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Phoresis and Other Journeys
Phoresis and Other Journeys contains three novellas from Hugo Award-winning author Greg Egan.
• “The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred”: civil war in an asteroid colony sees refugees fleeing, by any means possible.
• “Dispersion”: a world where all life is divided into six cyclically invisible and intangible groups faces a terrifying new disease.
• “Phoresis”: the inhabitants of a double planet embark on an epic, multi-generational project to cross between the twin worlds.
• “The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred”: civil war in an asteroid colony sees refugees fleeing, by any means possible.
• “Dispersion”: a world where all life is divided into six cyclically invisible and intangible groups faces a terrifying new disease.
• “Phoresis”: the inhabitants of a double planet embark on an epic, multi-generational project to cross between the twin worlds.
271 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 7, 2023
47 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Greg Egan
266 books2,780 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 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 28, 2023
At the time of writing this is Egan's newest work, a collection of three novellas originally published as hardcover special editions by the estimable Subterranean Press. It was a spontaneous quick read for me as I was craving some hard sci-fi. Of course, it doesn't measure up to the best Egan I've read (Diaspora), but as expected there are some great (and some not-so-great) nuggets of scientific wildness in here. From what I can tell, the throughline connecting the stories is a shared theme or motif of duality between neighboring places—Ceres and Vesta, Myton and Ryther, Tvíbura and Tvíburi —and the resulting scenarios that occur when a balance between them is disturbed. There are any number of metaphors for our present society waiting to be squeezed out of these stories. While in general I enjoyed the collection, the middle novella Dispersion proved to be a bit of a stinker.
The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred ★★★★★
This novella struck me as significantly more "normal" than the other Egan works I've read, but it still has his trademark super-hard science underpinning the narrative. I always admire how Egan takes a high-concept idea (in this case the trading belt connecting the two focal asteroid colonies), spins it upside-down, and uses it to fuel interesting conflicts. I also admired how Egan was able to seamlessly weave together multiple timelines and viewpoints in this story without any cheesy markers spelling it out for the reader. It was quite easy to figure out when and where I was just by paying attention. Aside from all that, the novella has a stellar ending. I'm still thinking about it a week later.
Dispersion ★★☆☆☆
If 4000/800 was Greg Egan at his most "normal", Dispersion is him at his weirdest. There were a few things about this novella that I liked. The faux-old-English setting was an interesting change of pace from the usual sci-fi fare. As usual, Egan's characters have carefully sketched individual personalities even if most of their dialogue is focused on scientific problem-solving. And the idea that Dispersion revolves around is quite cool—most matter is split into six "fractions" that are on a twelve-dimensional cycle such that any given two fractions can only interact at specific times. A dire conflict between villages in different fractions arises. The thing that kept me from enjoying this novella is that the way this system works, and the actions the characters take in studying it, are nearly incomprehensible. I think it would take multiple rereads to really understand what's going on here. But because the novella is more concerned with exploring this wacky idea, rather than saying something thematically interesting, or demonstrating a compelling character arc, a reread is a tough call even at ~130 pages. This one wasn't for me (I'd say it's only for people smarter than me).
Phoresis ★★★★☆
This is an interesting novella that's almost as much worldbuilding exercise as it is science fiction story. Two twin worlds, confusingly named Tvíbura and Tvíburi, are in locked orbits at a relatively miniscule distance. Tvíbura supports a small population of pseudo-parthenogenetic women with endoparasitic male "brothers" that compete with each other in their sister's abdomen for the right to extrude from her during copulation (wtf, right?). Because Tvíbura is entirely covered in ice over an invisible ocean, the only way to grow food is to wait for geysers to erupt and bring organic matter up from the seafloor, which functions as soil. But when the geysers stop coming as often, the Tvíburans must devise a way to cross to the comparatively more fertile Tvíburi, or risk starvation. Doing so involves coaxing a giant cryophilic "Yggdrasil" plant to grow an ice tower into outer space halfway to Tvíburi, climb to the top, and then 'fall' down to the other planet, with the eventual goal of creating a second colony there that can build a second tower to be conjoined with the first by ropes or a cable. The project will take generations.
