possibilities gone totally nuts. :) I LOVE THIS! ...more

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Jun 11, 2019 David Katzman rated it it was amazing

What improbable collapse of quantum potential states has resulted in the fact that immediately after reading a science book about confronting the measurement problem in quantum physics that I should read a science fiction book that is centrally about the measurement problem in quantum physics???

Quarantine is an extremely odd book. It’s a book of ideas. It’s bizarre, surreal and mind-bending and also grounded in quantum physics. As I discuss in my review of What is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for/> What improbable collapse of quantum potential states has resulted in the fact that immediately after reading a science book about confronting the measurement problem in quantum physics that I should read a science fiction book that is centrally about the measurement problem in quantum physics???

Quarantine is an extremely odd book. It’s a book of ideas. It’s bizarre, surreal and mind-bending and also grounded in quantum physics. As I discuss in my review of What is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics by Adam Becker, there are several primary theories (with multiple variations) that purport to solve the measurement problem of the Schrodinger Equation and explain what that equation says about reality. Becker sees the traditional Copenhagen Interpretation—despite being relatively the most popular theory among physicists—as the weakest solution and one that instead of actually confronting the measurement problem, looks the other way and says that there is no measurement problem. (See my review for more for more on this topic.)

Egan world-builds the premise of his novel by assuming the literal truth of one of the currently less-favored solutions to the measurement problem, one that Einstein himself considered illogical and absurd. That said, it makes for an interesting premise to project out a story. Egan begins with the theory that part of the human brain (some theorists have even described it as “consciousness,”*) is responsible for collapsing the wave function. He then lays on top of this premise, the fantastical idea that (view spoiler)

With that as the basis, the storyline itself is a science fiction noir espionage/thriller involving evil corporations, cults and technology-based body modifications. It’s a fascinating story that is occasionally dragged down by extended scientific lectures and debates. I couldn’t quite tell if he was intentionally diverting the story into these “talking head” types of scenes as an almost absurdist distraction, or if that’s just how he wrote it, unironically. Sometimes I found the talking-head scenes amusing while other times I wanted him to just move on. Yes, Quarantine is driven by some rather absurd extensions of the Copenhagen Interpretation, but even so…they aren’t any more insane than quantum physics itself is. I think Egan did a pretty remarkable and highly inventive job applying cutting edge quantum theory to a wild ride of a story that I found hard to put down. If you enjoy science fiction, particularly of the cyberpunk variety, then this book is highly recommended.

*Since consciousness is an abstraction, or as philosophers would label it, qualia...an inner representation of neurological functions...how could qualia affect matter directly? That is, how could something immaterial affect a particle that is merely "observed?" It's far from clear that this is possible or even what observation exactly is. ...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Larry Lennhoff rated it it was amazing

I'm not a huge Greg Egan fan. But that may well be because he outgrew me, and I stopped keeping up with the right varieties of science to really appreciate his work. However, Quarantine, one of his first novels, is one of my favorites. I reread it over the past few days, but I first read it when it came out. We older SF fans talk a lot about the sense of wonder (aka sensawonda). But over the years, I got less and less of that sense from the physics/chemistry parts of SF and more from things like ...more

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Feb 28, 2016 Stuart rated it liked it

Shelves: near-future, hard-sf, technology-science

Quarantine: Cool quantum mechanics, pedestrian plot
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Greg Egan is an Australian writer of hard science fiction who specializes in mathematics, epistemology, quantum theory, posthumanism, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, etc. When you pick up one of his books, you know you will be getting a fairly dense crash course in some pretty outlandish scientific and mathematical ideas, with the plot and characters coming second.

The cover blurb advertises Qu Quarantine: Cool quantum mechanics, pedestrian plot
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Greg Egan is an Australian writer of hard science fiction who specializes in mathematics, epistemology, quantum theory, posthumanism, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, etc. When you pick up one of his books, you know you will be getting a fairly dense crash course in some pretty outlandish scientific and mathematical ideas, with the plot and characters coming second.

