[ExI] [Extropolis] Diaspora

[Anton Sherwood]

On 2021. Mar 24., Wed at 18:09, William Flynn Wallace wrote:
 > Just 'finished' this book by GReg Egan,  Content:  speculative fixed
 > point topology, speculative nuclear physics, multiple universes, etc.
 >
 > I estimate that I skipped about 85% of the book - a first for me.
 > Probably more like 90%
 >
 > Hard?  Nope - adamantine.  Way, way over my head.  Characters aren't
 > interesting either.  But I plugged away just to find out if I could
 > understand any of it.  Maybe 5%.

Heh, pretend the hard parts are Star Trek technobabble.  I have re-read 
«Diaspora» and found it good enough that I can point affectionately to 
its flaws.  Agree that few of the characters are well drawn.

I find it a bit odd, given the premises, that forking isn't used more. 
There's a scene where someone is piloting an ~aircraft and has an 
accident because ve briefly took vis attention elsewhere; why not spin 
off an alternate self for a brief purpose, and then re-merge?


On 2021-3-24 10:34, Giulio Prisco via extropy-chat wrote:
> Read it again, then again, and you’ll understand all. Great book. I love 
> all of Egan’s works until Zendegi (included), the latest works not so much.

«Zendegi» is about a bold experiment that fails for an interesting 
reason.  What other novels have such a plot?


-- 
*\\*  Anton Sherwood  *\\*  www.bendwavy.org