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Morphotrophic
In a world where the cells that make up our bodies are not committed to any one organism, Marla is confronted by the fickleness of her cytes, and resolves to understand them with help from Ada, a centuries-old Flourisher. Swappers like Ruth embrace fluidity, and meet with others to exchange cytes, seeking the perfect mix. But Ruth faces her own crisis, and as the technology to manipulate cytes advances, all three are drawn into a struggle to shape the future of life.
386 pages, Paperback
First published April 9, 2024
87 people are currently reading
401 people want to read
About the author
Greg Egan
265 books2,777 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 45 reviews
April 18, 2024
If you and I have known each other a little while, you know that I almost feel like I need to be qualified to review something. And admittedly, I've never been sitting further from that descriptor than I am now.
I've only read a handful of science fiction books in my life, and they've pretty much been accidents. Or rather, I came to them because they were foremost another genre, and I was willing to overlook the rest. I have a few reasons for not being drawn to SF but chief among them is that I am terrible at science. Like, supremely bad. So when detail leans in this direction, I tend to check out.
However, I'm doing new things lately lol. Relevantly, one new thing: ignoring genre. I never would have known this book existed, much less considered reading it, if my friend Teal hadn't added it to their TBR. And so it goes... hey what is that, hmm blurb looks interesting, ok it's cheap I'll grab it and try one day, wait my friend is actually reading it now, oh let's go.
Anyway this is starting to look more like a blog post than a review, where was I. Oh right, not qualified to review this genre. Whatever, I bought and read the book, so here we are.
Those who read hard SF are probably accustomed to this, but the characterization here was nonexistent. It was about plot and world building, full stop. Weirdly, I'm not holding that against it. I let go of concerns about how individual characters would turn out and instead focused on the big picture, how the world would turn out.
That plot, for the most part, was solid and interestingly written — my attention rarely drifted, and that's not nothing. The ethical elements it raised sent my mind whirling at times, in a good way, and this would be a meaty choice for a niche book club. My curiosity about how the scenario would turn out never faltered; without that, the story would have held little value for me. The world building was fascinating, robust, well developed, and creative, but at times there were minor holes, I think. I say "I think" because if those holes were patched in the science minutiae, I missed it, with no regrets. I was able to hang with the sciencey stuff early on, enough to grasp the foundation, but as it progressed and research discoveries were made, I'd say I caught half of it, and apparently I'm feeling generous about myself today.
But book gets a pass for any science that slipped through my mental fingers, because of my previously referenced ineptitude. The notes I do have, though, start around mid-book, when the plot starts to get a bit looser and repetitive. I think a skosh of developmental editing could have gone a long way here. A LOT was bitten off with the advancements, timelines, story arcs and their amalgamation, and at times it felt like scope creep. And then the end, while mostly satisfying, felt a bit anti-climactic? That's the most I want to say about it b/c spoilers, but considering the suspense in most of the story, I wanted a little... more, somehow.
I'm really glad I read this. It was SO much different from my usual that I suspect it will stand out in my memory, and it opened my mind to this corner of literature when the experience could have easily gone the other way.
3.25 stars
I've only read a handful of science fiction books in my life, and they've pretty much been accidents. Or rather, I came to them because they were foremost another genre, and I was willing to overlook the rest. I have a few reasons for not being drawn to SF but chief among them is that I am terrible at science. Like, supremely bad. So when detail leans in this direction, I tend to check out.
However, I'm doing new things lately lol. Relevantly, one new thing: ignoring genre. I never would have known this book existed, much less considered reading it, if my friend Teal hadn't added it to their TBR. And so it goes... hey what is that, hmm blurb looks interesting, ok it's cheap I'll grab it and try one day, wait my friend is actually reading it now, oh let's go.
Anyway this is starting to look more like a blog post than a review, where was I. Oh right, not qualified to review this genre. Whatever, I bought and read the book, so here we are.
Those who read hard SF are probably accustomed to this, but the characterization here was nonexistent. It was about plot and world building, full stop. Weirdly, I'm not holding that against it. I let go of concerns about how individual characters would turn out and instead focused on the big picture, how the world would turn out.