The cover blurb advertises Quarantine as “A Novel of Quantum Catastrophe,” and the back describes “an impenetrable gray shield that slid into place around the solar system on the night of November 15, 2034” causing riots and chaos. However, the book mainly takes place in Perth and New Hong Kong, which was relocated to Australia after the Chinese took over. So don’t expect too much galaxy-spanning space travel or conventional aliens. This book is about quantum physics, simultaneous ‘eigenstates’ when humans use neural ‘mods’ to ‘smear’ themselves before collapsing back into a single state of existence, erasing those infinite possibilities.

The story centers on private investigator Nick Stavrianos, who is asked by an anonymous client to investigate the disappearance of Linda Andrews, a brain damaged patient at the Hilgemann Institute who, one day, disappeared from her room without a trace. It’s a fairly typical scenario, designed to reveal elements of the plot as his investigation progresses. Surprise, surprise, this is not just a random disappearance, but the tip of a much more elaborate conspiracy by shadowy organizations to exploit the neural ‘mods’ that could blow the lid off our conventional reality quicker than you can say ‘cookie-cutter private-eye story about collapsing wave functions and reality-altering nanotech mods.’

The early part of Quarantine establishes the nanotech-filled world of the 21st century, brimming with technological wonders but also with religious mania and terrorism inspired by the Bubble that surrounds the solar system. It’s not a pleasant world, and technological espionage is commonplace. Once Nick and Linda’s backstories are established, the book delves into its main subject matter, a revolutionary new mod that could allow the user (the ‘observer’ in the Schrodinger’s Cat experiment) to choose from an infinite number of quantum probabilities while ‘smeared’ when the wave function collapses back into a single reality. If this can be controlled, the possibilities are unlimited — pursuing personal profit, improving the lot of society, or perhaps something much more radical.

Nick gets deeply embroiled in the conflicting factions seeking to control this mod, and the mechanism by which his loyalties are controlled is quite fascinating — one of the better ideas in the story. It’s not until things get extremely technical and complicated that we discover the connection between this reality-bending mod and the Bubble that mysteriously appeared at the beginning of the book.

I’ve always been interested in quantum mechanics, Multiple Worlds Theory, nanotech, etc., and all the mind-bending possibilities that these ideas entail. Egan spends enough pages explaining quantum ‘smearing’ and ‘collapsing’ that even a complete layman like myself, who loves hard science fiction ideas but hates differential equations and complex calculations, to understand the basics. As Egan explains in a very illustrative article on his blog (Quantum Mechanics and Quarantine), he chose a very unlikely interpretation of quantum mechanics and wave function collapse in order to make an exciting and imaginative science fiction novel. In general, I think he succeeds at this, though at the expense of in-depth characterization. If that appeals to you, by all means give Quarantine a try. Out of all the possible quantum probabilities, this is probably one of the better iterations.

Notes on the Audible Studios version:

When I discovered that you can get many of Egan’s books in Kindle and Audible versions for the COMBINED price of $4.98, I figured that was just too good to pass up. In particular I snapped up Quarantine, Permutation City, and Diaspora as promising titles. Then I noticed the ratings on Audible were surprisingly low (the low 3s), and discovered that most of the audiobook readers liked the books but pilloried the narrator Adam Epstein for being completely inept — boring, bad accents, painfully slow, mispronouncing words. No wonder its so cheap, I thought. Maybe this was a mistake. But I knew I could at least fix one thing, the overly-slow narration speed, by simply selecting 1.5x speed, my normal pace. Perhaps some listeners aren’t aware of that option.

Long story short, they were right that Adam Epstein is NOT a particularly good narrator, especially his atrocious Australian and Chinese accents and mispronouncing of words like Taoist (he read it as “T” rather than “D”) or ASEAN (he read it as “A-Shawn” instead of “As-ee-an”), which suggests he doesn’t listen to financial news at all. Surprisingly, I thought he soldiered through the technical parts fairly well, though they inevitably sounded like a textbook at times. However, I decided to forgive this since I am getting Greg Egan’s audiobooks for just $1.99 each. ...more

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Sep 05, 2019 Hank rated it really liked it

My head still hurts from reading this one, is it my head or one of my eigenstates' head?
A book that takes the idea of each individual choice creating a separate path or separate you to an extreme AND tries to define it mathematically.

