Greg Egan
Greg Egan | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Writer, former Programmer |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Period | 1990s-present |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Website | |
| http://www.gregegan.net | |
Greg Egan (born 20 August 1961) is an Australian science fiction author.
Egan specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness. Other themes include genetics, simulated reality, posthumanism, mind uploading, sexuality, artificial intelligence, and the superiority of rational naturalism over religion. He is a Hugo Award winner (with eight other works shortlisted for the Hugos[1]), and has also won the John W Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel. His early stories feature strong elements of supernatural horror, while due to his more popular science fiction he is known for his tendency to deal with complex technical material, like inventive new physics and epistemology, in an unapologetically thorough manner.
Egan's short stories have been published in a variety of genre magazines, including regular appearances in Interzone and Asimov's Science Fiction.
Egan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Western Australia, and currently lives in Perth. He has recently been active on the issue of refugees' mandatory detention in Australia.[2] Egan is a vegetarian.[3]
Egan is a famously reclusive author when it comes to public appearances; he does not attend science fiction conventions,[4] does not sign books and there are no photos of him available on the web.[5]
Works
Novels
The Subjective Cosmology Cycle
- Quarantine (1992), ISBN 0-7126-9870-1
- Permutation City (1994), ISBN 1-85798-174-X
- Distress (1995), ISBN 1-85798-286-X
Others
- An Unusual Angle (1983), ISBN 0-909106-12-6 (not science fiction)
- Diaspora (1997), ISBN 1-85798-438-2
- Teranesia (1999), ISBN 0-575-06854-X
- Schild's Ladder (2002), ISBN 0-575-07068-4
- Incandescence (2008), ISBN 1597801283
- Zendegi (2010), ISBN 978-1597801744
- Orthogonal (late 2011 or early 2012)
Collections
- Axiomatic (1995), ISBN 1-85798-281-9
- Our Lady of Chernobyl (1995), ISBN 0-646-23230-4
- Luminous (1998), ISBN 1-85798-551-6
- Dark Integers and Other Stories (2008), ISBN 978-1596061552
- Crystal Nights and Other Stories (2009), ISBN 978-1596062405
- Oceanic (2009), ISBN 978-0575086524
Short stories
Stories collected in Axiomatic
- The Infinite Assassin
- The Hundred Light-Year Diary
- Eugene
- The Caress
- Blood Sisters
- Axiomatic
- The Safe-Deposit Box
- Seeing
- A Kidnapping
- Learning to Be Me
- The Moat
- The Walk
- The Cutie
- Into Darkness
- Appropriate Love
- The Moral Virologist
- Closer
- Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies
Stories collected in Our Lady Of Chernobyl
- Chaff
- Beyond the Whistle Test
- Transition Dreams
- Our Lady of Chernobyl
Stories collected in Luminous
- Chaff
- Mitochondrial Eve
- Luminous
- Mister Volition
- Cocoon
- Transition Dreams
- Silver Fire
- Reasons to Be Cheerful
- Our Lady of Chernobyl
- The Planck Dive
Stories collected in Dark Integers and Other Stories
- Luminous
- Riding the Crocodile
- Dark Integers
- Glory
- Oceanic
Stories collected in Crystal Nights and Other Stories
- Lost Continent
- Crystal Nights
- Steve Fever
- TAP
- Induction
- Singleton[6]
- Oracle
- Border Guards
- Hot Rock
Stories collected in Oceanic
- Lost Continent
- Dark Integers
- Crystal Nights
- Steve Fever
- Induction
- Singleton
- Oracle
- Border Guards
- Riding the Crocodile
- Glory
- Hot Rock
- Oceanic
Other stories
- Only Connect
- Yeyuka
- Worthless
- Mind Vampires
- Neighbourhood Watch
- Wang's Carpets[7]
- Reification Highway
- Dust[8][9]
- Before
- Fidelity
- The Demon's Passage
- In Numbers
- The Vat
- The Extra
- Beyond the Whistle Test
- Scatter My Ashes
- Tangled Up
- The Way She Smiles, The Things She Says
- Artifact
Academic Papers
- An Efficient Algorithm for the Riemannian 10j Symbols by Dan Christensen and Greg Egan
- Asymptotics of 10j Symbols by John Baez, Dan Christensen and Greg Egan
Awards
- Permutation City: John W. Campbell Memorial Award (1995)
- Oceanic: Hugo Award, Locus Award, Asimov's Readers Award (1998)
Egan is a multiple Seiun Award winner.
Egan was nominated for the 2000 Ditmar Award for best novel with Teranesia. He declined the award.
Usenet Newsgroups
Egan occasionally contributes posts to a variety of (mostly scientific and/or technical) Usenet newsgroups, using his own name. From December 1994 to September 1999 he contributed regularly to the group rec.arts.sf.written, where he engaged in dialogue with his readers about his work, and science fiction in general.
Footnotes
- ^ The Locus Index to SF Awards
- ^ Commentary on the issue of mandatory detention in The Age newspaper
- ^ Iran Trip Diary
- ^ Interviews
- ^ Photos of Greg Egan, science fiction writer
- ^ Singleton introduced the concept of the Qusp, which was later used in the novel Schild's Ladder.
- ^ Wang refers to the mathematician Hao Wang – the carpets are living embodiments of Wang tiles. This story, minorly reworked, became a section of the novel Diaspora.
- ^ Dust was incorporated into the novel Permutation City as the first few chapters in one narrative thread.
- ^ Event symmetry note on Egan's Dust Theory
