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Sleep and the Soul
Sleep and the Soul contains ten stories from Hugo Award-winning author Greg Egan.
382 pages, Hardcover
First published April 21, 2023
114 people are currently reading
304 people want to read
About the author
Greg Egan
267 books2,809 followersGreg 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 is a famously reclusive author when it comes to public appearances, he doesn't attend science fiction conventions, doesn't sign books and there are no photos available of him on the web.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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 is a famously reclusive author when it comes to public appearances, he doesn't attend science fiction conventions, doesn't sign books and there are no photos available of him on the web.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
May 8, 2023
Greg Egan latest short story collection “Sleep and the Soul” just dropped. It’s the kind of stories that I know and love him for, this time maybe with a touch more ambiguity and cooperation/trust as an overarching theme.
The book starts with a banger. You And Whose Army? explores the concept of shared identity, has more than one memorable plot twist and should not miss from any “Top 5 ways in which Greg Egan villains try to cheat death” list.
This Is Not The Way Home tells the story of an unlikely escape from a moon holiday gone wrong. If you liked “The Martian” by Andy Weir or the movie “Gravity”, this is a must read.
Zeitgeber portrays a scenario in which a virus upsets the bio-rhythm of a whole civilization. Be careful not to not read it as an allegory for Covid. The uncanny parallels can not be intended since the story was first published in September 2019.
Crisis Actors pokes fun at climate change deniers. Can their conspirational thinking be leveraged for good?
Sleep And The Soul might, on first glance, be perceived as a preachy parable arguing for materialism by setting up a strawmanish version of the dualism doctrine: In the story most of the population believes that the soul departs the body if it goes to sleep. This means that people never go to sleep and that they might even be killed if they find themself in a position where they go unconsciouss. But for me the interesting bit about this piece are the things left unsaid. Why are these people capable of not sleeping in the first place? The story hints at strong evolutionary pressure to work insane hours. People might not need sleep anymore because sleeping tended to get you killed in this cruel universe. So maybe the talk about souls is a mere rationalization?
After Zero presents an interesting idea to curtail radiation to slow down/reverse climate change. Anyone up to crowdfund some magnets at the first Lagrange point between the sun and the earth?
Dream Factory is about neural implants for cats. It’s a great story. And Greg Egan’s rants about App Store policies and multiplex package delivery are highly amusing.
Light Up The Clouds is set in a quite interesting universe that allows purely mechanical space travel. The world building is quite unusual and sometimes a little confusing but it’s great fun to slowly figure it out.
Night Running is about a drug that allows you to work while sleeping. But will sleep-you always have the same priorities as awake-you?
In Solidity humanity has to wrestle with a calamity that is somehow reminiscent of – Stable Diffusion?
All in all I had a great time reading the short story collection. It feels very contemporary. Which is maybe not so surprising as reality seems to be catching up with Science Fiction more and more.
The book starts with a banger. You And Whose Army? explores the concept of shared identity, has more than one memorable plot twist and should not miss from any “Top 5 ways in which Greg Egan villains try to cheat death” list.
This Is Not The Way Home tells the story of an unlikely escape from a moon holiday gone wrong. If you liked “The Martian” by Andy Weir or the movie “Gravity”, this is a must read.
Zeitgeber portrays a scenario in which a virus upsets the bio-rhythm of a whole civilization. Be careful not to not read it as an allegory for Covid. The uncanny parallels can not be intended since the story was first published in September 2019.
Crisis Actors pokes fun at climate change deniers. Can their conspirational thinking be leveraged for good?
Sleep And The Soul might, on first glance, be perceived as a preachy parable arguing for materialism by setting up a strawmanish version of the dualism doctrine: In the story most of the population believes that the soul departs the body if it goes to sleep. This means that people never go to sleep and that they might even be killed if they find themself in a position where they go unconsciouss. But for me the interesting bit about this piece are the things left unsaid. Why are these people capable of not sleeping in the first place? The story hints at strong evolutionary pressure to work insane hours. People might not need sleep anymore because sleeping tended to get you killed in this cruel universe. So maybe the talk about souls is a mere rationalization?
After Zero presents an interesting idea to curtail radiation to slow down/reverse climate change. Anyone up to crowdfund some magnets at the first Lagrange point between the sun and the earth?
Dream Factory is about neural implants for cats. It’s a great story. And Greg Egan’s rants about App Store policies and multiplex package delivery are highly amusing.
Light Up The Clouds is set in a quite interesting universe that allows purely mechanical space travel. The world building is quite unusual and sometimes a little confusing but it’s great fun to slowly figure it out.
Night Running is about a drug that allows you to work while sleeping. But will sleep-you always have the same priorities as awake-you?
In Solidity humanity has to wrestle with a calamity that is somehow reminiscent of – Stable Diffusion?
All in all I had a great time reading the short story collection. It feels very contemporary. Which is maybe not so surprising as reality seems to be catching up with Science Fiction more and more.
May 24, 2023
Greg Egan's earlier books were some of the very best SF I had read in decades. Distress, Permutation City, Quarantine. Excellent writing seasoned with a lot of moral reparté.
