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machuu's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
darkmatter42's review against another edition
5.0
The last sentence of the book brought from 3 stars to be 5 stars.
This is the second book I read by Greg Egan, after reading Distress ages ago and purchasing most of his books up to now, but never having the time to dwell upon them.
While mostly reading hard sci-fi, I don't read much hard biology sci-fi. This is simply because I prefer my hard to be physics. However, in spite of that, the book did not fail me.
What made me finally approach to this book specifically, rather than Permutation City, Diaspora or many of his other books that await me on my bookshelves, is that I wanted to read hist almost first novel, and see how he treated the gay character. Luckily, I wasn't disappointed.
This books is not for everyone. Even when I'm not a biologist, the science in the book didn't scare me away, however I was also not drawn into it, unlike it would've been with physics. I ended up caring more about the mystery and the characters. That, until a glimpse into physics occurred, and I was finally able to fully enjoy the book.
This is the second book I read by Greg Egan, after reading Distress ages ago and purchasing most of his books up to now, but never having the time to dwell upon them.
While mostly reading hard sci-fi, I don't read much hard biology sci-fi. This is simply because I prefer my hard to be physics. However, in spite of that, the book did not fail me.
What made me finally approach to this book specifically, rather than Permutation City, Diaspora or many of his other books that await me on my bookshelves, is that I wanted to read hist almost first novel, and see how he treated the gay character. Luckily, I wasn't disappointed.
This books is not for everyone. Even when I'm not a biologist, the science in the book didn't scare me away, however I was also not drawn into it, unlike it would've been with physics. I ended up caring more about the mystery and the characters. That, until a glimpse into physics occurred, and I was finally able to fully enjoy the book.
extragravy's review against another edition
3.0
This book has Egan exploring biology instead of physics, space and noncorporeal digital entities:
everyone in this book is flesh based. The characters are a bit more developed than normal for Egan and that is nice. There are still big ideas being played with here, maybe not as big as he usually juggles but big nonetheless.
Recommended, if you like Egan or specifically want to swim in wild biological science for awhile.
everyone in this book is flesh based. The characters are a bit more developed than normal for Egan and that is nice. There are still big ideas being played with here, maybe not as big as he usually juggles but big nonetheless.
Recommended, if you like Egan or specifically want to swim in wild biological science for awhile.
nwhyte's review
http://nhw.livejournal.com/1069410.html[return][return]This is basically the book I wished that Darwin's Radio, by Egan's near namesake Greg Bear, was going to be. The central idea is the same: peculiar mutations are occurring which will not only upset evolutionary biology but also perhaps imperil the future of humanity. However Egan ties his viewpoint character into a disturbing but believable family background with consequent psychoses, and the politics and biology all seemed considerably more credible. It is set in a part of the world I don't know at all - the South Moluccas, in the near future; with excursions to the gay/academic scene in Toronto - but all very vivid and believable. I'm not surprised that this won prizes, if anything I'm surprised it didn't win more.
aaaaaaaaalyssa's review against another edition
1.0
Ugh! I've really enjoyed Greg Egan before but his patronizing caricatures of humanities academics in this book really pissed me off. I kept reading because I was enjoying the plot and characters, but I was ultimately disappointed by both. The ending might have made sense to someone with an advanced biology degree... but I got the feeling that it also might not have. I was with it about half way through the book, but at some point it lost me.
(And no, I'm not an insulted Derridean.... I just expect thinking authors to be open to multiple different ways of thinking about the world!)
(And no, I'm not an insulted Derridean.... I just expect thinking authors to be open to multiple different ways of thinking about the world!)
thorn_shrike's review against another edition
3.0
Probably the weakest Greg Egan book I've read. It has some beautiful parts (the main character dealing with his guilt and grief) and a very clever hard SF puzzle, but it's also trying to moonlight as a very unsubtle critique of post-modernism.
smcleish's review
3.0
Originally published on my blog here in December 2002.
This novel cunningly avoids two clichés of the science fiction genre, something that in itself makes Teranesia an interesting read for aficionados. The first, one which has tended the ghettoisation of science fiction as a genre considered suitable only for adolescents, is the coming of age story of a precocious teenager. Central character Prabir Suresh is certainly precocious, but his adolescent years are omitted - in part one he is not yet a teenager, and in part two and the rest of the novel he is in his twenties. The second cliché is the science fiction novel which is more interested in ideas than people, something which is a problem with other Egan novels. Prabir is an interesting central character not just because a homosexual non-Caucasian hero is unusual in genre fiction, and his personality is made more central than the idea. (This is why it takes almost the whole novel for it to become clear just what its main idea actually is.)
In part one, Prabir is a nine year old child, living on an otherwise deserted Indonesian island with his biologist parents and baby sister; his parents are there to investigate some strange mutations in the butterflies of the region. Political instability becomes civil war, and armed men kill the adults; the children are able to escape and end up in Canada with their aunt (made a figure of fun by Egan for her post-modern relativist ideas). In part two, about fifteen years later, Prabir has a strong emotional reaction when his sister (now a student) wants to join an expedition to that part of Indonesia, where abnormalities are beginning to be observed in a wider range of animals.
The biggest problem that Teranesia has is its ending - which it is not really possible to discuss without giving it away (so you are warned!). Things seem to be heading towards a bleak finish rather similar to Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, when a frankly unconvincing happy ending is suddenly contrived. It undermines the whole novel, leaving the reader unsatisfied. Up until the last ten pages, Teranesia is a most enjoyable read, better than most genre novels.
This novel cunningly avoids two clichés of the science fiction genre, something that in itself makes Teranesia an interesting read for aficionados. The first, one which has tended the ghettoisation of science fiction as a genre considered suitable only for adolescents, is the coming of age story of a precocious teenager. Central character Prabir Suresh is certainly precocious, but his adolescent years are omitted - in part one he is not yet a teenager, and in part two and the rest of the novel he is in his twenties. The second cliché is the science fiction novel which is more interested in ideas than people, something which is a problem with other Egan novels. Prabir is an interesting central character not just because a homosexual non-Caucasian hero is unusual in genre fiction, and his personality is made more central than the idea. (This is why it takes almost the whole novel for it to become clear just what its main idea actually is.)
In part one, Prabir is a nine year old child, living on an otherwise deserted Indonesian island with his biologist parents and baby sister; his parents are there to investigate some strange mutations in the butterflies of the region. Political instability becomes civil war, and armed men kill the adults; the children are able to escape and end up in Canada with their aunt (made a figure of fun by Egan for her post-modern relativist ideas). In part two, about fifteen years later, Prabir has a strong emotional reaction when his sister (now a student) wants to join an expedition to that part of Indonesia, where abnormalities are beginning to be observed in a wider range of animals.