That plot, for the most part, was solid and interestingly written — my attention rarely drifted, and that's not nothing. The ethical elements it raised sent my mind whirling at times, in a good way, and this would be a meaty choice for a niche book club. My curiosity about how the scenario would turn out never faltered; without that, the story would have held little value for me. The world building was fascinating, robust, well developed, and creative, but at times there were minor holes, I think. I say "I think" because if those holes were patched in the science minutiae, I missed it, with no regrets. I was able to hang with the sciencey stuff early on, enough to grasp the foundation, but as it progressed and research discoveries were made, I'd say I caught half of it, and apparently I'm feeling generous about myself today.
But book gets a pass for any science that slipped through my mental fingers, because of my previously referenced ineptitude. The notes I do have, though, start around mid-book, when the plot starts to get a bit looser and repetitive. I think a skosh of developmental editing could have gone a long way here. A LOT was bitten off with the advancements, timelines, story arcs and their amalgamation, and at times it felt like scope creep. And then the end, while mostly satisfying, felt a bit anti-climactic? That's the most I want to say about it b/c spoilers, but considering the suspense in most of the story, I wanted a little... more, somehow.
I'm really glad I read this. It was SO much different from my usual that I suspect it will stand out in my memory, and it opened my mind to this corner of literature when the experience could have easily gone the other way.
3.25 stars
April 21, 2024
This was different, it's about biology rather than physics like he normally writes about. Good book, good writing, characters...well I had a problem a couple times remembering who was who and what their story was. I think it's because all the characters in the book are women. I see so many women's names, not just the main characters but also side characters, and I'm like "Who was Annette again?". That might just be my brain's fault rather than the author's, but I just wanted to mention it.
In this world the people seem like humans, they have arms and legs and cell phones and other modern stuff, but their biology is not like us. For one thing they give birth by gaining weight and then separating a portion of their own body into a baby. So no sex in this world. Also there's these microscopic things called "cytes" that contain the information, DNA etc., of how to be a human but also includes memories all down the line of ancestors (well, not all of them but many). It's been a long time since high school biology but I don't remember "cytes" coming up but then maybe they are part of us or else he just made them up, I dunno.
There at times seem to be a main character that we follow for awhile but then we follow a new main character, so I guess it's more of a cast of characters. One character is part of an illegal group that like to challenge someone to share cytes with them. They join at the back and cytes flow from one person to another sometimes giving then good stuff, like new knowledge, but sometimes bad stuff. Sometimes someone will end up draining too many cytes from the other person and that person ends up in the hospital. Well our plucky MC is not worried and shushes her sister's warnings. Little does she know what's in store for her at her next match.
Another MC is working as a scientist and comes to the attention of a rich lady who is starting an Institute to research cytes. These two MCs are destined to meet though in an unusual way.
A bit of a spoiler ahead
The main question these people are researching (oh and there's another place researching the same thing as the Institute but does shady stuff. The woman who runs the shady place is the rival of the rich lady from the Institute) is this: is it possible to give birth to yourself so that you don't have to die of old age. Which is a wild premise and to me opens up all kinds of problems like: eventually there will be no new people born in the world, just the same people over and over again. And wouldn't that lead to a huge loss of potential innovation from new people? It's sort of like cloning. Imagine that there were a set number of people in the world and when they get old they just clone a baby that has all of their memories and can talk like an adult. That idea scares me. Anyway Egen doesn't go that far in his novel, those are just my meandering thoughts.
All in all, different than the usual Egan book but still good and worth reading. There's sections that I would label "psychological horror". Well not like a horror writer's horror, don't want to scare anyone away but what some of these people have to live through just stirred my heart.
In this world the people seem like humans, they have arms and legs and cell phones and other modern stuff, but their biology is not like us. For one thing they give birth by gaining weight and then separating a portion of their own body into a baby. So no sex in this world. Also there's these microscopic things called "cytes" that contain the information, DNA etc., of how to be a human but also includes memories all down the line of ancestors (well, not all of them but many). It's been a long time since high school biology but I don't remember "cytes" coming up but then maybe they are part of us or else he just made them up, I dunno.
There at times seem to be a main character that we follow for awhile but then we follow a new main character, so I guess it's more of a cast of characters. One character is part of an illegal group that like to challenge someone to share cytes with them. They join at the back and cytes flow from one person to another sometimes giving then good stuff, like new knowledge, but sometimes bad stuff. Sometimes someone will end up draining too many cytes from the other person and that person ends up in the hospital. Well our plucky MC is not worried and shushes her sister's warnings. Little does she know what's in store for her at her next match.
