The Nearest

The Nearest

Greg Egan

Science Fiction & Fantasy

When a detective, a new mother, is assigned to the case of a horrific triple murder, it appears to be a self-contained domestic tragedy, a terrible event but something that doesn't affect the rest of the community. But it slowly becomes clear that something much darker may be at play, something that spreads out from the scene of the crime to corrode the closest relationships of everyone it touches, in Greg Egan's The Nearest, a Tor.com Original.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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Diaspora

Diaspora

Greg Egan

Science Fiction & Fantasy

By the end of the 30th century humanity has the capability to travel the universe, to journey beyond earth and beyond the confines of the vulnerable human frame. The descendants of centuries of scientific, cultural and physical development divide into three: fleshers — true Homo sapiens; Gleisner robots — embodying human minds within machines that interact with the physical world; and polises — supercomputers teeming with intelligent software, containing the direct copies of billions of human personalities now existing only in the virtual reality of the polis. Diaspora is the story of Yatima — a polis being created from random mutations of the Konishi polis base mind seed — and of humankind, Of an astrophysical accident that spurs the thousandfold cloning of the polises. Of the discovery of an alien race and of a kink in time that means humanity — whatever form it takes — will never again be threatened by acts of God.
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Zeitgeber

Zeitgeber

Greg Egan

Science Fiction & Fantasy

From the award-winning author Greg Egan comes a Tor.com Original sci-fi short story, "Zeitgeber"For millions of years, life on Earth has taken its cues from the rising and setting of the sun, and for most of human history we've followed the same rhythm. But if that shared connection was broken, and we each fell under the sway of our own private clock, could we still hold our lives together? One family is about to find out.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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Oceanic

Oceanic

Greg Egan

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Collected together here for the first time are twelve stories by the incomparable Greg Egan, one of the most exciting writers of science fiction working today. In these dozen glimpses into the future Egan continues to explore the essence of what it is to be human, and the nature of what - and who - we are, in stories that range from parables of contemporary human conflict and ambition to far-future tales of our immortal descendants. Return to the universe of the meta-civilisation known as the Amalgam, which Egan explored in his critically acclaimed novel Incandescence: 'Riding the Crocodile', which recounts an epic endeavour a million years from now to bridge the divide between the Amalgam and the reclusive Aloof; 'Glory', set in the same future, in which two archaeologists strive to decipher the artefacts of an ancient civilisation, and 'Hot Rock', where an obscure, sunless world conceals mind-spinning technological marvels, bitter factional struggles, and a many-layered secret history. This superb collection also includes the title story, the Hugo Award-winning 'Oceanic': a boy is inducted into a religion that becomes the centre of his life, but as an adult he must face evidence that casts a new light on his faith. Contents: Border Guards (1999) Crystal Nights (2008) Dark Integers (2007) Glory (2007) Hot Rock (2009) Induction (2007) Lost Continent (2008) Oceanic (1998) Oracle (2000) Riding the Crocodile (2005) Singleton (2002) Steve Fever (2007)
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The Arrows of Time

The Arrows of Time

Greg Egan

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Hard science fiction’s grand master delivers the stunning conclusion to his Orthogonal trilogy. In a universe where the laws of physics and the speed of light are completely alien to our own, the travelers on the ship Peerless have completed a generations-long struggle to develop advanced technology in a desperate attempt to save their home world. But as tensions mount over the risks of turning the ship around and starting the long voyage home, a new complication arises: the prospect of constructing a messaging system that will give the Peerless news of its own future. While some see this as a guarantee of safety and a chance to learn of their mission’s ultimate success, others are convinced that the knowledge will be oppressive or worse—that the system could be abused. The conflict over this proposed communication system tears the travelers’ society apart, culminating in terrible violence. To save the Peerless and its mission, two rivals must travel to a world where time runs in reverse. Continuing the epic multiple generation-spanning scope of The Clockwork Rocket and The Eternal Flame, Greg Egan’s Orthogonal series has continuously pushed the boundaries of scientific fiction without ever losing track of the lives of the individuals carrying out this grand mission. The Arrows of Time brings this fascinating space opera to a close.
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Distress

Distress

Greg Egan

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Investigative reporter Andrew Worth turns down a documentary on a mysterious new mental illness -- "Distress, " or acute clinical anxiety syndrome, for another assignment. He's on his way to the artifical island of Stateless, where the world's top physicists are gathering to decide on a new TOE, or Theory of Everything, to replace Einstein's outmoded legacy.Chief among the scientists is the brilliant African Nobel laureate, Violet Mosala, the focus of Worth's story, who is the subject of mysterious death threats. Worth begins his own investigation, but it takes on even more urgency when he finds that Distress, the mental plague now affecting millions, is linked somehow to the approaching "Aleph Moment" when the TOE is finalized. The countdown has begun for a disaster that will reach all the way back to the Big Bang. And beyond...
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An Unusual Angle

An Unusual Angle

Greg Egan

Science Fiction & Fantasy

He is the world’s greatest film director. His characters, his scenery, his costumes―all are authentic, zestful, artistic, artful. But nobody knows he is the world’s greatest film director. Maybe nobody ever will. For all of his masterpieces are stored in an impregnable canister: the head of the film-maker. Inside his brain, nestling safely, reel upon reel of film, magnificently photographed, brilliantly edited, not a frame of it accessible to the viewing public. An Unusual Angle is about the making of this great film. It is also the film itself. Here is a blazing epic of stupendous events: four years of an ordinary Australian secondary school. Few would have suspected before that an ‘ordinary’ school could provide the material of rich humour, zany lunacy and near tragedy. Greg Egan was born in Perth in 1961. He was educated at the University of Western Australia. He has worked for mercifully brief periods as a kitchen hand, a milk-vendor’s runner, and as a public servant. Meanwhile, his real efforts have been directed towards writing novels and short stories (four novels and a book of short stories written so far) and making amateur films (a 65-minute, 16 mm film completed recently).
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Axiomatic

Axiomatic

Greg Egan

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Axiomatic is a collection of Greg Egan's short stories that appeared in various science fiction magazines (mostly Interzone and Asimov's) between 1989 and 1992. Contents: The Infinite Assassin (1991) The Hundred Light-Year Diary (1992) Eugene (1990) The Caress (1990) Blood Sisters (1991) Axiomatic (1990) The Safe-Deposit Box (1990) Seeing (1995) A Kidnapping (1995) Learning to Be Me (1990) The Moat (1991) The Walk (1992) The Cutie (1989) Into Darkness (1992) Appropriate Love (1991) The Moral Virologist (1990) Closer (1992) Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies (1992)
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Perihelion Summer

Perihelion Summer

Greg Egan

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Greg Egan's Perihelion Summer is a story of people struggling to adapt to a suddenly alien environment, and the friendships and alliances they forge as they try to find their way in a world where the old maps have lost their meaning.Taraxippus is coming: a black hole one tenth the mass of the sun is about to enter the solar system.Matt and his friends are taking no chances. They board a mobile aquaculture rig, the Mandjet, self-sustaining in food, power and fresh water, and decide to sit out the encounter off-shore. As Taraxippus draws nearer, new observations throw the original predictions for its trajectory into doubt, and by the time it leaves the solar system, the conditions of life across the globe will be changed forever.Praise for Perihelion Summer"Egan here doubles down on climate change with his typically rigorous exploration of a cosmic accident's effect on Earth and all its people. His characters are sharp and funny and their...
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