But after Schild's Ladder, one of my favorites, the quality began to slip a little. Then it slipped a lot. Then, with Zendege and the Orthogonal trilogy, he became utterly unreadable.
Egan started to come up with imaginative universes with different physical laws, and while his ability to think inside these systems was impressive, the books were just not engaging like the early novels. Nothing I have read by him since Schildt's was worth the time. He also developed a fascination with Iranian culture and language, which I happened to not share, and which just made it worse. When I moved, I tossed a bunch of them in the trash.
It was his short story Axiomatic that turned me on to him, and he has continued to write good short stories. Sleep and the Soul is a book of short stories; they are good, with one glaring exception: the novella-length penultimate story, which I struggled through and finally gave up on and skipped to the last story.
Don't buy his novels. But definitely read his early ones.
But after Schild's Ladder, one of my favorites, the quality began to slip a little. Then it slipped a lot. Then, with Zendege and the Orthogonal trilogy, he became utterly unreadable.
Egan started to come up with imaginative universes with different physical laws, and while his ability to think inside these systems was impressive, the books were just not engaging like the early novels. Nothing I have read by him since Schildt's was worth the time. He also developed a fascination with Iranian culture and language, which I happened to not share, and which just made it worse. When I moved, I tossed a bunch of them in the trash.
It was his short story Axiomatic that turned me on to him, and he has continued to write good short stories. Sleep and the Soul is a book of short stories; they are good, with one glaring exception: the novella-length penultimate story, which I struggled through and finally gave up on and skipped to the last story.
Don't buy his novels. But definitely read his early ones.
January 2, 2024
Several of the stories fell flat for me. They all have a gimmick at their core, but they don't all manage to make this gimmick interesting. The collection has two stories though that I love, and it was 100% worth getting it for those two. (Light Up The Clouds and Solidity.)
You And Whose Army? — A problem we can't relate to with a solution we can't relate to. Perhaps it's due to the extreme lack of drama. Greg Egan's writing voice is so extremely rational that it dissolves every conflict. There is no anger or hate when everyone's mental model of others is reasonable and generous. OR! Perhaps this is a metaphor. Is sharing memories through a neural link all that different from sharing them by talking? I'm not sure where that takes it. I liked the ending!
This Is Not The Way Home — A technical story about technical problems driven by a big mystery that is totally not answered at the end. What happened on Earth?! I need to know! This story also shows that the extremely rational writing can kill drama even in single-person stories.
Zeitgeber — Again an unrelatable problem with an undramatic solution.
Crisis Actors — This was fun, but weird. A very underrepresented perspective, as our point of view is a climate denialist terrorist. I liked how some of the mental acrobatics was presented. In the end I didn't feel like we got anywhere.
Sleep And The Soul — I love Greg Egan stories where you are in a weird world, but it takes a while to figure out what the twist is. Are we in hell? Are there demons? Is Jesus normal? There is action and conflict and discoveries. But discovering that is not evil is actually not that dramatic for a reader from our world. I think https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/201... did it better.
After Zero — The technical part is interesting. It's a geoengineering proposal with a magnetic sunlight deflector at L1. But that's basically it. There is a bit of social commentary, but I'm not a fan. Only a crowdfunding approach works, but then it turns out crowds are dumb, but then the protagonists fight dirty and win. What does this say about democracy or anything? It is definitely not intended as irony, but the competitor in the crowdfunding is a crackpot idea that almost keeps the resources from the right project. I see geoengineering ideas in a similar light. In the story CO2 emissions are already solved with clean energy. (Handwaved.) I'd rather have read a story about how that was done.
Dream Factory — The topic of animal rights is interesting and so are the technical parts. But as a story or a commentary it didn't do it for me.
Light Up The Clouds — The best one! It's maximally Greg Egan. It's from the same cloth as Clockwork Rocket and Incandescence. It's not much connected to sleeping or souls. But it more than makes up for that with orbital mechanics! We're in a binary star system. I never considered how that makes interstellar travel more feasible. Our perspective is from a non-technological non-human civilization that barely knows about stars. The characters are somehow more lovable than the humans in the other stories. We learn a few things about their cool world and it's cool history. By the end it's Badass.
Night Running — Pretty cool! I think it keeps your attention because the gimmick raises so many questions. You want to do experiments. And the protagonist does them for you! The gimmick is not exactly a problem we all relate to, but it's a strong parallel to the "subconscious". Another ego in our body that is basically us, but not. Now that I said it like that, it's basically Severance. But somehow that didn't occur to me at all while reading it.
Solidity — Another favorite. It grabs onto a fear we all (or just I) have in our hearts. If we don't see something, is it still there? Just like we remember? We don't even remember everything about it. It could be swapped and we would barely notice. The world falls apart along these lines, with a very strong opening scene set in a high school. The story is long and doesn't really go far from the starting point. But there is a lot of humanity tied up in this fear. Do photos help? Can we still love people? What is money? What is crime? So good. Fantastic story.
I think the ones I liked are the longest ones. Maybe I just need to be immersed long enough to start liking the characters? Or maybe a long story means there's good stuff to write about there?
