Greg Egan

Infobox Writer
name = Greg Egan
caption =
pseudonym =
birthdate = birth date and age|1961|8|20|df=y
birthplace = Perth, Western Australia
deathdate =
deathplace =
occupation = Writer, former Programmer
nationality = Australian
period = 1990s-present
genre = Science fiction
subject =
movement =
influences =
influenced =
website =

Greg Egan (born 20 August 1961) is an Australian science fiction author.

Egan specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness. Other themes include genetics, simulated reality, posthumanism, mind transfer, sexuality, artificial intelligence, and the superiority of rational naturalism over religion. He is a Hugo Award winner (and has been shortlisted for the Hugos three other times), and has also won the John W Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel. Some of his earlier short stories feature strong elements of supernatural horror, while due to his more popular science fiction he is known within the genre for his tendency to deal with complex and highly technical material (including inventive new physics and epistemology) in an unapologetically thorough manner.

Egan's short stories have been published in a variety of genre magazines, including regular appearances in "Interzone" and "Asimov's Science Fiction".

Egan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Western Australia, and currently lives in Perth. He has recently been active on the issue of refugees' mandatory detention in Australia.

Egan is a "famously reclusive" author. [ [http://thebookblogger.com/sfbc/2006/09/greg_egan_on_new_scientist.html Science Fiction Book Club ] ] . He does not attend science fiction conventions [ [http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/INTERVIEWS/Interviews.html Interviews ] ] , and does not sign books.

Works

Novels

*"An Unusual Angle" (1983), ISBN 0-909106-12-6 (not science fiction)
*"Quarantine" (1992), ISBN 0-7126-9870-1
*"Permutation City" (1994), ISBN 1-85798-174-X
*"Distress" (1995), ISBN 1-85798-286-X
*"Diaspora" (1997), ISBN 1-85798-438-2
*"Teranesia" (1999), ISBN 0-575-06854-X
*"Schild's Ladder" (2002), ISBN 0-575-07068-4
*"Incandescence" (2008) ISBN 1597801283

Collections

*"Axiomatic" (1995), ISBN 1-85798-281-9
*"Our Lady of Chernobyl" (1995), ISBN 0-646-23230-4
*"Luminous" (1998), ISBN 1-85798-551-6
*"Oceanic and Other Stories" (2000), ISBN 4-15-011337-8 ja icon
*"Reasons to Be Cheerful and Other Stories" (2003), ISBN 4-15-011451-X ja icon
*"Dark Integers and Other Stories" (March 2008, Subterranean Press)

hort stories

tories collected in "Axiomatic"

*"The Infinite Assassin"
*"The Hundred Light-Year Diary"
*"Eugene"
*"The Caress"
*"Blood Sisters"
*"Axiomatic"
*"The Safe-Deposit Box"
*"Seeing"
*"A Kidnapping"
*"Learning to Be Me"
*"The Moat"
*"The Walk"
*"The Cutie"
*"Into Darkness"
*"Appropriate Love"
*" [http://www.eidolon.net/old_site/issue_11/11_moral.htm The Moral Virologist] "
*"Closer"
*"Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies"'

tories collected in "Luminous"

*"Chaff"
*"Mitochondrial Eve"
*"Luminous"
*"Mister Volition"
*"Cocoon"
*"Transition Dreams"
*"Silver Fire"
*"Reasons to Be Cheerful"
*"Our Lady of Chernobyl"
*" [http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/PLANCK/Complete/Planck.html The Planck Dive] "

tories collected in "Dark Integers and Other Stories"

*"Luminous"
* [http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/INCANDESCENCE/00/Crocodile.html "Riding the Crocodile"]
*"Dark Integers"
* [http://outofthiseos.typepad.com/blog/files/GregEganGlory.pdf "Glory" ]
* [http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/OCEANIC/Oceanic.html "Oceanic"] (Winner of the Hugo Award)

Other stories

* [http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/MISC/ORACLE/Oracle.html "Oracle"]
* [http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/SCHILD/Connect/Connect.html "Only Connect"]
* [http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/BORDER/Border.html "Border Guards"]
* [http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/yeyuka.htm "Yeyuka"]
*"TAP"
* [http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/worth.htm "Worthless"]
* [http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/HORROR/VAMPIRES/Vampires.html "Mind Vampires"]
*"Neighbourhood Watch"
*"Orphanogenesis" ["Orphanogenesis" became the opening chapter of the novel "Diaspora".]
*"Wang's Carpets" ["Wang" refers to the mathematician Hao Wang – the "carpets" are living embodiments of Wang tiles. This story, minorly reworked, became a section of the novel "Diaspora".]
*"Reification Highway"
*"Dust" ["Dust" became the opening chapter of the novel "Permutation City" [http://www.sff.net/people/richard.horton/permcity.htm] ]
*"Before"
*"Fidelity"
*"The Demon's Passage"
*"In Numbers"
*"The Vat"
* [http://eidolon.net/?story=The%20Extra&pagetitle=The+Extra&section=fiction "The Extra"]
*"Beyond the Whistle Test"
*"Scatter My Ashes"
*"Tangled Up"
*"The Way She Smiles, The Things She Says"
*"Artifact"
* [http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/MISC/SINGLETON/Singleton.html "Singleton"] ["Singleton" introduced the concept of the "Qusp", which was later used in the novel "Schild's Ladder".]
*"Lost Continent"

Awards

*"Permutation City": John W. Campbell Memorial Award (1995)
*"Oceanic": Hugo Award, Locus Award, Asimov's Readers Award (1998)

Egan was nominated for the 2000 Ditmar Award for best novel with Teranesia. He declined the award.

Usenet Newsgroups

Egan occasionally contributes posts to a variety of (mostly scientific and/or technical) Usenet newsgroups, using his own name. These include: sci.physics.research; sci.math; comp.graphics.algorithms; comp.sys.laptops; comp.sys.mac.hardware.misc; microsoft.public.windowsxp.accessibility; aus.sf; rec.arts.movies.current-films; plus a few others.

From December 1994 to September 1999 he contributed regularly to the group rec.arts.sf.written, where he engaged in dialogue with his readers about his work, and science fiction in general, which is an invaluable source of information. See "External links" for the Google archive of these posts.

Footnotes

External links

* [http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Genres/Science_Fiction/Authors/E/Egan,_Greg/ Open Directory category: Greg Egan]
* [http://www.gregegan.net/ Greg Egan's homepage]
* [http://freesfonline.de/authors/egan.html Greg Egan's online fiction] at [http://freesfonline.de/ Free Speculative Fiction Online]
*isfdb name|id=Greg_Egan|name=Greg Egan
*Google archive of Egan's posts to [http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?as_q=&num=30&scoring=d&hl=en&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_ugroup=rec.arts.sf.written&as_usubject=&as_uauthors=Greg+Egan&lr=&as_drrb=q&as_qdr=&as_mind=1&as_minm=1&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=18&as_maxm=12&as_maxy=2006&safe=off rec.arts.sf.written]

Persondata
NAME= Egan, Greg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Australian science fiction writer and former computer programmer
DATE OF BIRTH= Birth date and age|1961|8|20|mf=y
PLACE OF BIRTH= Perth, Western Australia
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=