Status Updates From Axiomatic

A kidnapping (⭐⭐⭐) and Learning to be me (⭐⭐⭐⭐) both feature the thorny questions of sentience, consciousness and self that were such a joy in Permutation City.

Seeing: ⭐⭐⭐

The safe-deposit box: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Quantum leap meet metaphysics. Applied dust theory (q.v. Permutation City)

Axiomatic : ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Tight little techno-moral fable.

Blood Sisters: ⭐⭐

Story 's got too much crammed into it, it makes the arc and the pacing unbalanced.

The Caress: ⭐⭐⭐
Efficient and full of potential, but I am discovering that 90s Egan's capacity for an excellent premise overtakes his ability to drive it home, plot-wise.

Bit like Eugene in this respect. Still very effective, though

Eugene: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A very good set-up teeing off a surprising dénouement.

The Hundred-light-year Diary: 4 stars.
Also exploring looser conceit that wouldn't stand a longer format (though this one could yield several stories - maybe it will)?
Good Eganian collision of mundane realism and big sci-fi concepts. Very nice arc. Very tight. There's no fat on this text.

The Infinite Assassin: 3 stars. Competent, but the conceit means the form has to be short and the ending a bit meaningless. Tight opener.

This has to be one of the craziest books I’ve ever started. Have finished 2 stories so far and the second one had paragraphs where I had to read 10 times to understand what was going on.

I read the title story, and really enjoyed it. Then I read the first one in the book. It was good... until I got to page 10: there were tufts of ripped pages, and the next page was page 19 and the start of a different story!
Packed up to return to sender, so reading is now paused. Infuriating.

Los últimos cuentos estan subiendo muchísimo el nivel, y además cada vez que termino uno de ellos me quedo dándole vueltas un buen rato.

🤯 ¡Uf! Me encanta las ideas que propone Greg Egan en cada relato y las reflexiones que hacen los propios protagonistas durante el mismo relato. Estoy teniendo las mismas sensaciones que con "El zoo de papel" de Ken Liu, al terminar cada relato paro y me fascino y recreo con lo que he leído antes de empezar el siguiente. ¡Me encanta esta clase de ciencia ficción! 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

The cutie 3/5
A really gross idea but realistically would never happen because no one would want it. However, this made me imagine equally gross things that will likely be common in the future.

The Walk 1/5
Ending not clear at all.

"The Cutie" (classic!), "Into Darkness" (a sketch)

Learning to be me 5/5
This was a great concept and had a good structure to the story with twists and turns. Also is very thought provoking and brought up a lot of questions. This could easily be turned into a novel that tackles multiple issues.

A Kidnapping 3/5
About simulating people inside a computer and if a loved ones sim was kidnapped. Cool idea, but was kind of a boring read... again.

Seeing 2/5
Like a realistic disorder from an Oliver Sacks book. The story doesn’t really go anywhere though.

The Safe-Deposit box 4/5
An interesting idea about a mans consciousness waking up in a different body each day. Well executed. I liked the ending because by half way it was obvious what was going on but the author doesn’t insult your intelligence, he just hints at it.

"Learning to be me" -- awesome concept, "The moat" -- great concept that I would've loved seen developed further, "The walk" -- accomplished, self-contained story

Axiomatic 3/5
The concept is What if you could change your beliefs. Really interesting idea. But I felt it could’ve been explored further. I don’t think the story that was told with that concept really reached the potential of what it could’ve shown about our beliefs.

Blood sisters 2/5
Not really sci fi. Pretty predictable. Turned out to be a comment on corruption in big pharma. Average story set close to the present day.

The caress 3/5
A detective’s investigation with a biological twist. And what the super rich can buy.

Infinite assassin 1/5
So complicated it made no sense and was extremely boring to read. Gave up half way.

100 light year diary 5/5
Super interesting. News comes from the past and future.

Eugene I skipped

Closer 4/5
A guy wants to share the exact same experience as his wife. Funny but ultimately accurate conclusion

"A Kidnapping" a brief glimpse into a permutation-city-like world, accomplished in that

"Seeing" -- kind of missed the mindblow here

"The safe-deposit box", awesome!

"Blood Sisters" and "Axiomatic" -- ok to good

"Eugene" is good, but "The Caress" is excellent