Egan is sort of like PKD with a Physics degree, there is an incredible amount of interesting commentary packed into this, less than 300 page, book from bio mods changing who you are, but who cares because it is the same as drinking a cup of coffe ...more

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Jan 25, 2015 David rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-fiction, mystery, book-club

The story revolves around the concept of the "observer effect" in quantum physics (the idea that what occurs in the world is based on multiple possible variants each of which exists simultaneously until some sort of "observation" causes a single version to become the only reality).

Readers who can experience the bizarre consequences of Egan's interpretation of quantum physics as magic - and can flow with the magic making its rules as it goes along - will find a unique and incredible l ...more

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Feb 17, 2018 Roy rated it really liked it

I remember reading this while I was in high school and it blowing my mind. I didnt understand some of it. Might be inetersting to re read to see what my older self thinks.

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Jul 01, 2011 Jason rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2011

4 Stars

I am giving the overall of this book 4 stars only because Egan is not afraid to write hard science fiction. This is my second Egan novel that I have read, Clockwork Rocket (a book that I loved) being the first. Greg Egan is not afraid to use fiction to explore real science, physics, quantum mechanics, and deep philosophy.

This book Quarantine, a first in a trilogy is focused around quantum mechanics, specifically around a measurement known as Schroedinger’s Cat. “ 4 Stars

I am giving the overall of this book 4 stars only because Egan is not afraid to write hard science fiction. This is my second Egan novel that I have read, Clockwork Rocket (a book that I loved) being the first. Greg Egan is not afraid to use fiction to explore real science, physics, quantum mechanics, and deep philosophy.

This book Quarantine, a first in a trilogy is focused around quantum mechanics, specifically around a measurement known as Schroedinger’s Cat. “Quantum mechanics describes microscopic systems—subatomic particles, atoms, molecules—with a mathematical formalism called wave function. From the wave function, you can predict the probabilities of getting various results when you make measurements on the system.” The multiverse theory has a strong basis around this, around the fact that for every observation made by man, a new universe is created. All outcomes are realized. This is fascinating stuff that is right up my alley.

This book centers on our protagonist Nick Stavrianos, a private eye that is hired to find a girl that has gone missing from a high security hospital facility. The catch is, the girl Laura is a vegetable, non-responsive, and immobile. Did she get kidnapped? Did she somehow escape? Is there wrong doing? This mystery is the plot that is used to explore eigenstates, smearing, collapsing, observations, and finally genocide. Much of this book is philosophical as well as scientific as Nick comes to understand his role in the universe, the power of which he himself as an observer wields, and ultimately the perpetrator of cosmological scaled genocide.

I ate up the philosophy, gave myself mass headaches as I tried to wrap my beliefs around this freaking cool concept, and eagerly read on to find out more that will mess with my head. Egan does not hold back, nor does he dumb down any of his concepts to make them more accessible…Bravo! Even if you do not buy into these theories, this science, or their morale’s, you cannot help being totally impressed by the implications that Egan pens in this book.
The weakness of this book is the story as a whole. Although the plot works as a private eye type science fiction novel, and Nick is a decent protagonist, this book ends up being incomplete. It ends when the main threads are just being brought to a head. Questions are not answered. Plot lines are not completed, and we are left feeling like we were cheated. Move on to book two or get no satisfaction out of this one. In today’s market where everyone writes trilogies, this really makes me mad.

I am a huge fan of Greg Egan now, and totally recommend him to all that love really hard science fiction novels. Be prepared, much of his writing may leave you needing to get a pen and paper out to try and follow his writing just like you did back in physics class. Physics, Mathematics, and life’s big philosophical questions are all explored here. I loved the science, I liked the detective mystery, but I hated the way it ended.

