Return to Mark/Space
ISBN 1-85798-286-X (UK hbk),,, 1-85798-285-1 (UK trade pbk)
novel, science fiction, cyberpunk, biotechnology, genetic engineering, anarchy, utopia, cults, posthuman
Earth, 2055. Winner of the Aurealis Award for Best SF Novel.
"What would you do when faced with the last memories of a reanimated corpse? When confronted with the answer to everything, perhaps even the meaning of life? Andrew Worth is horrified, scared, thrilled to his very core, but his immediate reaction is to turn his back on what his journalist's high-tech entrails have recorded and wipe it from his mind.
"SeeNet promise him the biggest scoop of his career -- an investigation into 'Distress', a pernicious new disease that leaves its victims writhing and howling, beyond help, locked in a private hell. But Andrew is burned out with the abuses of biotech and grabs the first alternative he can find. A documentary profile of Violet Mosala, Nobel Prize winner and quantum physicist seems a far more comfortable option. Until, that is, Violet's rivals in the chase for the ultimate Theory of Everything begin to disappear from the summit conference on a South Pacific, man-made utopia. Shadowed by cults who see her as a demon or guru, Violet prepares to make one small gesture which may change the face of the world. Andrew struggles with his own demons and uncovers a violent battle to control the biggest question science will ever ask." [jacket blurb, UK trade pbk, 1995]
"In Distress, Egan has reached entirely new levels of plot, characterization, and realization of what he set out to do -- still dazzling, yet richer in every possible way than his remarkable previous books. It is a dramatic achievement in terms of scope, impact, and in the ideas with which he deals. Egan deftly pulls away from easy plot signifiers. This book is about much more than a murder trial, artificial DNA, Distress, Stateless and its new non-politics, or Violet Mosala. Distress is the sum of many parts, each rich enough in its own right to yield a novel, yet used gracefully and powerfully to support an edifice as unique, new, and rewarding as Stateless itself." --Kathleen Ann Goonan (in SF Eye , Issue #14, Spring 1996).
"Told from a reporter's first person point-of-view, this novel explores the concepts of quantum physics, informed anarchy, non-authoritarian utopia, cults, and the Theory of Everything. Greg Egan presents us with some very interesting concepts indeed." --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , March 1997).
Recommended.
Eidolon - SF Online
(a page about Greg Egan)
Greg Egan Page
(haven't checked this link yet)
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