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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Enjoyable, thoughtful exploration of the existential dread of being able to upload your consciousness to a computer. What does it mean to copy your soul? To run that copy slower than real time, or faster? What happens to society? It's a great theme and Egan has a very thoughtful treatment of it.
The part of the book that didn't work for me was the somewhat mystical explanation for a transcendetal computer, a machine with effectively infinite computing power. I'm OK just accepting that device to let the rest of the story be told, but he spends a lot of pages and character on trying to explain how it comes to be. And it just made no sense to me, I never did understand it. Maybe that's me.
Reasonably good characters, although the first 100 pages I was having a hard time keeping them straight. Good plotting and narrative structure. Overall quite an enjoyable book.
The part of the book that didn't work for me was the somewhat mystical explanation for a transcendetal computer, a machine with effectively infinite computing power. I'm OK just accepting that device to let the rest of the story be told, but he spends a lot of pages and character on trying to explain how it comes to be. And it just made no sense to me, I never did understand it. Maybe that's me.
Reasonably good characters, although the first 100 pages I was having a hard time keeping them straight. Good plotting and narrative structure. Overall quite an enjoyable book.
100 pages in and im moving on. Maybe ill come back to it someday or maybe try another Egan.
Spent most of my Christmas Eve (and a bit of Christmas Day) re-reading this. Still the best sci-fi novel in the known universe.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Lots of very interesting, crazy ideas, but a little clunky in the implementation. Enjoyable stuff though.
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
My wife asked me to describe this book, and the best I could come up with was, "computational philosophy". It's not often you encounter a sci-fi book that seriously asks you to consider the nature of truth, reality, existence, consciousness, and the roots of physics, but this one does.
Strongly suggested if you like philosophy and smart sci-fi.
Strongly suggested if you like philosophy and smart sci-fi.