You And Whose Army? — A problem we can't relate to with a solution we can't relate to. Perhaps it's due to the extreme lack of drama. Greg Egan's writing voice is so extremely rational that it dissolves every conflict. There is no anger or hate when everyone's mental model of others is reasonable and generous. OR! Perhaps this is a metaphor. Is sharing memories through a neural link all that different from sharing them by talking? I'm not sure where that takes it. I liked the ending!
This Is Not The Way Home — A technical story about technical problems driven by a big mystery that is totally not answered at the end. What happened on Earth?! I need to know! This story also shows that the extremely rational writing can kill drama even in single-person stories.
Zeitgeber — Again an unrelatable problem with an undramatic solution.
Crisis Actors — This was fun, but weird. A very underrepresented perspective, as our point of view is a climate denialist terrorist. I liked how some of the mental acrobatics was presented. In the end I didn't feel like we got anywhere.
Sleep And The Soul — I love Greg Egan stories where you are in a weird world, but it takes a while to figure out what the twist is. Are we in hell? Are there demons? Is Jesus normal? There is action and conflict and discoveries. But discovering that is not evil is actually not that dramatic for a reader from our world. I think https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/201... did it better.
After Zero — The technical part is interesting. It's a geoengineering proposal with a magnetic sunlight deflector at L1. But that's basically it. There is a bit of social commentary, but I'm not a fan. Only a crowdfunding approach works, but then it turns out crowds are dumb, but then the protagonists fight dirty and win. What does this say about democracy or anything? It is definitely not intended as irony, but the competitor in the crowdfunding is a crackpot idea that almost keeps the resources from the right project. I see geoengineering ideas in a similar light. In the story CO2 emissions are already solved with clean energy. (Handwaved.) I'd rather have read a story about how that was done.
Dream Factory — The topic of animal rights is interesting and so are the technical parts. But as a story or a commentary it didn't do it for me.
Light Up The Clouds — The best one! It's maximally Greg Egan. It's from the same cloth as Clockwork Rocket and Incandescence. It's not much connected to sleeping or souls. But it more than makes up for that with orbital mechanics! We're in a binary star system. I never considered how that makes interstellar travel more feasible. Our perspective is from a non-technological non-human civilization that barely knows about stars. The characters are somehow more lovable than the humans in the other stories. We learn a few things about their cool world and it's cool history. By the end it's Badass.
Night Running — Pretty cool! I think it keeps your attention because the gimmick raises so many questions. You want to do experiments. And the protagonist does them for you! The gimmick is not exactly a problem we all relate to, but it's a strong parallel to the "subconscious". Another ego in our body that is basically us, but not. Now that I said it like that, it's basically Severance. But somehow that didn't occur to me at all while reading it.
Solidity — Another favorite. It grabs onto a fear we all (or just I) have in our hearts. If we don't see something, is it still there? Just like we remember? We don't even remember everything about it. It could be swapped and we would barely notice. The world falls apart along these lines, with a very strong opening scene set in a high school. The story is long and doesn't really go far from the starting point. But there is a lot of humanity tied up in this fear. Do photos help? Can we still love people? What is money? What is crime? So good. Fantastic story.
I think the ones I liked are the longest ones. Maybe I just need to be immersed long enough to start liking the characters? Or maybe a long story means there's good stuff to write about there?
September 23, 2024
You and Whose Army? (2020)
Four brothers, quadruplets, have a neural link that shares their memories with each other while they sleep. One of the brothers shuts off their link and vanishes. Is someone the sum of their memories, or is there something more?
Ok
This Is Not the Way Home (2019)
A married couple win a trip to the moon. How will they get back? The practical physics problem seemed far more important than anything else.
Meh
Zeitgeber (2019)
Roughly 20% of people are no longer affected by any environmental timing cues, zeitgebers. The only circadian rhythm they acknowledge is their own. How will society be able to function?
Ok
Crisis Actors (2022)
His father has been taken in by a cure-all supplements scam and refuses to see the truth. He knows that he could never be fooled and always knows the truth. That's why he's going to expose the Big Lie. It's about how smart people can believe and do dumb things. The problem is that it's too reasonable while also being implausible.
Meh
Sleep and the Soul (2021)
In 1850, Jesse Sloss was a railroad worker in Connecticut. A blasting accident put him in a coma, so they buried him. He returned home to accusations of being a demon, so he set off to start his life anew. What follows is a tale of metaphors and medical advances.
Enjoyable
After Zero (2022)
From the ashes of decades of failed work, perhaps they may rise again phoenix-like to mitigate global warming. It's mostly lukewarm social commentary. Far too much happens between time skips.
Meh
Dream Factory (2022)
A new fad is for your cat to have a brain control device implanted. It's a hit among petfluencers, who have their cats do all sorts of wacky stunts. James believes this to be unethical and works toward cat liberation.
Ok
Light Up the Clouds (2021)
This reads like science fantasy. There's something strange going on with the physics and even more so with their physiology. A glider pilot sees that there's unnatural movement in the sky and declares that the cousins, the descendants of those who left the planet an unknowable time ago have returned. Thus begins a physics experiment to contact them.