Another MC is working as a scientist and comes to the attention of a rich lady who is starting an Institute to research cytes. These two MCs are destined to meet though in an unusual way.
A bit of a spoiler ahead
The main question these people are researching (oh and there's another place researching the same thing as the Institute but does shady stuff. The woman who runs the shady place is the rival of the rich lady from the Institute) is this: is it possible to give birth to yourself so that you don't have to die of old age. Which is a wild premise and to me opens up all kinds of problems like: eventually there will be no new people born in the world, just the same people over and over again. And wouldn't that lead to a huge loss of potential innovation from new people? It's sort of like cloning. Imagine that there were a set number of people in the world and when they get old they just clone a baby that has all of their memories and can talk like an adult. That idea scares me. Anyway Egen doesn't go that far in his novel, those are just my meandering thoughts.
All in all, different than the usual Egan book but still good and worth reading. There's sections that I would label "psychological horror". Well not like a horror writer's horror, don't want to scare anyone away but what some of these people have to live through just stirred my heart.
June 6, 2024
Greg Egan, the hardest of hard science fiction writers, turns his attention from math, physics and topology to biology. This is a first for him, and it's stunning, as usual.
Egan's worlds challenge the reader to understand the scope of the changes. He doesn't coddle readers, he makes them work to grasp the nature of the world and the ramifications. In this one, the ability of multicellular life does not make a commitment to a single organism, but can migrate in a strange version of Darwinian survival. It starts off with a bang as a woman wakes up with her leg missing as her cells have decided to leave for some reason. After this introduction we find out how the biology has changed.
It's hard enough to grasp what's going on and what the characters are doing about it, but the really stunning thing is when you realize that Egan has changed the nature of all life on earth, going back to the dawn of time. It's a completely realized concept as he is so good at.
My only complaint is the usual one with Egan's work, that the dialogue often feels stilted and formal. It feels a little different from how real people would talk, the sentences and reasoning are too well structured. Some people may think and speak this way, but in an Egan novel everybody does. There's not a lot of distinction in voices.
But the concept is stunning, and how he carries it out is fascinating. He does time jumps also that he doesn't lead up to, so that's another thing readers have to figure out for themselves.
Ultimately, though, it all works. An amazing book.
Egan's worlds challenge the reader to understand the scope of the changes. He doesn't coddle readers, he makes them work to grasp the nature of the world and the ramifications. In this one, the ability of multicellular life does not make a commitment to a single organism, but can migrate in a strange version of Darwinian survival. It starts off with a bang as a woman wakes up with her leg missing as her cells have decided to leave for some reason. After this introduction we find out how the biology has changed.
It's hard enough to grasp what's going on and what the characters are doing about it, but the really stunning thing is when you realize that Egan has changed the nature of all life on earth, going back to the dawn of time. It's a completely realized concept as he is so good at.
My only complaint is the usual one with Egan's work, that the dialogue often feels stilted and formal. It feels a little different from how real people would talk, the sentences and reasoning are too well structured. Some people may think and speak this way, but in an Egan novel everybody does. There's not a lot of distinction in voices.
But the concept is stunning, and how he carries it out is fascinating. He does time jumps also that he doesn't lead up to, so that's another thing readers have to figure out for themselves.
Ultimately, though, it all works. An amazing book.
June 10, 2024
one reads Egan for the physics, the math, the quantum ontology and sights beyond consciousness. that's why i read him, anyway, and why i enjoyed Schild's Ladder and Diaspora so much. in exchange, one forgives him the complete lack of characterization or reflection or any of that messy people-related stuff: Egan's not writing about people. this time, however, he is, and it is almost completely without that Egan magic. this book could have been written by any of the thousands of scifi hacks not really worth reading. at no point was my mind blown; i have no desire to reread this one; unlike his other major works, i grokked it all the first time through. it's just speculative biology and a bunch of cardboard characters, none of whom are worth remembering.
also, what was that crap with the blinking of all the city's lights to send morse code? what is this, the ghastly Three Body Problem? sloppy, egan!
also, what was that crap with the blinking of all the city's lights to send morse code? what is this, the ghastly Three Body Problem? sloppy, egan!
April 27, 2024
A fantastic exploration of an alternative biology. In our world, the cells in an organism belong to it: attempts to directly transfer cells from one organism to another usually result in rejection by the immune system. But in this story, groups of cell (cytes) communicate with each other and with other cells to determine their course of action. Given the right signals, the cells can decide as a group to, for example, leave a person for another person which provides a better environment.
