Greg Egan Books In Order

Publication Order of Subjective Cosmology Cycle Books

Publication Order of Orthogonal Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Greg Egan is an Australian bestselling science fiction writer and a retired programmer born on 20th August 1961. Egan graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor degree in mathematics. In 1983 he released his first writing, and most of his early writing featured strong elements of supernatural horror. His genre of specialty is hardcore science fiction genres with quantum ontology and mathematics themes inclusive of the essence of consciousness. In addition to the above themes he also specializes in other topics such as posthumanism, genetics, sexuality, simulated reality, artificial intelligence, mind uploading and some perception of rational realism being greater than religion. He is also popularly known for the way he deals with complicated technical things such as epistemology and inventive physics in precisely defined manner.

Awards

Greg Egan has won several awards including Hugo Award, and eight of his published novels have been shortlisted several times for the same award. Other awards claimed by the Australian author include John W C Memorial Award and Kurd Lebowitz’s-Preis Award (2000) for the novel Distress for being the best Fiction novel of the year. Greg Egan is also a multiple winner of the Seiun Award. Additionally, his novel Teranesia was listed the winner of the Ditmar Award in the year 2000 for being the best book of the year, unfortunately, the author rejected the award.

Books Written

Greg Egan writings include nine published novels; the first book Unusual Angle published in 1983, followed by Quarantine of 1992. Zendegi is the last on the book list and was released in 2010. In 2011, Clockwork Rocket was published and was the first book of the orthogonal trilogy. In 2012, The Eternal Flame was released as a sequel to the series and in 2013; The Arrows of Time was released as the last book in the trilogy.

The author has also published several collections such as Axiomatic of 1995, Dark Integers (2008), Luminous (1998), Crystal Nights (2009), and Oceanic of 2009.

Greg Egan has also written other numerous short fiction works such as Only Connect, Yeyuka, and Worthless among many others. Apart from novel and collection writing, Egan has published various academic papers such as An Efficient Algorithm………. Riemannian 10j Symbols & Asymptotic of 10j Symbols in conjunction with Dan Christensen.

The novel Axiomatic inspired the filming of a short movie that commenced airing in 2015.

Description of 2 Early Books

Quarantine: novel themed in hard science fiction genre and focuses within a detective fiction framework. The book explores the impacts of Copenhagen view on Quantum Mechanics which the author admits that the concept was chosen for its entertainment value rather than its likelihood probability of being true. The novel storyline is set shortly( 2034-2080) when the solar system has been covered by an impermeable dome known as the Bubble. This bubble-like shield permits no light to enter through the solar system, and as a consequence, the light from neither the star nor the stars can be seen in the sky.

In the novel, constant human observation of the universe resulted in a decrease of potentiality and diversity of the universe. For example, by making the world uninhabitable by beings, those have always relied on the stars as their home. The novel suggests that the bubble was formed to act as a barrier to prevent humans from causing massive destruction to the entire of the universe by observation processes.

The protagonist is tasked with a case to investigate the case of a missing lady from the psychiatric institute which lands him to Ensemble- an organization developing a wave function to collapse the Eigenstate mod. The Eigenstate mod makes a person to stop being an observer “via” quantum mechanics and consequently exist in a superposition of several states simultaneously.

The story narrator/protagonist is forcefully put under control of Ensemble through a force installment of a “Loyalty mod” which makes him loyal to the organization. The narrator later meets the “Canon” a group of other Ensemble Loyalists who have secretly discovered that their “masters” have failed to specify what the canon should be loyal to, except the organization name itself. Now working with the canon, the narrator successfully manages to steal the Eigenstate mod.

The hope of the entire humanity relies on one rogue member of the canon who infects the whole humanity with the software to bring freedom to the rest of the humanity. In a way, the author tries to put out the idea of what we become when we try to change ourselves.

Permutation City is the second book in the Subjective Cosmology series by Greg Egan. It is a science fiction book that describes the events that take place in the mid 21st century when medical and computer technology have advanced such that it is possible to scan a human brain and create a copy of a brain that runs as a copy of the original person. However, due to its high nature, this process is almost inaccessible to some people. An insurance salesperson Paul Durham provides protection to copies produced. In 2050, he begins to promise immortality to the copies in a virtual world known as Permutation City. This world will have limitless supplies and will never be shut down. In this way, Paul bases his claim on a theory that the entire universe is made from arbitrary bits of info drawn from distinct places and time and placed in an organized manner by an observer. Through his theory, he claims that this would be achievable mainly through a computer program.

With the aid of Maria Deluca, a software programmer, Paul Durham manages to create Permutation City with success, and after 7000 years he manages to reawaken Maria’s copy. The duo manages to discover that the planet they created has formed intelligent life form- insect-like organisms. They try to approach the creatures but the creatures do not agree with their story of having been built by a computer program. Permutation City, therefore, is at risk when a copy of the universe begins to reprobate the permutation city computer program and redesign it in relation to Lambertian theory of life. Now Durham must work against time to create a copy of the Permutation city to save the city and the residents in an almost impossible ordeal.