Ok
Night Running (2023)
Luke has been given a seemingly impossible task at work. In an attempt to maintain his sanity he takes a drug. It allows his unconscious to take over and do many things while he sleeps. He awakens fully refreshed after having done many productive activities while asleep. Before long, the problems begin.
Enjoyable
Solidity (2022)
Omar wakes up in a classroom and everything has changed. Whenever someone looks away they're in a new world that's slightly different. Everyone is constantly shifting between worlds. How will society be able to function? This is a neat idea, but the story is unsatisfying.
Ok
Four brothers, quadruplets, have a neural link that shares their memories with each other while they sleep. One of the brothers shuts off their link and vanishes. Is someone the sum of their memories, or is there something more?
Ok
This Is Not the Way Home (2019)
A married couple win a trip to the moon. How will they get back? The practical physics problem seemed far more important than anything else.
Meh
Zeitgeber (2019)
Roughly 20% of people are no longer affected by any environmental timing cues, zeitgebers. The only circadian rhythm they acknowledge is their own. How will society be able to function?
Ok
Crisis Actors (2022)
His father has been taken in by a cure-all supplements scam and refuses to see the truth. He knows that he could never be fooled and always knows the truth. That's why he's going to expose the Big Lie. It's about how smart people can believe and do dumb things. The problem is that it's too reasonable while also being implausible.
Meh
Sleep and the Soul (2021)
In 1850, Jesse Sloss was a railroad worker in Connecticut. A blasting accident put him in a coma, so they buried him. He returned home to accusations of being a demon, so he set off to start his life anew. What follows is a tale of metaphors and medical advances.
Enjoyable
After Zero (2022)
From the ashes of decades of failed work, perhaps they may rise again phoenix-like to mitigate global warming. It's mostly lukewarm social commentary. Far too much happens between time skips.
Meh
Dream Factory (2022)
A new fad is for your cat to have a brain control device implanted. It's a hit among petfluencers, who have their cats do all sorts of wacky stunts. James believes this to be unethical and works toward cat liberation.
Ok
Light Up the Clouds (2021)
This reads like science fantasy. There's something strange going on with the physics and even more so with their physiology. A glider pilot sees that there's unnatural movement in the sky and declares that the cousins, the descendants of those who left the planet an unknowable time ago have returned. Thus begins a physics experiment to contact them.
Ok
Night Running (2023)
Luke has been given a seemingly impossible task at work. In an attempt to maintain his sanity he takes a drug. It allows his unconscious to take over and do many things while he sleeps. He awakens fully refreshed after having done many productive activities while asleep. Before long, the problems begin.
Enjoyable
Solidity (2022)
Omar wakes up in a classroom and everything has changed. Whenever someone looks away they're in a new world that's slightly different. Everyone is constantly shifting between worlds. How will society be able to function? This is a neat idea, but the story is unsatisfying.
Ok
September 29, 2023
So many great ideas and wonderful stories here.
This was a timely read for me -- I just recently did Jennifer Egan's The Candy House and thought it might be amusing to follow that up with something by Greg Egan. Instead, I had a little (coffee?) break with Legends & Lattes. But it's not just the author names that match up here: The Candy House is dense, literary fiction, stuffed full of ideas -- and Greg's stories are much the same.
But even more than that! The Candy House is about a social media company that lets you upload memories and experience those of others. And this collection opens with a story of a group of brothers who...share their memories! Both get into serious issues about the nature of the self.
(Greg) Egan's stories are notorious for being an idea firehouse -- in just a few pages in “Sleep and the Soul”, we have the Dred Scott decision, together with philosophical ideas of Puritanism and anesthesia (no, really).
“Night Running” combines the notion of philosophical zombies with productivity culture and is also surely a nod towards Beggars in Spain; the last story, "Solidity", had me thinking of the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, the Ship of Theseus, the concept of ubuntu and the extent to which your self is actually a social construct.
This was a timely read for me -- I just recently did Jennifer Egan's The Candy House and thought it might be amusing to follow that up with something by Greg Egan. Instead, I had a little (coffee?) break with Legends & Lattes. But it's not just the author names that match up here: The Candy House is dense, literary fiction, stuffed full of ideas -- and Greg's stories are much the same.
But even more than that! The Candy House is about a social media company that lets you upload memories and experience those of others. And this collection opens with a story of a group of brothers who...share their memories! Both get into serious issues about the nature of the self.
(Greg) Egan's stories are notorious for being an idea firehouse -- in just a few pages in “Sleep and the Soul”, we have the Dred Scott decision, together with philosophical ideas of Puritanism and anesthesia (no, really).
“Night Running” combines the notion of philosophical zombies with productivity culture and is also surely a nod towards Beggars in Spain; the last story, "Solidity", had me thinking of the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, the Ship of Theseus, the concept of ubuntu and the extent to which your self is actually a social construct.
February 20, 2024
I kinda hated the way Egan wrote endings to some of the short stories in this book. They seem to end so abruptly as if the author has lost interest in the story and decided that’s it “This is not the way home” is such story where nothing is explained and the ending is pretty anticlimactic.
Still it’s a good mind-bending collections and I really liked several stories. My favorites are “Solidity” and “Sleep and the soul”.
“Light up the clouds” was also interesting and it shares the same DNA with Clockwork rocket.