The story starts with two main characters: one who wakes up with parts of her body missing, her cells deciding to leave her for unknown reasons, leading her to become a researcher stuying how cytes communicate and decide on their roles in people's bodies. The other is a Swapper, a person who actively seeks out others to exchange their cytes, hoping to find a better combination of cytes that may eventually let them live as Flourishers, a group of people whose cytes cooperate so well that they can live for hundreds of years.
Both would eventually meet, in unusual circumstances, when the research leads to the discovery of a set of signals that can persuade the cytes to change their roles. But danger lurks, for there is another group that wants to use the research for their own purposes and are not above using murder to stop others.
Through the characters, we get to see how people live in this world, where evolution has lead to a world that looks much like our own: but on the level of cells, groups of them can decide to migrate to another body, or even change their role in the body. This has repercussions in the act of reproduction, but you'll have to read the story to discover how this happens in this alternate world.
The story starts with two main characters: one who wakes up with parts of her body missing, her cells deciding to leave her for unknown reasons, leading her to become a researcher stuying how cytes communicate and decide on their roles in people's bodies. The other is a Swapper, a person who actively seeks out others to exchange their cytes, hoping to find a better combination of cytes that may eventually let them live as Flourishers, a group of people whose cytes cooperate so well that they can live for hundreds of years.
Both would eventually meet, in unusual circumstances, when the research leads to the discovery of a set of signals that can persuade the cytes to change their roles. But danger lurks, for there is another group that wants to use the research for their own purposes and are not above using murder to stop others.
Through the characters, we get to see how people live in this world, where evolution has lead to a world that looks much like our own: but on the level of cells, groups of them can decide to migrate to another body, or even change their role in the body. This has repercussions in the act of reproduction, but you'll have to read the story to discover how this happens in this alternate world.
February 20, 2025
Greg Egan clearly heard me say, many years ago, "isn't it weird that my body is made of all these individual cells that don't want to stop being me? Wouldn't it be weird though if one day they just decided to stop being me and go be something else?" and then he wrote this book and I read it and I approved.
The first third of this book was extremely my jam. Present a novel idea, explore different aspects of how this plays out in society — this is what I love about scifi. I enjoyed learning about what it's like to wake up missing a limb, to voluntarily exchange cells with someone else, to somehow be able to replenish your cells to the point that you're effectively immortal. Cool. But once we start following these threads along, a core narrative emerges and we shed all the different angles and the wide open possibilities in favour of one theme. And okay, it's an interesting theme, but it felt like possibility squandered. I wanted to know more about all the other stuff too. So once this started happening, it was less my jam. Still a good read, but not "oh hell yeah" levels.
Going off other reviews I thought this would make me feel more squeamish than it actually did. Some bits are mildly unpleasant but it doesn't really go beyond that.
Although it didn't really go where I wanted it to go, it was my kinda thing, and the ideas were still novel and enjoyable to ponder. Thanks Greg.
The first third of this book was extremely my jam. Present a novel idea, explore different aspects of how this plays out in society — this is what I love about scifi. I enjoyed learning about what it's like to wake up missing a limb, to voluntarily exchange cells with someone else, to somehow be able to replenish your cells to the point that you're effectively immortal. Cool. But once we start following these threads along, a core narrative emerges and we shed all the different angles and the wide open possibilities in favour of one theme. And okay, it's an interesting theme, but it felt like possibility squandered. I wanted to know more about all the other stuff too. So once this started happening, it was less my jam. Still a good read, but not "oh hell yeah" levels.
Going off other reviews I thought this would make me feel more squeamish than it actually did. Some bits are mildly unpleasant but it doesn't really go beyond that.
Although it didn't really go where I wanted it to go, it was my kinda thing, and the ideas were still novel and enjoyable to ponder. Thanks Greg.
June 5, 2025
After the last two years of reading, Greg Egan's become one of my favorite SF authors of the last thirty years. *Quarantine* is a rip-roaring wide between two widely different subgenres, *Permutation City* is a gritty look at virtualization, and *Distress* is a fun, original novel on nothing else but its own merits. Those books have all been worth writing home about. But I decided to interrupt my linear bibliography read-through for the sake of a contemporary Greg Egan novel to support the man and to see if he's still got that mercilessly hard-SF sensibilities. I was a bit weary of the prose quality and all that now that he's self-publishing and might not have an editor, but it turns out that I should've been more worried about Egan's imagination - I mean, he's still one of the greats to me, but this book sorely underuses its critical concept. Read on to find out more about what I mean...