Surprisingly reclusive, camera-shy, and a non-participant in science fiction conferences, Greg Egan is a quinquagenarian Australian author with an exclusive focus on the science fiction and fantasy genres. His work encompasses various aspects including but not limited to metaphysical science like ontology, sexual orientation, intelligent machines, philosophical aspects of naturalism and consciousness and post-humanist, simulation hypothesis, and mind uploading.

Greg Egan is the kind of writer who prefers to keep quiet and let his accomplishments speak and front for him. The bibliography of Egan is extensive and comprehensive. His work ranges from series of books (trilogies) to standalone books and novellas to collections to anthologies to tens of short stories. What’s more, he has also teamed up with other famed writers and co-authored academic papers.

Greg Egan: Private Life
You might not know how Greg Egan looks like because there are no archived photos of him. However, read on about his personal life and you will be content with who this man of letters is. Meet Greg Egan. His birth name is Gregory Mark Egan. Incidentally, he has truncated his first name as Greg and adopted his family name in his work. Egan was born on August 201, 1961 in Perth, located in Western Australia. He is an alumnus of the University of Western Australia; he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the said institution in 1982. Other than writing science fiction, Egan is also a computer programmer.

Greg Egan: Formative Years and Early Publishing Career
Greg Egan, whose niche is mostly science fiction, debuted in 1983 with the book titled An Unusual Angle. He has been publishing consistently since then, albeit within the confines of both science fiction and fantasy.

The Clockwork Rocket: A Summary
Greg Egan has authored two trilogies namely Subjective Cosmology Cycle and Orthogonal; the latter has an omnibus. Incidentally, these two trilogies have all the hallmarks of a series. However, Egan discredits the opinion that it is a series. Even then he accepts that, thematically, it resembles a series. Most sources have shelved it as a series.

Among the most famous works of Greg Egan is the Orthogonal. The first book in the Orthogonal “series” of books was published in June 2011 titled The Clockwork Rocket. This book is shelved as science fiction. Yalda, who is a female character, is the featured protagonist in the Clockwork Rocket penned by Greg Egan.

The book is set in a planet located in a far-flung universe where the fauna and flora contained therein are different– biologically, physically, socially, and the law of physics– from those in planet Earth. The most notable aspect is that, unlike Earth, there is neither sunlight nor natural heat in that universe; this prompts them to produce their own light and heat. Unlike earthlings, the inhabitants of that universe also give birth through binary fusion.

Egan traces Yalda’s life from her formative years to her position as a scholar. A similarity between that universe and Earth is the possibility of an impending doom. The turning point in this book is the odd meteors (Hurtlers) which Yalda has sighted hurtling towards their planet. It is obvious that their planetary system and their world in particular are facing a dangerous situation. The inhabitants are angling for saving their world; however, the problem is Yalda’s civilization lack the wherewithal to tackle the issue. In their alien wisdom, their best bet is a super-fast spacecraft bound for other advanced civilizations out there in the cosmos. The space trip will transcend generations but their subsequent descendants will acquire scientific knowledge and go back to save the other aliens.

The Eternal Flame: A Summary
The second book in the Orthogonal “series” published by Greg Egan was published in August 2012 titled The Eternal Flame and it is classified under the science fiction. This book is a continuation on the aspects contained in the Clockwork Rocket. The featured protagonists are Tamara and Carlo, an astronomer and biologist, respectively.

Peerless, which is the name of the spacecraft carrying the astronomers look for advanced extraterrestrial know-how, can pass through the cosmos within a time-frame transcending generations and still manage to go back just two years later. But the alien astronomers overlooked two things–the fuel needed for the space voyage and the overpopulation in the spacecraft. These two aspects overlooked put a damper in their mission.

Greg Egan: Awards Won and Nominations
Sci-fi author Greg Egan has won several awards and been nominated for other impressive ones. In 1995, Greg Egan won the John W Campbell Memorial Award, under the Best Novel category, by virtue of his 1993 book titled Permutation City; this book was also nominated for the Philip K Dick Award under the Best Book section. In 1995, the 1994 short story titled Cocoon was nominated for the Hugo Award under the Best Novelette category.

In 1996, a short story titled Luminous which Greg Egan had published in 1995 was nominated for the Hugo Award in the Best Novelette group; furthermore, the short story was, in 1999, nominated for the British Fantasy Society awards in the Best Collection group. Oceanic is a short story published by Egan in 1998 and, in 1999, it won him a Hugo Award in the Best Novella category.

The Planck Dive, which was published in 1998, made Greg Egan a nominee for the Hugo Award in the Best Novelette category. The 1999 short story titled Border Guards also featured among the Hugo Award nominees in the Best Novelette category. Another work which has also been nominated for a notable award is the 2002 standalone novel titled Schild’s Ladder; this was among the nominees for the Prometheus Award, in the Best Novel category.

Greg Egan: Current Life and Opinion Articles
Needless to say, little is known about the personal life of Greg Egan. This is because he has never appeared in the news, stays away from conferences involving science fiction writers, and gives scant credence to book signings. However, according to his opinion articles, it is known that he was living in Perth by 2005, practices vegetarianism, and has been actively lobbying against the immigration detention policy practiced by the Australian Government.