Overall many great concepts to wrap your mind around
Still it’s a good mind-bending collections and I really liked several stories. My favorites are “Solidity” and “Sleep and the soul”.
“Light up the clouds” was also interesting and it shares the same DNA with Clockwork rocket.
Overall many great concepts to wrap your mind around
May 4, 2023
Ratings:
This is Not The Way Home - 5 stars.
Crisis Actors - 4 stars.
Zeitgeber - 4 stars.
Solidity - 4 stars.
Sleep and the Soul - 4 stars.
Night Running - 4 stars.
After Zero - 3 stars.
Dream Factory - 3 stars.
You and Whose Army? - 3 stars.
Light Up the Clouds - 2 stars.
This is Not The Way Home - 5 stars.
Crisis Actors - 4 stars.
Zeitgeber - 4 stars.
Solidity - 4 stars.
Sleep and the Soul - 4 stars.
Night Running - 4 stars.
After Zero - 3 stars.
Dream Factory - 3 stars.
You and Whose Army? - 3 stars.
Light Up the Clouds - 2 stars.
January 31, 2024
Von den Storys in der Sammlung kannte ich nur Night Running (war in der Asimov's erschienen)
In direktem Vergleich mit seinen früheren Sammlungen war ich doch etwas underwhelmed.
Ich mochte sehr beispielsweise folgende Geschichten:
Solidity
Menschen shuffeln wild durch die Parallelwelten und vermissen somit ihre Familienmitglieder, treffen aber auch Menschen, die ihrer Familienmitgliedern irgendwie ähnlich sind, aber eben Fremde, mit denen sie keine Vergangenheit teilen. Wendet man ihnen den Rücken zu, shuffeln sie fröhlich (und unfreiwillig!) weiter. Dies betrifft lebende Wesen (auch Tiere) und was auf Papier oder Computern geschrieben wird, auch. Meißelt man etwas in Stein, bleibt es. Die Protagonisten (Perspektivfigur ist Omar, 13 Jahre alt, seine Eltern sind nach Australien eingewandert aus Tunesien) versuchen, sich irgendwie "zu erden", um nicht mehr zu shuffeln.
Die Botschaft ist ganz nice und fast wäre die Story bei mir auch weit oben gelandet, aber irgendwie fehlt mir was am Schluss.
You and whose army?
Wieder so eine Story, bei der ich massiv die Idee bewundere, aber die im Fortgang irgendwie etwas vermissen lässt. Hier gibt es Klone, die ihre Erinnerung teilen. Alle "Brüder" wachen morgens auf und erinnern sich an alles, was jeweils sie gestern erlebt haben und auch ihre "Brüder". Eines Tages verschwindet einer der Brüder (sie haben auch seine Erinnerungen nicht mehr, bekommen keine neuen dazu) und die Suche geht los. Wo steckt er? Warum hat er das getan?
Die Geschichte denkt ziemlich viel zu Ende, was mir vor allem gefällt, sie verbindet eine gute Idee mit einer guten, spannenden Story (mehr als Solidity, die mehr oder minder gut geschriebenes Slice of Life mit leichter Lösungssuche in einer sehr guten Idee ist).
Dream Factory
Hat ich auch nicht hundertprozentig gecasht, war aber an mehreren Stellen unterhaltsam bis nett bis spannend. Hier geht es darum, dass man Katzen mit Synapsen ausstatten kann und so ihr Verhalten steuern kann. Eigentlich, um sie vor Schaden zu bewahren (oder die Vögel, die sie sonst verspeisen würden, vor Schaden zu bewahren), aber viele nutzen es auch um "niedliche Katzenvideos" zu machen. James, die Perspektivfigur, findet das nicht in Ordnung und beginnt, etwas dagegen zu unternehmen, erst im Kleinen, dann in sehr großem Stil.
Hier gibt es auch ein paar witzige Twists zum Thema polarisierende Apps und den Einfluss von Celebrities. Plus, hier sitzt der Schluss auch sehr gut.
Night Running
Hatte eine geile Idee, verlief sich nur irgendwie, wurde zu lang. Hatte ich schon vor einem Weilchen gelesen.
Zeitgeber
War sicher die geilste Story in der Sammlung mit viel Tiefgang und hat mich oft an Beggars in Spain erinnert. Ich habe es als starke Kritik unserer Gesellschaft, vor allem gegenüber Kindern, die zur Schule gehen müssen um festgelegte Uhrzeiten, ob das jetzt ihrem persönlichen Rhythmus entspricht oder nicht, gelesen.
Hier gibt es Menschen, die aus dem Rhythmus geraten, allerdings auch gern heftig, mehrere Stunden, als hätten sie einen krassen Jetlag. Dies geschieht Emma, der Tochter der Perspektivfigur, und auch noch einigen anderen. Wie man damit umgeht, umgehen sollte, umgehen könnte, was einige Maßnahmen bedeuten und wie man mit den Bedürfnissen von Menschen in besonderen Situationen umgeht, das hat mir gut gefallen, bis zum Schluss.
Es gab sicher noch mehr, ich habe das nur über Monate verteilt gelesen, mal wieder, und natürlich keine Notizen gemacht.
