Status Updates From Distress

Amazing so far. Will love to see what the twist is here.

going deeper into sci- part of sci fi

Greg Egan knows how to WOW! Not only does he introduce and explain some interesting and challenging ideas in Distress but then he writes the book in a way that has the characters and different scenes model these concepts, it’s staggering in its awesomeness. Distress has a positive and uplifting ending which is refreshing because I usually read cynical dark stuff.

It’s Greg Egan! Big ideas and concepts.

Need to progress the plot to comment

It’s written in the way of a creative author who’s been cooped up in a cabin doing drugs and really liking his own ideas (the ones you follow and somewhat understand are pretty cool), but forgetting if he has already spun the idea already and subsequently repeats them in slightly different varieties, over and over. Then he asks a friend to proofread before publishing it. I really wanted to like it but I can’t.

Anthrocosmology, a science with many TOEs.

March 23rd, 4:07PM
Junk DNA was over.
I left a note in the hall for Gina and walked up to Epping to get myself inoculated for the journey ahead. Scientists on Stateless broadcast local “weather reports”—both meteorological and epidemiological—into the net, and despite all the other bizarre acts of political ostracism, the relevant UN bodies treated this data just as if it had emerged from a sanctified member state.

"I'd tried caffeine a few times; it made me believe I was focused and energetic, but it turned my judgement to shit. Widespread use of caffeine explained a lot about the twentieth century."

Highest octane first chapter of a sci fi I've ever read, like pouring gasoline down my throat. I think it had more heavy content than a three-book series of most sci fi writers. Wow, but it's a bit much.

Avoid distractions, concentrate while reading. Lots of technology going on so far. But Egan is managing (so far) to keep it together in a coherent story. Some of the tech may sound familiar...this was written over 20 years ago. I made the mistake of "taking a break" from Distress and started reading "Waking Up" by Sam Harris. Not good. I believe smoke emanated from ears.

My brain is swirling, but I can't stop. I may have found a new favorite (only?) hardwriter.

Just realized this is #3 in a series. Dang, haven't read #1 and #2 yet. Still gonna go for it.

Dear Zeus this book is great but hard as hell to trudge through at times.

done

144

So far it has been wonderful, lots of cool concepts, believable sci fi, and fleshed out characters.

Very excited to read

Thought provoking stuff going on in this book.

This book has already got my attention. I am hating to put it down.
That's praise.

He really didn't like "Young Einstein," did he?

Promising so far.

Por ahora he visto algunos detalles interesantes.

'Afternoon sunlight slanted across the ward and brushed the side of my face, bridging distance, energy, scale, complexity. This was not a reason for terror. It was not a reason for awe. It was the most ordinary thing imaginable.'

'Muteba had his eccentricities, his three biographers concurred, with a leaning toward Nietzschean metaphysics, fringe cosmology, and dramatic conspiracy theories -- including the old one that "El Nido de Ladrones," the bioengineered haven built by drug runners on the Peruvian-Colombian border, had been H-bombed in 2035 not because the modified forest was out of control . . . [continued below]

'Freud had saddled Western culture with the bizarre notion that the least considered utterances were always, magically, the truest -- that reflection added nothing, and the ego merely censored or lied. It was an idea born more of convenience than anything else: he'd identified the part of the mind easiest to circumvent [. . .] and then declared the product of all that remained to be "honest." '

This book is why Egan is one of my favorite Sci-fi authors - when he's not writing about non-human entities as the main characters.

I'm hooked. Want to take the rest of the day off to keep reading this.