/lit/ - Literature

How much "science" in scifi is too much? reading through pic related atm, there are multiple physics dumps of autistic proportion. The book is interesting but the physics portions are completely impenetrable for me, I don't know if the author is being witty or retarded. What is your take on stuff like this?

>>16637103
Diaspora - Greg Egan (1997)
Multiple people of similar taste assured me this was a masterpiece and that I ought to give it another chance.

How much you'll be able to enjoy this may depend how much tolerance you have for scientific explanation and discussion as a primary mode of exposition. It may be almost as important that you are to appreciate that which you may not understand, as there are many mathematical and physics concepts presented that seem to assume that the reader has at least some familiarity with them. As this book is almost exclusively concerned with ideas and theorizing to the exclusion of almost all else, I strongly caution anyone to temper their expectations if they would think to read it for anything else other than that.

Various perspective are followed and they are all important and have their roles to play that no other character would be able to do. There is a character that could be called the protagonist but I don't believe that would be accurate. The plot, setting, and everything exists to provide a narrative framework for the ideas.

It's difficult for me to tell how much of this should be interpreted religiously or as a general warning against worship of anything other than the fundamental truths of the universe, namely math, physics and similar. The initial perspective character has an immaculate conception and several of the characters have religiously themed names. However, religion is also explicitly described by a main character as being something to have been long since forsaken by even the most primitive conservatives.

It has a lot of great ideas that were at the forefront of his time, some of which have become realized in minor ways. Unfortunately this is mired in the science which decreases its level of accessibility. This could have been major hit and bestseller if done differently, but I don't think that's ever what Egan had gone for, but I could be wrong. For some it's better to entirely satisfy relatively few than to satiate many. I wouldn't include myself in that entirely satisfied.

Overall I'd classify this as a work of intellectual masturbation. It starts off slow and slowly increases tempo over time trying to last a long time, but eventually all restraint is lost and it's going at it as quickly as possible. Orgasm is reached and one begins to wonder with one's post-orgasmic insight why one had done any of it all and resumes what one was doing beforehand.

I'll get around to reading more of his novels.
Rating: 4/5

>>16637103
Diaspora - Greg Egan (1997)
Multiple people of similar taste assured me this was a masterpiece and that I ought to give it another chance.

How much you'll be able to enjoy this may depend how much tolerance you have for scientific explanation and discussion as a primary mode of exposition. It may be almost as important that you are to appreciate that which you may not understand, as there are many mathematical and physics concepts presented that seem to assume that the reader has at least some familiarity with them. As this book is almost exclusively concerned with ideas and theorizing to the exclusion of almost all else, I strongly caution anyone to temper their expectations if they would think to read it for anything else other than that.

Various perspective are followed and they are all important and have their roles to play that no other character would be able to do. There is a character that could be called the protagonist but I don't believe that would be accurate. The plot, setting, and everything exists to provide a narrative framework for the ideas.

It's difficult for me to tell how much of this should be interpreted religiously or as a general warning against worship of anything other than the fundamental truths of the universe, namely math, physics and similar. The initial perspective character has an immaculate conception and several of the characters have religiously themed names. However, religion is also explicitly described by a main character as being something to have been long since forsaken by even the most primitive conservatives.

It has a lot of great ideas that were at the forefront of his time, some of which have become realized in minor ways. Unfortunately this is mired in the science which decreases its level of accessibility. This could have been major hit and bestseller if done differently, but I don't think that's ever what Egan had gone for, but I could be wrong. For some it's better to entirely satisfy relatively few than to satiate many. I wouldn't include myself in that entirely satisfied.

Overall I'd classify this as a work of intellectual masturbation. It starts off slow and slowly increases tempo over time trying to last a long time, but eventually all restraint is lost and it's going at it as quickly as possible. Orgasm is reached and one begins to wonder with one's post-orgasmic insight why one had done any of it all and resumes what one was doing beforehand.

I'll get around to reading more of his novels.
Rating: 4/5