In direktem Vergleich mit seinen früheren Sammlungen war ich doch etwas underwhelmed.
Ich mochte sehr beispielsweise folgende Geschichten:
Solidity
Menschen shuffeln wild durch die Parallelwelten und vermissen somit ihre Familienmitglieder, treffen aber auch Menschen, die ihrer Familienmitgliedern irgendwie ähnlich sind, aber eben Fremde, mit denen sie keine Vergangenheit teilen. Wendet man ihnen den Rücken zu, shuffeln sie fröhlich (und unfreiwillig!) weiter. Dies betrifft lebende Wesen (auch Tiere) und was auf Papier oder Computern geschrieben wird, auch. Meißelt man etwas in Stein, bleibt es. Die Protagonisten (Perspektivfigur ist Omar, 13 Jahre alt, seine Eltern sind nach Australien eingewandert aus Tunesien) versuchen, sich irgendwie "zu erden", um nicht mehr zu shuffeln.
Die Botschaft ist ganz nice und fast wäre die Story bei mir auch weit oben gelandet, aber irgendwie fehlt mir was am Schluss.
You and whose army?
Wieder so eine Story, bei der ich massiv die Idee bewundere, aber die im Fortgang irgendwie etwas vermissen lässt. Hier gibt es Klone, die ihre Erinnerung teilen. Alle "Brüder" wachen morgens auf und erinnern sich an alles, was jeweils sie gestern erlebt haben und auch ihre "Brüder". Eines Tages verschwindet einer der Brüder (sie haben auch seine Erinnerungen nicht mehr, bekommen keine neuen dazu) und die Suche geht los. Wo steckt er? Warum hat er das getan?
Die Geschichte denkt ziemlich viel zu Ende, was mir vor allem gefällt, sie verbindet eine gute Idee mit einer guten, spannenden Story (mehr als Solidity, die mehr oder minder gut geschriebenes Slice of Life mit leichter Lösungssuche in einer sehr guten Idee ist).
Dream Factory
Hat ich auch nicht hundertprozentig gecasht, war aber an mehreren Stellen unterhaltsam bis nett bis spannend. Hier geht es darum, dass man Katzen mit Synapsen ausstatten kann und so ihr Verhalten steuern kann. Eigentlich, um sie vor Schaden zu bewahren (oder die Vögel, die sie sonst verspeisen würden, vor Schaden zu bewahren), aber viele nutzen es auch um "niedliche Katzenvideos" zu machen. James, die Perspektivfigur, findet das nicht in Ordnung und beginnt, etwas dagegen zu unternehmen, erst im Kleinen, dann in sehr großem Stil.
Hier gibt es auch ein paar witzige Twists zum Thema polarisierende Apps und den Einfluss von Celebrities. Plus, hier sitzt der Schluss auch sehr gut.
Night Running
Hatte eine geile Idee, verlief sich nur irgendwie, wurde zu lang. Hatte ich schon vor einem Weilchen gelesen.
Zeitgeber
War sicher die geilste Story in der Sammlung mit viel Tiefgang und hat mich oft an Beggars in Spain erinnert. Ich habe es als starke Kritik unserer Gesellschaft, vor allem gegenüber Kindern, die zur Schule gehen müssen um festgelegte Uhrzeiten, ob das jetzt ihrem persönlichen Rhythmus entspricht oder nicht, gelesen.
Hier gibt es Menschen, die aus dem Rhythmus geraten, allerdings auch gern heftig, mehrere Stunden, als hätten sie einen krassen Jetlag. Dies geschieht Emma, der Tochter der Perspektivfigur, und auch noch einigen anderen. Wie man damit umgeht, umgehen sollte, umgehen könnte, was einige Maßnahmen bedeuten und wie man mit den Bedürfnissen von Menschen in besonderen Situationen umgeht, das hat mir gut gefallen, bis zum Schluss.
Es gab sicher noch mehr, ich habe das nur über Monate verteilt gelesen, mal wieder, und natürlich keine Notizen gemacht.
August 18, 2025
It's a mixed bag. Definitely worth reading, but some stories are better skipped altogether.
YOU AND WHOSE ARMY? - A not entirely serious exploration of shared identity. A group of brothers is neurologically linked by a cult intent on producing super-humans. But then the cult fails, and they have to live a normal life. One of the brothers goes missing. Really fun read, loved the characters.
THIS IS NOT THE WAY HOME - Stupid story that shouldn't have been written. A woman gets stranded alone on the Moon by a series of arbitrary and nonsensical events, and tries to get back to Earth by absurd means. It would be really fun to play it in Kerbal Space Program, but to read it? No.
ZEITGEBER - People's circadian rhythm start getting out of sync with the Sun. For a change Greg Egan focuses here not on the technical aspects, but only on the impact on the characters. It's a lovingly developed story, but I couldn't appreciate it because of the sheer implausibility of the premise.
CRISIS ACTORS - Hilarious satire about climate change deniers.
SLEEP AND THE SOUL - People don't need sleep, but if they for any reason become unconscious, they believe the soul departs the body. Surprisingly deep story. Specially liked the evolution of the main character from a regular worker to a terrorist.
