December 03, 2003
Distress by Greg Egan
This novel combines many different hard-sf genre elements like bio-engineering, cyberpunk and nanotech, but the main plot thread deals with the so-called anthropic principle and the Theory of Everything.
In taking up the anthropic principle, Greg Egan addresses the inherent problems in that conjecture and uses his fiction to explain how these might be resolved. And he does give an interesting take on this topic. But in the end, in my judgement, all that Greg Egan seems to accomplish in this novel is to impress how absurd the anthropic principle really is. The discussion of the anthropic principle in his short story "Wang's Carpets" was much more interesting. For more information about the anthropic principle see Martin Gardner's essay "WAP, SAP, PAP, and FAP" (in his book "The Night is Large").
The main problem with this book is that Greg Egan has written it before. The plot here is a retread of many plot elements from his earlier "Quarantine". I also thought that "Quarantine" was a much better book, explaining and using the philosophical import of quantum mechanics in a much more sensible way.
Also, Greg Egan seems to be extremely fascinated with cults. They form the main plot device in this novel and in many of his short stories.
%T Distress %A Greg Egan %I HarperPrism %D 1995 %G ISBN: 0061052647 (hc) %G ISBN: 0061057274 (pb) %P 342 %K science-fiction
Review written: 1999/12/21