...more

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Dec 28, 2013 Roddy Williams rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, hard-sf, elder-race, human-quarantine

At the very hard edge of hard sf's furthest boundary is Greg Egan. One could describe Egan as one who writes fiction for scientists to read. This should not deter anyone else from reading his work though.
The premise here is that (as in Robert Charles Wilson's 'Spin') an impenetrable barrier has been thrown around the Solar System, blotting out the stars.
Nik Stavrianos is an ex-cop private detective in a near future Australia where many residents have been gene-sequenced to produce me ...more

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Sep 10, 2011 Michael rated it liked it

If you really like quantum mechanics and philosophizing on all of the strange reality that it entails, then you'll love this book. Otherwise, it's basically a mind f---. The ideas explored here aren't novel, but they are taken to such an extreme that it's hard to enjoy the book as a story instead of a thought experiment. And a challenging one at that - even with quite a bit of qm theory under my belt, I still ended up re-reading pages to make sure I kept everything straight. As a result, I only ...more

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Nov 28, 2010 neko cam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, owned

As good sci-fi should, 'Quarantine' takes an existing area of scientific study, asks the reader to accept a key concession, and turns the dial up to 11. In this instance, the area of study is the observer effect in quantum physics and the concession is that the collapsing of a quantum wave function is a process that is triggered specifically in the brain of the observer. From there it explores all kinds of nuanced philosophical implications, which I won't detail for fear of spoiling the fun. ...more

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Dec 14, 2015 Ami Iida rated it really liked it

Shelves: scifi

There are three themes in the novel , it is so called
Dyson sphere , quantum mechanics and nanotechnology.
At the beginning of it the descriptions are drawing
strongly and high technology is written in detail. (less)
Jan 05, 2016 12:57PM · delete
40590836 Ami Iida " Schrödinger's cat" appears in it.
If human being discovered quantum mechanism ,
we could not prosper consumer electronics products computer and ICT.

But at the end of story is boring..................

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Mar 22, 2014 Alexandra rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2014

I think - in all my vast understanding of the world - that one of the things that really sets Greg Egan apart is his willingness to drive real physics to its ruthless end.

This is not to say anything against his plots or his characters. On the contrary, I think Egan does utterly absorbing plots and some remarkable characters. But so do other SF writers. There are few others, though, who combine this with a determination to take real-world physics and drive them a long, long way.

Quarantine is a ...more

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Feb 14, 2017 Jennifer rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

I picked this up because I was drawn in by the private investigator/missing persons description, which the book definitely started with. Ironically, I had trouble concentrating on this book until it ended up taking a screeching turn away from a PI storyline and turned into a mindf*ck of a speculative science fiction novel; then, I was intrigued and reeled in until the end of this short "big idea" book.

It's incredibly difficult to describe what this books is about, but contrary to my experience ...more

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Mar 20, 2019 Richard S rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy-horror

I remember in college I took an honors physics course and we did the double slit experiment with a laser. I still remember my astonishment as reality no longer fit the reality I was accustomed too. The results of the experiment were absurd, and very disconcerting, like watching a magic trick and being told it wasn't magic, and in fact, it wasn't magic. This unsettling moment led to a long-time fascination with quantum mechanics and things like spooky action at a distance, things that even Einste I remember in college I took an honors physics course and we did the double slit experiment with a laser. I still remember my astonishment as reality no longer fit the reality I was accustomed too. The results of the experiment were absurd, and very disconcerting, like watching a magic trick and being told it wasn't magic, and in fact, it wasn't magic. This unsettling moment led to a long-time fascination with quantum mechanics and things like spooky action at a distance, things that even Einstein didn't believe could be true.

Quarantine takes on the most popular (although slipping from fashion, it still "describes" the experience of the viewer best) interpretation - the Copenhagen interpretation - of the "Schrodinger's cat" phenomenon, where the fact of the observation is what resolves all of the possible states, and, using it as a theme, creates one of those fascinating sci-fi books that one comes across too rarely, one that creates an entire world really out of just that one idea (with a supporting cast of more traditional sci-fi themes).

