Scan barcode
breenmachine's review against another edition
5.0
Weird and dark. All the stories kept me drawn in and I love how scientific the writing style is. My favorites: Blood Sisters, The Safe-Deposit Box, Seeing, Learning to Be Me, and Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies (#1 fav). I'm amazed at how different the experience is when reading a good book of short stories vs regular length book. It forces me to slow down and read with more space, which I really enjoy. Highly recommend.
*I realized I don't give enough 5 stars because I save the 5 for some illusive "favorites" that I hardly ever find.. so here is it giving more 5s if the book deserves it! :)
*I realized I don't give enough 5 stars because I save the 5 for some illusive "favorites" that I hardly ever find.. so here is it giving more 5s if the book deserves it! :)
_lunaria_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
stef5's review against another edition
4.5
The standout stories are: The Infinite Assassin, Axiomatic, A Kidnapping, Learning to be me, Into Darkness, Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies. The best story was "The Hundred LIght-Year Diary". I've never felt so much dread by reading a piece of literature. This story also changed the way I look at life and, hopefully, how I behave. This story is definitely worth 5 stars.
In general, all the stories are good and very thought provoking. They remind me of Ted Chiang, but they are generally more complex (for one of them I had to dust off my calculus book). This isn't that much of a problem; it encourages to ruminate more on the content, in order to extract the core ideas behind all this stories.
In general, all the stories are good and very thought provoking. They remind me of Ted Chiang, but they are generally more complex (for one of them I had to dust off my calculus book). This isn't that much of a problem; it encourages to ruminate more on the content, in order to extract the core ideas behind all this stories.
coryhess's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing collection. The Safe-Deposit Box in particular is mind blowing.
zazen's review against another edition
5.0
Some excellent philosophical sci-fi here. Egan uses the medium to explore what it means to be human, what makes you *you*, what is the nature of reality... all in the context of really awesome, perspective changing ideas about mankind's future. I've seen Egan compared with Ted Chiang, and I think that's pretty fair. The ideas they explore are similar, and both use ideas that are bizarre, heavy, sometimes dark and depressing, but always compelling and brilliant. Egan and Chiang are masters of the sci-fi short story and deserve a place alongside the classics.
leic01's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy and Medical content
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Gun violence
vishwesh's review against another edition
4.0
All the stories are good but
for me The Infinite Assassin is the winner
for me The Infinite Assassin is the winner
anahhs's review against another edition
4.0
As any collection of stories, there were some i enjoyed and others that weren't my cup of tea! More of the former than of the latter tho!
My favorites were defintely Caress, Blood Sisters, The Safe-Deposit Box,and The Walk! The first because it was just so absolutely unsettling from beginning to end!!!! The second due to its topic and how it was handled, i'm always up for a good destroying capitalism and exposing sick money hungry bastards read, i really enjoyed the commentary the story conveyed. LOOOOVED the whole concept of the safe-deposit box and ten thousand times more how it finishes, i was overcome with a vast array of mixed emotions: the origin of it all was, obviously, sick and twisted and, at the same time, the very present life of the character was, in a sick and twisted way in itself... a... wholesome, rich experience? i'd probably think differently if /i/ was in the character's position but reading about his daily life was extremely interesting, i thoroughly enjoyed this short story! THE WALK WAS JUST FREAKING BRILLIANT, MAN. I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT, HOW IT UNFOLDED, ABSOLUTELY CHEF'S KISS!!!!
I absolutely DESPISED The Moral Virologist's main character SO MUCH i couldn't enjoy the story! it's objectively a very interesting concept to explore and a thought-provoking story- i was just too enraged by this dude's mentality to properly appreciate the story lmao
Honorable mentions are The Hundred-Light-Year-Diary, Axiomatic, A Kidnapping, Appropriate Love, Closer and Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies. Okay, i know i, almost, basically, just mentioned the rest of the collection lmao it's a good collection of short sci-fi stories, what can i say!! Although they are not my favorites, i still really enjoyed each concept a lot! Appropriate Love was weird in the best, unsettling, understanding? way? REALLY ENJOYED Closer moreso due to how it ended than anything else. If it had ended any differently i, probably, wouldn't have liked it; very interesting way to try and understand each other, most likely, a bit too much understanding lmao very good disclose! I, typically, do not enjoy stories that entertain the religion topic but Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies is the extent i enjoy reading about it! Just critical enough for me to not feel either absolutely enraged or absolutely bored by organized religions or worse, both! Really liked how the concept was handled!
All in all, pretty good selection of short stories. I had a fun time reading them!
My favorites were defintely Caress, Blood Sisters, The Safe-Deposit Box,and The Walk! The first because it was just so absolutely unsettling from beginning to end!!!! The second due to its topic and how it was handled, i'm always up for a good destroying capitalism and exposing sick money hungry bastards read, i really enjoyed the commentary the story conveyed. LOOOOVED the whole concept of the safe-deposit box and ten thousand times more how it finishes, i was overcome with a vast array of mixed emotions: the origin of it all was, obviously, sick and twisted and, at the same time, the very present life of the character was, in a sick and twisted way in itself... a... wholesome, rich experience? i'd probably think differently if /i/ was in the character's position but reading about his daily life was extremely interesting, i thoroughly enjoyed this short story! THE WALK WAS JUST FREAKING BRILLIANT, MAN. I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT, HOW IT UNFOLDED, ABSOLUTELY CHEF'S KISS!!!!
I absolutely DESPISED The Moral Virologist's main character SO MUCH i couldn't enjoy the story! it's objectively a very interesting concept to explore and a thought-provoking story- i was just too enraged by this dude's mentality to properly appreciate the story lmao
Honorable mentions are The Hundred-Light-Year-Diary, Axiomatic, A Kidnapping, Appropriate Love, Closer and Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies. Okay, i know i, almost, basically, just mentioned the rest of the collection lmao it's a good collection of short sci-fi stories, what can i say!! Although they are not my favorites, i still really enjoyed each concept a lot! Appropriate Love was weird in the best, unsettling, understanding? way? REALLY ENJOYED Closer moreso due to how it ended than anything else. If it had ended any differently i, probably, wouldn't have liked it; very interesting way to try and understand each other, most likely, a bit too much understanding lmao very good disclose! I, typically, do not enjoy stories that entertain the religion topic but Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies is the extent i enjoy reading about it! Just critical enough for me to not feel either absolutely enraged or absolutely bored by organized religions or worse, both! Really liked how the concept was handled!
All in all, pretty good selection of short stories. I had a fun time reading them!
jvendrell's review against another edition
4.0
Greg Egan és sense cap mena de dubte el meu escritor de ciència ficció preferit de l'actualitat. Axiomático recopila els millors relats de l'autor.
ginnikin's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this one more than Luminous, which is good: otherwise, I'd be done with Egan.
Bonus points for using "meat puppet"!
Bonus points for using "meat puppet"!