Status Updates From Axiomatic

Axiomatic 4.5/5

Blood Sisters 3.7/5

Eugene 4.5/5

The Caress 4.8/5

Sick story

The Hundred-Light-Year Diary 4.6

The Infinite Assassin 4.3/5

Sólo llevo dos relatos, pero menudos relatos. 🤯

Review (with spoilers) of the first story, blended with Ayn Rand, because I don't do things straightforwardly:
https://loopingworld.com/2024/07/20/g...

Short stories instead of a novel, all with Mathematics and quantum mechanics storylines which melt jnto the background of the tales

You read the first story and you think: "ok, the editor chose one of the best stories to put first to pique the reader's interest."
You expect the second one to be a good one, but not as good as the first.
Then you read the second story and you stop making assumptions. This is no ordinary collection; it's extraordinary.

So far I’ve read Learning To Be Me and Eugene. I really enjoy Egan’s writing style, I haven’t had this much fun with an anthology since reading Ted Chiang!

good

So the first chapter is really good. The idea is refreshing and new

New Favorite???

Finally, a male author who understands the kind of strain a... pregnancy-like thing can have on a body. The story 'Appropriate Love' might be my favorite so far.

'Tell some people you’re a pacifist, and in ten seconds flat they’ll invent a situation in which millions of people will die in unspeakable agony, and all your loved ones will be raped and tortured, if you don’t blow someone’s brains out. (There’s always a contrived reason why you can’t merely wound the omnipotent, genocidal madman.)'

How did I end up here, with having to finish this by book club tomorrow? And the way the science is written is already hurting my ADHD brain :/

Impressionnant !

The Moral Virologist: 5 ⭐️
Closer: 5 ⭐️
Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies: 4 ⭐️

Into Darkness: 4 ⭐️
Appropriate Love: 4.5 ⭐️

The Walk: 4 ⭐️
The Cutie: 4.5 ⭐️

Learning to Be Me: 5 ⭐️
The Moat: 5 ⭐️

Seeing: 4 ⭐️
A Kidnapping: 5 ⭐️

Axiomatic: 5 ⭐️
The Safe-Deposit Box: 5 ⭐️

The Caress: 5 ⭐️
Blood Sisters: 5 ⭐️

Eugene: 5 ⭐️

The Infinite Assassin: 5 ⭐️
The Hundred-Light-Year Diary: 5 ⭐️

I feel like I need time to process what I just read. Egan is brilliant!

The cutie: clever conceit but bordering on the farcical. Good twist, though a bit predictable. Would be a four starter of a lesser author, but that's an Egan ⭐⭐⭐
Into Darkness: excellent hard conceit and twist. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Appropriate Love: Shudder worthy body horror by way of captialism, but also arguably bit written-by-a-man. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Moral Virologist. Solidly executed - great punchline⭐⭐⭐⭐

The walk: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - as above: use tech to come up with a conceit with metaphysical implications, put a character in a situation where they arise, resolve with a twist. Very well done, if a bit paint by numbers (but then it is early Egan....)

The Moat: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Very well executed, touches on the concept without dwelling too much on it, teases and intrigues.