It's a pretty crazy scenario, related through three chapters at different stages of the project, following different protagonists from different generations. The worldbuilding, though interesting, is curiously incoherent, at turns delightfully realistic (basically any description of physics, as per usual with Egan), to an implausible conceit (the whole twin-worlds scenario to begin with), to handwaved afterthoughts that Egan never bothers engaging with (how do the Tvíburans have the technology to do any of this? it's mentioned they have photographs—how? what do they use to build their gliders with and if it's metal where does it come from? how do the characters seemingly have no problem breathing in outer space?). The ideas on display are wacky enough that I found it easy to just revel in them and not get too bogged down in the internal logic of whatever crazy universe this is. Buried under all the techno-jargon and braingasms is an interesting story about generational dreams (i.e., fixing climate change) and whether they can ever be attained.
The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred ★★★★★
This novella struck me as significantly more "normal" than the other Egan works I've read, but it still has his trademark super-hard science underpinning the narrative. I always admire how Egan takes a high-concept idea (in this case the trading belt connecting the two focal asteroid colonies), spins it upside-down, and uses it to fuel interesting conflicts. I also admired how Egan was able to seamlessly weave together multiple timelines and viewpoints in this story without any cheesy markers spelling it out for the reader. It was quite easy to figure out when and where I was just by paying attention. Aside from all that, the novella has a stellar ending. I'm still thinking about it a week later.
Dispersion ★★☆☆☆
If 4000/800 was Greg Egan at his most "normal", Dispersion is him at his weirdest. There were a few things about this novella that I liked. The faux-old-English setting was an interesting change of pace from the usual sci-fi fare. As usual, Egan's characters have carefully sketched individual personalities even if most of their dialogue is focused on scientific problem-solving. And the idea that Dispersion revolves around is quite cool—most matter is split into six "fractions" that are on a twelve-dimensional cycle such that any given two fractions can only interact at specific times. A dire conflict between villages in different fractions arises. The thing that kept me from enjoying this novella is that the way this system works, and the actions the characters take in studying it, are nearly incomprehensible. I think it would take multiple rereads to really understand what's going on here. But because the novella is more concerned with exploring this wacky idea, rather than saying something thematically interesting, or demonstrating a compelling character arc, a reread is a tough call even at ~130 pages. This one wasn't for me (I'd say it's only for people smarter than me).
Phoresis ★★★★☆
This is an interesting novella that's almost as much worldbuilding exercise as it is science fiction story. Two twin worlds, confusingly named Tvíbura and Tvíburi, are in locked orbits at a relatively miniscule distance. Tvíbura supports a small population of pseudo-parthenogenetic women with endoparasitic male "brothers" that compete with each other in their sister's abdomen for the right to extrude from her during copulation (wtf, right?). Because Tvíbura is entirely covered in ice over an invisible ocean, the only way to grow food is to wait for geysers to erupt and bring organic matter up from the seafloor, which functions as soil. But when the geysers stop coming as often, the Tvíburans must devise a way to cross to the comparatively more fertile Tvíburi, or risk starvation. Doing so involves coaxing a giant cryophilic "Yggdrasil" plant to grow an ice tower into outer space halfway to Tvíburi, climb to the top, and then 'fall' down to the other planet, with the eventual goal of creating a second colony there that can build a second tower to be conjoined with the first by ropes or a cable. The project will take generations.
It's a pretty crazy scenario, related through three chapters at different stages of the project, following different protagonists from different generations. The worldbuilding, though interesting, is curiously incoherent, at turns delightfully realistic (basically any description of physics, as per usual with Egan), to an implausible conceit (the whole twin-worlds scenario to begin with), to handwaved afterthoughts that Egan never bothers engaging with (how do the Tvíburans have the technology to do any of this? it's mentioned they have photographs—how? what do they use to build their gliders with and if it's metal where does it come from? how do the characters seemingly have no problem breathing in outer space?). The ideas on display are wacky enough that I found it easy to just revel in them and not get too bogged down in the internal logic of whatever crazy universe this is. Buried under all the techno-jargon and braingasms is an interesting story about generational dreams (i.e., fixing climate change) and whether they can ever be attained.