The book does not start out that promising, it's like a poor man's Altered Carbon, and it has a kind of ridiculous thing called The Bubble which seems irrelevant to the story. The writing is exceptionally clear, but the style not all that interesting. This is from the start "hard" science fiction, without even the obligatory sex and violence, although certainly the opportunities arise. Once however, it starts focusing on its main theme, the book moves from mildly interesting to real masterpiece material, as the depth of the concept is taken to its ultimate extreme. It becomes the most interesting sci-fi I've read in ages and raises very important philosophical questions about the nature of reality. I know they've taken spooky action experiments to ridiculous extremes - this is the sci-fi equivalent, take an idea and take it to its utter conclusion. It's fantastic stuff. It becomes so complicated as to be almost unreadable, but that is the nature of its subject matter, and Egan doesn't shy away from anything.

Strongest, very strongest recommendation to sci-fi fans but especially those who prefer hard sci-fi like "The Forever War" over the fuzzy stuff like "Childhood's End". Also those of a philosophical bent, or those who have also puzzled over the absurdities of quantum mechanics. I don't rate my science books on Goodreads, but I have a book on quantum mechanics which is the most difficult text I've ever come across. Reality is best expressed as "fields" and probabilities, and our interactions as a way of "resolving" those fields. What does that mean, ultimately? This book gets 5 stars for taking on the challenge. Thanks also to BlackOxford, I pulled this book from his 5 star list (and after reading his review).

...more

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Dec 30, 2016 Ralph rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

3.5 out of 5 -- Futuristic hard Sci-Fi with a great premise and so-so characters.

Warning: Not treadmill safe. Listening to or reading this book while on a treadmill could lead to injury when the reader gets totally immersed in the ideas presented and stops to ponder them. You have been warned.

After enjoying the Nexus series, a friend thought that I would enjoy Quarantine and other works by Greg Egan. I can't say that I was disappointed, but I wasn't as bowled over as I thought that I mi 3.5 out of 5 -- Futuristic hard Sci-Fi with a great premise and so-so characters.

Warning: Not treadmill safe. Listening to or reading this book while on a treadmill could lead to injury when the reader gets totally immersed in the ideas presented and stops to ponder them. You have been warned.

After enjoying the Nexus series, a friend thought that I would enjoy Quarantine and other works by Greg Egan. I can't say that I was disappointed, but I wasn't as bowled over as I thought that I might be. It was an enjoyable book filled with many thought-provoking ideas and Mr. Egan's Permutation City and Diaspora are in my queue for 2017.

The novel encompasses three big concepts (the stars suddenly disappearing from view, brain augmentation by nano-technology, and quantum wave function collapse), ANY of which could be expanded into a volume by itself. The author does an admirable job describing the physics that may be in play and one can't help but to walk away having learned something new. However, the breadth of the novel and the science and mathematics that form its foundation raises two problems for me.

The first problem is that there is so many thought-provoking passages that this is not a book that I can casually read. The science and technology aren't an obstacle, but it is better suited to slowly reading and digesting. This is where dividing the book into multiple volumes (like Ramez Naam's Nexus and William Hertling's Singularity series) would have been advantageous to me.

Which leads me to the second issue, superficial characters. Because there is so much technical matter to cover, it doesn't leave a lot of room for plot or character development. There certainly is a plot, a good one, and the book get off to a strong start, but begins to lose steam towards the end.

Since there wasn't time to get invested in the characters to any great degree, this turned out to be, for me, more of a thought experiment rather than a novel. When I tackle the next Egan books, I will do so more deliberately.

I did enjoy how whenever the protagonist activated a new brain mod, he stated, for no apparent reason, the name of the mod as well as the price in dollars. In 2064 Australian dollars, I presume. Nice touch. ...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Alan Zendell rated it liked it

As always, Greg Egan's writing is excellent. I find, though, that I'm having difficulty with some of his story content. The concept of Quarantine is uniquely clever. I can't fault that at all. And the tag line for the book, "A Novel of Quantum Catastrophe" is as accurate as any I've ever seen.