*Morphotrophic* starts with a healthy dose of cognitive estrangement when a girl named Marla wakes up without one of her arms. She then finds the cells that once made up her arm are smeared on the wall across from her; they glisten in the sunlight. That's because in this world, cytes (cells) have minds of their own, and if they don't feel like they're being nourished enough they can go off on their own. And yet, humans still exist in a civilization not dissimilar from our own. This incident encourages Marla to go into cyte research, where she gets picked up to tutor a three-hundred-year-old named Ada whose amazing longevity is the source of mystery and (sometimes malicious) speculation. After some lessons, Ada shows Marla a video of a pig giving "birth" to a rodent, something that should be impossible according to ill-defined rules of cytes' morphotypes. Ada then hires Marla to lead the Morphotype Project to learn more about why morphotypes turn out the ways they do. Meanwhile, a woman named Ruth embarks on a Swapping, where two women pour chemicals on themselves and sit back-to-back to encourage the exchange of cells between them in order to create the perfect cellular makeup for themselves. Ruth's sister Sarah is skeptical of the whole thing, but comes along to watch. To the other people attending the Swappings Ruth's and a woman named Zaleh's goes well, but Ruth finds her consciousness trapped inside of Zaleh. At first she only exists in the margins of Zaleh's existence, but with time she finds ways to control her during the night, and then breaks down the communication barrier between them. Can they find a way to set Sarah free?
...
The most notable and important part of my critique is that even though this entire novel is set upon a great premise - that cells evolved not to make up cohesive organisms like they do in our world but to fluidly hop between different entities - it feels very similar to our world. In the hands of the right biologist, this world could've been a fascinating and discombobulating exploration of weird fiction in a more effective way than anyone like Jeff Vandermeer. But instead, this world's technology level is about the same as ours, and what little we get of the culture seems to be similar. Sure, there are differences - only women exist in this world, people keep pigs in the house to they can break them down and use them for emergency cellular damage, etc - but it feels more like an MCU movie taking on this concept than someone of Greg Egan's intellectual caliber. The history of the world of very ill-defined, at both the biological level (apparently plant cells work like they do in our world, but somehow there are fossil remains of animals which disintegrate into nothingness?) and historical level (when the world reached our level of technology and if there's even such a thing as recorded history is murky), and while that doesn't have to be a deal-breaker, the fact that people act just like you'd expect normal people to in our contemporary world really puts a damper on any claims of worldbuilding prowess this book has. I don't know if this is because Egan is kind of phoning it in at this point, or if it's because he's a mathematician and not a biologist, or if it's because this is just a really difficult idea to write about. I know I wouldn't want the challenge of trying to make this work; it seems hard as Hell. But sadly, it seems like Egan isn't up for this challenge either...
I did expect the prose to be iffier and less polished than it was back in the 90s' thanks to the self-publishing process and the possible lack of editing that goes along with it, but it really wasn't that bad, and it did flow decently even though there was a lack of distinct style. It was kind of like a thriller with an overabundance of dialogue and a lack of physical framing. It could've been worse, though; I don't think there was anything blatantly bad about it. I do think that Egan could've time stamped the different parts of the book, or at least could've added something to differentiate Ada from the others. I'm all for throwing readers in the deep end, but the lack of handholding in this book (even though it surely helped the connection between plots be harder to predict) makes it feel kind of unfinished rather than artfully mysterious.
I really want to say nice things about this book because I think Egan will become one of my favorite authors, but sometimes... it just doesn't work out like that. On a different note, the ending feels rushed and convenient. I mean, everything about how these plots fit together feels too convenient, like you're just reading a contemporary thriller. And like when reading a contemporary thriller, I had the urge to say "it really wasn't that bad, it was fun for popcorn" after the book ended, but that would've been ignoring the fact that this was set up to subvert expectations, not to meet low ones. It just... it feels like flaccid, uninteresting contemporary SF. The characters are uninteresting and when paging through this book not two weeks after finishing it, these names are a blurry mess to me. They're all cookie-cutter. I just cannot understand the praise I see for this places; it feels so uninspired and just... disappointing. Now, part of my distaste is because this is *the* Greg Egan, so it's probably a little unfair. If an unknown author wrote this, I'd be saying "great concept, too bad they can't write compelling characters or a world that matters me." And it would be getting a 5/10. I'm tempted to give this a 4.5/10 because I have nothing nice to say about this book, but... that'd probably be too harsh.