July 21, 2023
A collection of 3 stories of varying quality. It seems like Egan came up with several weird ideas and decided to turn them into stories, however the problem is that the bulk of each "story" is simply him explaining this idea; the actual narratives are paper thin and offer little beyond the bare minimum framework within which he can present said idea. While the ideas themselves are interesting enough, the execution is somewhat underwhelming; all three stories suffer from the problem of being simultaneously too long, lacking the "punch" typically delivered by a concise short story, and being too short to fully flesh out a world & compelling narrative. As such, we're left with an idea which could be explained in much more concise manner that is unfortunately padded with a ton of fluff to stretch out the page count.
"The Four Thousand, The Eight Hundred" - 3/5 - interesting premise of two sister asteroid colonies where a group is facing extreme discrimination on one colony and must use an unorthodox way of escaping to the other colony. The main idea of how they travel between worlds is interesting and it has a rather strong, punchy end; however, the story itself is kind of mundane and almost overly "normal" for Egan. There are way too many characters mentioned whom you learn nothing about. This one is definitely too short; there is some attempt at worldbuilding which I found compelling, but it all ends right as it feels like its picking up momentum.
"Dispersion" - 1/5 - this one is extremely strange and confusing. The setting is some sort of Old English type village but all matter is comprised of 6 "fractions" where things composed of certain fractions can only see/interact with certain other fractions, but when doing do they pick up particles of those other fractions. The main conflict is that things are mysteriously dying or losing their fractions or...something...due to this interaction. I found that idea to be pretty cool but, similarly to Disapora, Egan continuously loses the story to focus on infodumps explaining the science to make this idea work which is tedious and abstruse. I ultimately found this "science" too hard to follow and there was not a counterbalance of rewarding narrative to keep the reader entertained amidst this extremely abstract concept. I gave up on this one halfway through.
"Phoresis" - 3.5/5 - This is the best of the group and I believe the longest (at least it felt the most fleshed out). Basically people live on a dying ice-covered planet and are trying to build an ice tower to migrate to the very nearby twin planet which may still have farmland. The world is interesting and suitably abstract/alien feeling (gives me Stephen Baxter - Vacuum Diagram vibes), although the level of technology and education seems quite arbitrary and even contradictory. The environment and worldbuilding is creative and well done, although we're given an unclear timeline with a million characters (who literally have 0 defining characteristics beyond the name) which is unnecessarily confusing. The society is also made up entirely of women who have endoparasitic brothers who only emerge during copulation which is weird as hell-- it's actually used in an interesting way a couple of times although is largely unexplored and has almost no impact on the narrative whatsoever. Overall, the story had a great and abstract "alien" sci fi vibe and it proceeded at a decent enough pace, but it lacked any kind of twist, "punch", or payoff. Similar to a lot of the stories in Axiomatic, after I read it my feeling was basically "Ok, I guess that's it? That was...fine"
Absolutely not essential Egan by any stretch, but a decent collection if you're looking some weird sci fi. Definitely go for Axiomatic first if you're looking for Greg Egan doing short stories. I got this for $2 on Kindle and it was worth that, but I wouldn't pay more.
"The Four Thousand, The Eight Hundred" - 3/5 - interesting premise of two sister asteroid colonies where a group is facing extreme discrimination on one colony and must use an unorthodox way of escaping to the other colony. The main idea of how they travel between worlds is interesting and it has a rather strong, punchy end; however, the story itself is kind of mundane and almost overly "normal" for Egan. There are way too many characters mentioned whom you learn nothing about. This one is definitely too short; there is some attempt at worldbuilding which I found compelling, but it all ends right as it feels like its picking up momentum.
"Dispersion" - 1/5 - this one is extremely strange and confusing. The setting is some sort of Old English type village but all matter is comprised of 6 "fractions" where things composed of certain fractions can only see/interact with certain other fractions, but when doing do they pick up particles of those other fractions. The main conflict is that things are mysteriously dying or losing their fractions or...something...due to this interaction. I found that idea to be pretty cool but, similarly to Disapora, Egan continuously loses the story to focus on infodumps explaining the science to make this idea work which is tedious and abstruse. I ultimately found this "science" too hard to follow and there was not a counterbalance of rewarding narrative to keep the reader entertained amidst this extremely abstract concept. I gave up on this one halfway through.