AFTER ZERO - Can we crowdsource geoengineering to solve global warming? Probably not, but this story is an interesting exploration of a possibility.
DREAM FACTORY - What if we had brain implants so powerful that we could essentially remote control our pets? That's a fun story about animal rights, student life, and startup culture.
LIGHT UP THE CLOUDS - What if a civilization develops on a gas giant that is being swallowed by a white dwarf? It's a rather unstable situation, and fluctuations on the rate of accretion will be serious problems for the civilization. On the other hand, space travel would be really easy. I think those are great ideas to develop a story with, but then Greg Egan just... didn't. Such a missed opportunity. The story reads like a rough draft, that still lacks a coherent plot or any engaging characters. And for some reason spends pages and pages and pages explaining what a centrifuge is. Please, everybody understands that.
NIGHT RUNNING - Maybe we could use sleepwalking to perform chores? But maybe we get addicted to it, and have poor impulse control during slow-wave sleep? Story is fun and kind of plausible; remind me of the "Night Family" episode of Rick and Morty.
SOLIDITY - Combine the quantum Zeno effect and the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics in a completely classical setting, and we have a world where people drift between timelines when nobody is looking. Does society collapse? Interesting examination of the consequences.
YOU AND WHOSE ARMY? - A not entirely serious exploration of shared identity. A group of brothers is neurologically linked by a cult intent on producing super-humans. But then the cult fails, and they have to live a normal life. One of the brothers goes missing. Really fun read, loved the characters.
THIS IS NOT THE WAY HOME - Stupid story that shouldn't have been written. A woman gets stranded alone on the Moon by a series of arbitrary and nonsensical events, and tries to get back to Earth by absurd means. It would be really fun to play it in Kerbal Space Program, but to read it? No.
ZEITGEBER - People's circadian rhythm start getting out of sync with the Sun. For a change Greg Egan focuses here not on the technical aspects, but only on the impact on the characters. It's a lovingly developed story, but I couldn't appreciate it because of the sheer implausibility of the premise.
CRISIS ACTORS - Hilarious satire about climate change deniers.
SLEEP AND THE SOUL - People don't need sleep, but if they for any reason become unconscious, they believe the soul departs the body. Surprisingly deep story. Specially liked the evolution of the main character from a regular worker to a terrorist.
AFTER ZERO - Can we crowdsource geoengineering to solve global warming? Probably not, but this story is an interesting exploration of a possibility.
DREAM FACTORY - What if we had brain implants so powerful that we could essentially remote control our pets? That's a fun story about animal rights, student life, and startup culture.
LIGHT UP THE CLOUDS - What if a civilization develops on a gas giant that is being swallowed by a white dwarf? It's a rather unstable situation, and fluctuations on the rate of accretion will be serious problems for the civilization. On the other hand, space travel would be really easy. I think those are great ideas to develop a story with, but then Greg Egan just... didn't. Such a missed opportunity. The story reads like a rough draft, that still lacks a coherent plot or any engaging characters. And for some reason spends pages and pages and pages explaining what a centrifuge is. Please, everybody understands that.
NIGHT RUNNING - Maybe we could use sleepwalking to perform chores? But maybe we get addicted to it, and have poor impulse control during slow-wave sleep? Story is fun and kind of plausible; remind me of the "Night Family" episode of Rick and Morty.
SOLIDITY - Combine the quantum Zeno effect and the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics in a completely classical setting, and we have a world where people drift between timelines when nobody is looking. Does society collapse? Interesting examination of the consequences.
September 25, 2023
Interesting ideas, not very developed
I don't know if I'm just getting old and jaded, but these mostly seemed like notes toward a short story, or at most unfinished short stories.
A short story doesn't have to, and often even shouldn't, tie up and neatly explain everything. But on the other hand they should at least sometimes end at a point where something significant has happened, or even failed to happen. For me at least, these didn't especially do that.
There is some heartwarming stuff here, definitely some good and/or wild ideas about weird stuff happening. But for whatever reason did not feel particularly satisfied.
I don't know if I'm just getting old and jaded, but these mostly seemed like notes toward a short story, or at most unfinished short stories.
A short story doesn't have to, and often even shouldn't, tie up and neatly explain everything. But on the other hand they should at least sometimes end at a point where something significant has happened, or even failed to happen. For me at least, these didn't especially do that.
There is some heartwarming stuff here, definitely some good and/or wild ideas about weird stuff happening. But for whatever reason did not feel particularly satisfied.
December 27, 2023
A real mixed bag. Some great concepts throughout but for me only the last two stories stood out and were worth more than the price of admission. ‘Night running’ is quietly dystopian and darkly humorous and explores similar ideas to the tv show Severance. ‘Solidity’ is a more keenly felt nightmare along the lines of the movie “Coherence” that maintains a persistent thread of hope in the better qualities of humanity. These 2 stories resonate deeply with the reality we share at the moment, on the other side of the historical covid divide as we approach new realms of living and working and being.
June 14, 2024
Greg Egan casually flexes his excessive writing talent
Greg Egan casually flexing his writing talent all over these stories. So much imagination, so many revolutionary ideas and stories... I had to stop half way and go look at his other offerings just to see if I've ran into his books before.