Therefore, *Morphotrophic* glides by with a 5/10. It furthers my constant disillusionment with contemporary SF, even from my favorites (like when Alastair Reynolds' weak *Inversion* came out the other year). I think it's safe to say that I'll be going back to read more of Egan's 90s fiction in order before coming back to read the contemporary stuff. Hopefully you had a better time with this than I did; but if you've never read Egan before, start with *Quarantine* or *Permutation City*, because with books like those, your brain cells will never feel understimulated enough to desert you....
*Morphotrophic* starts with a healthy dose of cognitive estrangement when a girl named Marla wakes up without one of her arms. She then finds the cells that once made up her arm are smeared on the wall across from her; they glisten in the sunlight. That's because in this world, cytes (cells) have minds of their own, and if they don't feel like they're being nourished enough they can go off on their own. And yet, humans still exist in a civilization not dissimilar from our own. This incident encourages Marla to go into cyte research, where she gets picked up to tutor a three-hundred-year-old named Ada whose amazing longevity is the source of mystery and (sometimes malicious) speculation. After some lessons, Ada shows Marla a video of a pig giving "birth" to a rodent, something that should be impossible according to ill-defined rules of cytes' morphotypes. Ada then hires Marla to lead the Morphotype Project to learn more about why morphotypes turn out the ways they do. Meanwhile, a woman named Ruth embarks on a Swapping, where two women pour chemicals on themselves and sit back-to-back to encourage the exchange of cells between them in order to create the perfect cellular makeup for themselves. Ruth's sister Sarah is skeptical of the whole thing, but comes along to watch. To the other people attending the Swappings Ruth's and a woman named Zaleh's goes well, but Ruth finds her consciousness trapped inside of Zaleh. At first she only exists in the margins of Zaleh's existence, but with time she finds ways to control her during the night, and then breaks down the communication barrier between them. Can they find a way to set Sarah free?
...
The most notable and important part of my critique is that even though this entire novel is set upon a great premise - that cells evolved not to make up cohesive organisms like they do in our world but to fluidly hop between different entities - it feels very similar to our world. In the hands of the right biologist, this world could've been a fascinating and discombobulating exploration of weird fiction in a more effective way than anyone like Jeff Vandermeer. But instead, this world's technology level is about the same as ours, and what little we get of the culture seems to be similar. Sure, there are differences - only women exist in this world, people keep pigs in the house to they can break them down and use them for emergency cellular damage, etc - but it feels more like an MCU movie taking on this concept than someone of Greg Egan's intellectual caliber. The history of the world of very ill-defined, at both the biological level (apparently plant cells work like they do in our world, but somehow there are fossil remains of animals which disintegrate into nothingness?) and historical level (when the world reached our level of technology and if there's even such a thing as recorded history is murky), and while that doesn't have to be a deal-breaker, the fact that people act just like you'd expect normal people to in our contemporary world really puts a damper on any claims of worldbuilding prowess this book has. I don't know if this is because Egan is kind of phoning it in at this point, or if it's because he's a mathematician and not a biologist, or if it's because this is just a really difficult idea to write about. I know I wouldn't want the challenge of trying to make this work; it seems hard as Hell. But sadly, it seems like Egan isn't up for this challenge either...
I did expect the prose to be iffier and less polished than it was back in the 90s' thanks to the self-publishing process and the possible lack of editing that goes along with it, but it really wasn't that bad, and it did flow decently even though there was a lack of distinct style. It was kind of like a thriller with an overabundance of dialogue and a lack of physical framing. It could've been worse, though; I don't think there was anything blatantly bad about it. I do think that Egan could've time stamped the different parts of the book, or at least could've added something to differentiate Ada from the others. I'm all for throwing readers in the deep end, but the lack of handholding in this book (even though it surely helped the connection between plots be harder to predict) makes it feel kind of unfinished rather than artfully mysterious.