"Phoresis" - 3.5/5 - This is the best of the group and I believe the longest (at least it felt the most fleshed out). Basically people live on a dying ice-covered planet and are trying to build an ice tower to migrate to the very nearby twin planet which may still have farmland. The world is interesting and suitably abstract/alien feeling (gives me Stephen Baxter - Vacuum Diagram vibes), although the level of technology and education seems quite arbitrary and even contradictory. The environment and worldbuilding is creative and well done, although we're given an unclear timeline with a million characters (who literally have 0 defining characteristics beyond the name) which is unnecessarily confusing. The society is also made up entirely of women who have endoparasitic brothers who only emerge during copulation which is weird as hell-- it's actually used in an interesting way a couple of times although is largely unexplored and has almost no impact on the narrative whatsoever. Overall, the story had a great and abstract "alien" sci fi vibe and it proceeded at a decent enough pace, but it lacked any kind of twist, "punch", or payoff. Similar to a lot of the stories in Axiomatic, after I read it my feeling was basically "Ok, I guess that's it? That was...fine"
Absolutely not essential Egan by any stretch, but a decent collection if you're looking some weird sci fi. Definitely go for Axiomatic first if you're looking for Greg Egan doing short stories. I got this for $2 on Kindle and it was worth that, but I wouldn't pay more.
December 28, 2023
All three novellas are very good.
“The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred” explores a civil war on an asteroid colony generations after the colony was founded.
“Dispersion” is about a planet inhabited by six groups that are cyclically intangible and invisible to each other. Then a new disease spreads among all six groups and the race is on to find the cause and a cure. Very good descriptions of how the six groups cyclically are able to interact.
“Phoresis” tells of two tidally locked planets where one is slowly becoming uninhabitable. Interesting and courageous folks explore possible solutions and work to make them happen.
“The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred” explores a civil war on an asteroid colony generations after the colony was founded.
“Dispersion” is about a planet inhabited by six groups that are cyclically intangible and invisible to each other. Then a new disease spreads among all six groups and the race is on to find the cause and a cure. Very good descriptions of how the six groups cyclically are able to interact.
“Phoresis” tells of two tidally locked planets where one is slowly becoming uninhabitable. Interesting and courageous folks explore possible solutions and work to make them happen.
December 3, 2024
2 tales of conflict and one of hope
The first two tales are a bitingly bitter analysis of our current calamity where cooperation and tolerance are destroyed by social media that encourages extremism. Egan transposes our moral dilemma into space and bravely leaves us to stew in our own juices rather than provide a happy ending. Though disturbing the moral is clear- at least me.
Thankfully the final story is more hopeful beginning with a desperate situation and showing how to eventually resolve it. Naturally he doesn’t make it a totally comfortable saccharine read, but adds a touch of exobiology for added piquancy. Highly recommended for readers who like a challenge.
The first two tales are a bitingly bitter analysis of our current calamity where cooperation and tolerance are destroyed by social media that encourages extremism. Egan transposes our moral dilemma into space and bravely leaves us to stew in our own juices rather than provide a happy ending. Though disturbing the moral is clear- at least me.
Thankfully the final story is more hopeful beginning with a desperate situation and showing how to eventually resolve it. Naturally he doesn’t make it a totally comfortable saccharine read, but adds a touch of exobiology for added piquancy. Highly recommended for readers who like a challenge.
November 23, 2024
Phoresis an interesting collection - the first two entries failed to satisfy but the third and namesake story was quite good. I did feel some deja vu on the last entry, and I suspect I read a similar entry about trying to reach cross planetary distances with crude technology from Egan before.
April 3, 2024
Greg Eagan is one of the greats.
I will happily read anything he writes.
This collection of stories is not his best work.
All a bit rambling and less than engaging.
Or maybe I was just bored.
I will happily read anything he writes.
This collection of stories is not his best work.
All a bit rambling and less than engaging.
Or maybe I was just bored.
September 25, 2024
weird and strange...in a good way
August 19, 2023
Ratings:
Dispersion - 4 stars.
The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred - 4 stars.
Phoresis - 3 stars.
Dispersion - 4 stars.
The Four Thousand, the Eight Hundred - 4 stars.
Phoresis - 3 stars.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews