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.

Fabulous Story, Disappointing Performance

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend the story to a friend if they were up to the conceptual challenges the plot contains. Egan's intricacy of detail is extremely worth persevering with, but it's dense and some passages require close scrutiny. I would not, however, recommend this recording to a friend (see later answers).

Who was your favorite character and why?

This is hard Sci-Fi. It's characters are not its strong feature. As such it's heavily concept driven, and you read it for those, not for character-development. In the constraints of the genre however, I thought they were all suited to their roles, but I don't have a favourite.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I originally read this as an e-book. I was fascinated to know how a professional narrator would move through this story, dealing with its esoterica: from the subject-specific jargon to the neutral personal pronouns. This would be a challenging read for any narrator; we are immersed in a world and assume the viewpoints of its inhabitants, who don't think it's strange at all. Egan creates this effect beautifully. So far I've skipped through the audiobook only, but so far I've been appalled. The pace is slow and is sufficiently lacking in phrasing as to make it an uncomfortable listening experience, to the point where it is difficult to know what words belong with what. It also makes what was quite a surreal read positively dreary and painful. The books own conventions were clearly poorly understood, leading to uneven emphasis, and a general plodding relentlessness to the delivery. A book with Diaspora's object and Diaspora's target audience, requires much more pre reading, linguistic and typographical care, and general attention to detail than has been demonstrated by this performance.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

I think that this book would be totally ruined by a movie adaptation. It's so in-the-mind that to have the details dished up for you would completely miss the point.

Any additional comments?

One of the best Hard Science Fiction stories I've read in years. One of the most mediocre audio-performances as well. Had I known I would have saved my credit for another title. May it be a lesson to me to preview things before checking out.

13 of 13 people found this review helpful

Love Egan, don't care for the narrator

What disappointed you about Diaspora?

The ve/vis pronouns take a little getting used to, but other than that no complaints.

Would you be willing to try another one of Adam Epstein’s performances?

This is the second book I've tried to get through by Adam Epstein and I would not be willing to try another of his attempts at narration. The voices he does are overly cartoonish and grating and he mispronounces words constantly. If he's going to narrate so many of Greg Egan's books, he could take a few minutes to figure out how to properly pronounce things.

Any additional comments?

Thankfully someone else narrates my favorite of Egan's books, Schild's Ladder.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Sucks.

The narrator just kills your soul. DULL, monotonous, with no sense of emotion, bizarre cadence, like some stoned high school kid reading an essay in class.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Adam's Curse

Strike three of the Kindle-Audible sale books. Egan is very interesting...until you hear it from the mouth of this reader.

If only the energy of his introductions flowed into his reading of the text...might be able to listen to this.

But...you get what you paid for (and I paid $1.99 for this...and the other two)

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Narration is a deal breaker

I have no idea how good the story is, as the narration is so horrible that I couldn't listen to more than 15 minutes. It is monotone and halting, like the reader doesn't understand what he's reading, or is reciting a recipe. Very disappointing.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Excellent work.

The level of scientific detail and rigorous explanation is hard to describe. I honestly don't know how much of the physics described in the story is based on real science. Regardless, it all seemed realistic (and consistent) enough to be plausible and detailed enough to not feel like so much scifi magick. It was a really incredible story. The voices were a bit odd at first, but soon became endearing. If I were to read the book now myself, the characters would all probably sound as the did here. Excellent work.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Do you have the program to enjoy this book?

Very "hard" sci-fi, Diaspora's main characters are AIs, the protagonist being "born" early on. They can run points of view that allow them to enjoy a work of art as if it were someone else perceiving it for instance. There's no faster than light travel and this isn't a space opera, it's an introspective tale of exploration.

If you're frustrated with science fiction that let action get in the way of rigorous explanations of the science behind what's going on, this book is for you!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Interesting story

Although my mind tuned in and out as things were discussed and explained that seemed to surpass my understanding of what the heck characters in the book were talking about, the over arching story was interesting and thought provoking.

Limited plot

I found this was just too hard core into science for me to follow and wished it had more of a stronger plot.

wonderful and thought provoking story!

The reading is not as dry as the sample suggests, the secondary characters are delightfully voiced

Awful Narration!

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I was recommended this book as I am a fan of hard science fiction such as the works of Asimov, Poul Anderson and Arthur C Clarke. However the experience was ruined for me by poor narration. The guys voice is monotonous and annoying. I couldn't bear it so I stopped listening. Perhaps I'll read a hard copy or e-book version in the future since the premise of the story seems interesting.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Hard science fiction as its best

I would have given the book 6 stars if I could. It pushes the limits of the genre. it pushes the limits of what's possible by systematic thinking in literary form. A book that tries to encompass a posthuman scape stretching from horizon to horizon. Sci fi as hard and precious as diamond.