I found Quarantine a lot easier going the The Clockwork Rocket, in which Egan invented his own version of physics. (Had I read his blog, or had I read the Afterward before the story, I'd have known that and not wasted a l ...more

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Jan 11, 2015 Tom Duff rated it liked it

Quarantine
Greg Egan

I was hoping for something a bit more when I decided to read Quarantine by Greg Egan. The concept was excellent, and it started off well. But in the end, it descended into technical explanations that ruined the story for me. Those who are less into story and more into "thinking" might love it, however.

The basics of the story work for me. In the future, you can download yo ...more

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Feb 15, 2017 Myka Dubay rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

The pace of Quarantine was such that I burned through it in no time. The reveals of various threads set up in the beginning were marvelously delightful; while I had to set the book down and think through a couple of sections, I had few problems following the train of thought Egan set out for the premise of this story. It's a fascinating concept I won't delve into as the natural discovery it through the plot is part of the magic.

There are a lot of other 'what makes the self the self' concepts to ...more

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Feb 09, 2018 Ian Casey rated it liked it · review of another edition

It's a pleasure to read a book by a local author that's capable of competing on the world stage ('local' being Perth, Western Australia). And whilst Greg Egan's Quarantine doesn't shove the western and northern Australian setting down one's throat, there are some nice moments of local flavour.

At first glance, one thinks they're reading a detective story with a near-future setting, and starts to envisage comparisons with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Altered Carbon or Leviatha ...more

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Mar 09, 2017 Tomislav rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

This is Australian writer Greg Egan's first science fiction novel. It starts as a mystery set in the late 21st century where a widower retired-cop-turned-private-investigator Nick Stavrianos is hired to locate a missing mental patient. Egan packs a lot into his vision of a future Australia, including purchasable brain mods, a runaway ozone hole, a global religious/terrorist movement, and a huge bubble artifact that seals off the Solar System from the rest of the universe. He doesn't just stick t ...more

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Dec 14, 2015 Daniel Smith rated it liked it

Quarantine, by Greg Egan, is a sci-fi story that is based on the idea that the sun has been covered up. The world has advanced by the time the book takes place (2040s), and people now have mods and technology that can be put into their bodies. One of the people who owns many of these mods, Nick Stavrianos, is given a job by an anonymous client: find a mentally ill woman named Laura. Laura had escaped from a high security hospital by walking through a wall. His search for Laura takes him around t ...more

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Apr 26, 2014 Nils rated it it was ok

I kept wanting to like this book, but just couldn't.

The author had one Big Idea (one you would expect from a stoned freshman physics major) and tried to build a book around it. Most of what he used to fill out the book was fairly standard cyberpunk (although, to be fair, it was probably less standard when he wrote the book). There was a lot of text attempting to put some meat on the bare bones idea, but it felt more like filler.

Neil Stephenson attacked the same Big Idea in Anathem. ...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Joel Howard rated it it was amazing

True science fiction: looking at physics as we understand it (or as it was understood at the time), tweaking one variable (in this case, the quantum 'observer effect') and following the result to its possible outcomes.

Greg Egan does a great job of facing the consequences of his theses head-on - his characters' actions are believable, given their bizarre circumstances, and he doesn't let narrative convenience trump the (not realistic, but consistent) rules of his world.

As ...more

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Mar 18, 2017 Avi Singh rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

Lots of cool ideas, a nice exploration of the existential ramification of Quantum Mechanics, and fair amount of exposition for a lay reader to follow. The primary hypothesis assumed to be true in the novel is probably nonsense, but it makes for some interesting consequences. Perhaps not the greatest plot, and I am yet to make sense of the ending, but those are minor points.

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Nov 29, 2015 Mr Duck rated it really liked it

Very fun tale that has ideas of subjective cosmology intertwined within it, by which is meant, the observer / scientist thinking about the universe makes the universe come about.

This one has fun with the immortal physicist idea:
http://www.dailygrail.com/Fresh-Scien...

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Mar 20, 2018 Daniel Cohen rated it it was amazing

My brain hurts.

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Jun 23, 2014 Garren rated it really liked it

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About Greg Egan

Greg Egan

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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 ti ...more