This is what they call a tour de force, a calm collection of explosive creativity that should be more widely praised.
I haven't gone back and re-read so many parts of stories in years. Kudos Greg Egan. Kudos.
Greg Egan casually flexing his writing talent all over these stories. So much imagination, so many revolutionary ideas and stories... I had to stop half way and go look at his other offerings just to see if I've ran into his books before.
This is what they call a tour de force, a calm collection of explosive creativity that should be more widely praised.
I haven't gone back and re-read so many parts of stories in years. Kudos Greg Egan. Kudos.
May 14, 2023
A solid collection. Crisis Actors, Night Running, and Zeitgeber are my top picks, in that order. Light Up the Clouds leaves a lot on the table and feels like an exploration for a possible novel or series. After Zero is a bit dry with the way it jumps forward in quick vignettes, seems like it could have been more resonant with more length. You and Whose Army is the relative weakest of the bunch, as the buildup lacked tension and the (twist?) ending didn't work for me.
May 18, 2023
la passione di Greg Egan: far affrontare ai suoi personaggi sfide tecnologiche, filosofiche e sociali assurdamente superiori ai loro mezzi. far volare nello spazio un aliante per mezzo di carrucole, catapulte e liane. creare un ordine sociale quando il multiverso è collassato e la gente e le cose attorno a te cambiano appena non le osservi. Greg Egan è un adorabile folle.
September 28, 2023
Another fantastic collection of short fiction from Egan. There's a lot of good stuff in this one, a lot of interesting concepts he works on, with some great commentary on our late stage capitalism society. Light Up The Clouds and Solidity were two of my favorites. I think he's one of the strongest short fiction writers currently working.
June 7, 2024
Another great collection by Egan - maybe not his best but a strong collection with some great entries.
My favorite stories were the title story Sleep and the Soul, Night Running, and You and Whose Army. The overarching theme of sleep and consciousness is ripe for cool ideas and fun stories.
My favorite stories were the title story Sleep and the Soul, Night Running, and You and Whose Army. The overarching theme of sleep and consciousness is ripe for cool ideas and fun stories.
July 9, 2023
I never am disappointed by a Greg Egan short story but I think this is my first collection of his I thought was this good. Definitely my favourite in terms of the interplay between the speculative aspects and the social commentary
April 24, 2024
10 short stories. The last two were 4* and the rest maybe 3* All of them were interesting to begin with, but seemed to fade midstream somewhere and then kind of fade. Might re-read the last two sometime again, but not the rest.
March 24, 2025
I don't think I would choose this book again. It's a weaker collection compared to Axiomatic. However a few were weird enough to be worthwhile:
- Solidity
- Dream Factory
- Night Running
- This Is Not the Way Home
- Light Up the Clouds
- Solidity
- Dream Factory
- Night Running
- This Is Not the Way Home
- Light Up the Clouds
June 19, 2023
A good collection of short stories exploring interesting ideas.
June 29, 2023
Very good collection of short stories but not great. I took notes on each of them in my Kindle.
July 1, 2023
I’ve always loved Egan’s short stories the best—though many of the novels are outstanding too—so I’m very happy to see a new selection.
July 23, 2023
Solid "What if?" Stories
July 28, 2023
Very very good. Contemporary, thinky philosophical themes rather than abstract maths/physics ones. The title story, paradoxically, I've found to be the weaker one.
December 23, 2023
I just started reading, but Egan is kind of my favorite writer.
January 25, 2024
Delightful collection of mindbending shorts
August 30, 2025
good stories, but several just suddenly end with no resolution.
March 3, 2024
A solid collection, with some thought provoking stories - but often a good idea (e.g. around the soul and continuous conciousness) wasn't developed into anything with emotional impact.
May 17, 2024
“Sleep and the Soul” is the newly released anthology by Greg Egan, and it contains a collection of his recently published short fiction. While most of it seems to be clearly science fiction, there are some stories one would have to classify as speculative fiction.
One of these is the titular “Sleep and the Soul” which I would classify as a type of alternative world historical fiction. In this world, people do not normally sleep or loose consciousness. I also have a hard time finding a scientific basis for the phase shifting in the story “Solidity” although it might have one that escapes me.
These stories are all explorations of the “what if” question, and are very readable. Some will be engage the reader more than others, but that’s the nature of an anthology. Mr. Egan is always author that produces quality content, and this collection is no exception. I would also point out that this collection is very fairly priced in e-book format.
One of these is the titular “Sleep and the Soul” which I would classify as a type of alternative world historical fiction. In this world, people do not normally sleep or loose consciousness. I also have a hard time finding a scientific basis for the phase shifting in the story “Solidity” although it might have one that escapes me.
These stories are all explorations of the “what if” question, and are very readable. Some will be engage the reader more than others, but that’s the nature of an anthology. Mr. Egan is always author that produces quality content, and this collection is no exception. I would also point out that this collection is very fairly priced in e-book format.
July 28, 2023
I’ve really liked everything I’ve read by Greg Egan and this is no exception. A collection of short stories that were not as mind blowing as his longer fiction, but still interesting. Would read his other stuff first.
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