Diaspora

By: Greg Egan

Narrated by: Adam Epstein

Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Behold the orphan. Born into a world that is not a world. A digital being grown from a mind seed, a genderless cybernetic citizen in a vast network of probes, satellites, and servers knitting the Solar System into one scape, from the outer planets to the fiery surface of the Sun. Since the Introdus in the 21st century, humanity has reconfigured itself drastically. Most chose immortality, joining the polises to become conscious software.

Others opted for gleisners: Disposable, renewable robotic bodies that remain in contact with the physical world of force and friction. Many of these have left the Solar System forever in fusion drive starships.

And there are the holdouts. The fleshers left behind in the muck and jungle of Earth - some devolved into dream-apes; others cavorting in the seas or the air; while the statics and bridges try to shape out a roughly human destiny.

But the complacency of the citizens is shattered when an unforeseen disaster ravages the fleshers, and reveals the possibility that the polises themselves might be at risk from bizarre astrophysical processes that seem to violate fundamental laws of nature. The Orphan joins a group of citizens and flesher refugees in a search for the knowledge that will guarantee their safety - a search that puts them on the trail of the ancient and elusive Transmuters, who have the power to reshape subatomic particles, and to cross into the macrocosmos, where the universe we know is nothing but a speck in the higher-dimensional vacuum.

©2013 Greg Egan (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

opens your mind to new areas of exploration

explores post singularity humanity presenting numerous interesting possibilities on ways of existing and the potential for life in other universes

Analysis

Dust off your astrophysics & analysis text books to fulfill the prerequisites for this adventure. An interesting story but can’t thinking what it could have been if Andy Weir wrote it.

One-third Amazing, One-third OK, One-third Poor

"Diaspora" by Greg Egan (1997) is of mixed quality. The novel was written to fit around a short story that Egan published earlier, "Wang's Carpets." That short story appears as Chapter 11.

From the start of the book through the end of Chapter 6 (Parts 1 and 2), Diaspora offers some of the best science fiction I've listened to. It is chock full of fascinating ideas, the plot is engaging and exciting, and you care deeply about the characters.

Chapter 11, "Wang's Carpets," is another bright, high point in the audiobook.

Unfortunately, these high-quality sections only make up about a third of the novel. The remaining chapters are of much lower quality, and that quality gradually diminishes further as the end of the novel approaches. The important characters become less and less relateable, and Egan spends too much time philosophizing over fictional mathematics and physics. The last third of the book is a wild goose chase, whose ultimate conclusion is deeply unsatisfying and more than faintly ridiculous. I was left feeling cheated, as though Egan demonstrated his tremendous ideas and ability, then strung me along, promising more and failing to deliver.

It is difficult to assign a star rating to a book with both excellent and disappointing segments. I ultimately decided to award four stars, which I consider a generous rating for a book that was one-third excellent, one-third mediocre, and one-third poor.

While some reviewers complained about the narrator, I found nothing wrong with Adam Epstein's narration. It seemed perfectly normal and acceptable to me, and I found his use of voices to distinguish different characters helpful (and similar to what other audiobook narrators do).

If you wish to experience the good parts of Diaspora, you are in luck: Parts 1 and 2 (chapters 1 through 6) stand on their own as a self-contained story. You can listen to these chapters and then stop. Or, if you prefer, you can read from chapter 1 through chapter 11, which will cover all of the book's high points while avoiding the worst parts, which come near the end. If you proceed all the way through, you will find that nuggets of value become increasingly scarce, lost in a seemingly five-dimensional scape of bland text.

If you are interested in Diaspora, consider "Blindsight" by Peter Watts, a story that has a similar style but is strong from beginning to end.

Wonderful book, totally ruined by the narrator.

I've read Diaspora multiple times. It's a great very hard sci-fi story that deal with multiple complex sci-fi ideas in a fun and imaginative way. This is all for naught though as the narrator might as well be text to speech from the 90s. I highly recommend reading this one until someone who actually has some understanding of the subject matter and can be bothered to put some effort into the performance can be found. He can't even be bothered to pronounce a number of the names correctly!

Abruptly Ended

I love Greg Egan, but he has a tendency to produce endings that, while logical, are unsatisfying and wondering how it could have been better.

In this case, we follow clones that are on the hunt for the universe hopping Transmuters. Initially the story seemed to be about securing a lasting existence in a universe beset with powerful forces that could lead to extinction. I found the survival story much more interesting than the hunt for the race that helped humanity discover a mind-bending way to survive. C'est la vie.

While I'm giving this three stars, I don't regret the hours I spent listening to this book.

Narration Ok, Hard to follow tech speak

Very interesting premise for this book, but the extremely complex technical descriptions was a distraction that almost made me drop the book. Narrator was just ok.

Guess I'll just read the paper book

The reader's dialogue voice is whiny and grating. Almost ruined one of the best sci fi first chapters ever for me.

Half the story is about made up mathematics

And the narrator was very tough for me to engage with. Don't recommend this one.

Real SciFi!

If you have a physics background and like SciFi, this is a must read!

Good deep SciFi

A good deep SciFi that explores themes of artificial intelligence, consciousness, and the nature of existing. The story follows a group of post-human entities known as "polises" who are not bound by traditional physical forms. They navigate the universe, evolving and adapting to new environments.
In a weird way The story reminded me of Piranesi except instead of ancient Greek themes we have math, yes, probably not everyone will be happy with that switch.
So it was unique and compelling in places, however, I didn’t really get invested in the characters or the plot all that much. But still a solid, interesting read.