I really want to say nice things about this book because I think Egan will become one of my favorite authors, but sometimes... it just doesn't work out like that. On a different note, the ending feels rushed and convenient. I mean, everything about how these plots fit together feels too convenient, like you're just reading a contemporary thriller. And like when reading a contemporary thriller, I had the urge to say "it really wasn't that bad, it was fun for popcorn" after the book ended, but that would've been ignoring the fact that this was set up to subvert expectations, not to meet low ones. It just... it feels like flaccid, uninteresting contemporary SF. The characters are uninteresting and when paging through this book not two weeks after finishing it, these names are a blurry mess to me. They're all cookie-cutter. I just cannot understand the praise I see for this places; it feels so uninspired and just... disappointing. Now, part of my distaste is because this is *the* Greg Egan, so it's probably a little unfair. If an unknown author wrote this, I'd be saying "great concept, too bad they can't write compelling characters or a world that matters me." And it would be getting a 5/10. I'm tempted to give this a 4.5/10 because I have nothing nice to say about this book, but... that'd probably be too harsh.
Therefore, *Morphotrophic* glides by with a 5/10. It furthers my constant disillusionment with contemporary SF, even from my favorites (like when Alastair Reynolds' weak *Inversion* came out the other year). I think it's safe to say that I'll be going back to read more of Egan's 90s fiction in order before coming back to read the contemporary stuff. Hopefully you had a better time with this than I did; but if you've never read Egan before, start with *Quarantine* or *Permutation City*, because with books like those, your brain cells will never feel understimulated enough to desert you....
April 28, 2024
Che sfizio iniziare a leggere il nuovo romanzo di uno dei propri autori preferiti nel giorno stesso in cui esce.. mi tocca ringraziare persino le notifiche del quasi-monopolista mondiale del commercio elettronico!
Egan ha l’intelligenza puramente logica e sulfurea di un razionalista come Odifreddi, o meglio di polemisti anglossassoni come Dawkins e Hitchens, sempre unita a una tensione etica: la logica che sviscera la realtà, che esamina ogni fatto per tutti i versi. Oltre a questo, come sappiamo, impone ai suoi lettori “tours de force” che possono includere la fisica quantistica, come per la “Scala di Schild”.. in questo caso me la sono cavata più alla leggera: il tema del romanzo è la biologia, in particolare un assunto di fantasia (ma non impossibile, secondo ricerche che l’autore documenta in appendice): come saremmo, se le nostre cellule avessero una plasticità tale da poter liberamente formare nuovi tessuti, ma anche abbandonare il nostro corpo per passare a un altro, se lo sentono più sano?
Detto così sembra astruso, ma Egan ne ricava il quadro di una società dove c’è chi riesce a vivere per secoli (le Flourishers, sospettate dalle altre di turpi pratiche per ottenere questo risultato), chi per migliorare il proprio mix genetico si espone a rischiose pratiche di scambio di ceppi cellulari con altre donne (le Swappers, appunto), e chi infine non va per il sottile e si appropria di membra altrui con le buone o con le cattive: le Scavengers (non temete: le membra appunto ricrescono, non c’è nulla di cruento).
(avete notato che uso solo il femminile? L’autore fa l’esperimento di immaginare solo personaggi femminili, probabilmente perchè questa NON è comunque una civiltà umana se non in apparenza; e perchè allora usare un maschile generico? Esperimento un po’ straniante dato che, a differenza che nei romanzi di Joanna Russ e Nicola Griffith, non è mai spiegato)
In questo ambiente si intrecciano due storie principali: la rivalità tra due istituti di ricerca, la Fondazione Avant e l’Istituto del Morfotipo, scatenata da un misterioso filmato dove si vede una scrofa generare un topolino, nel cercare di capire se è possibile che le proprie cellule partecipino addirittura a organismi di altre specie; e Ruth, una Swapper sfortunata, che dopo un intenso scambio cellulare con un’altra Swapper, Zaleh, si trova scissa in due: la Ruth “originale”, che torna un po’ scossa alla sua vita, e un’altra Ruth, rimasta intrappolata nel corpo di Zaleh: inizia quindi per lei un’odissea di tentativi per tornare alla sua vita originale, o almeno averne una sua propria.
Come si può immaginare. Egan utilizza una situazione del genere per indagare su quale sia il senso dell’identità personale, nonchè del concetto di specie, nonchè molti altri concetti: ogni capitolo sembra porre un nuovo problema etico o scientifico, ma le 447 pagine scorrono come un romanzo di spionaggio: sotto la guida della multisecolare miliardaria Ada, di cui seguiremo in flash-back parte dell’ascesa sociale (a chi ha un capitale, vivere a lungo in buona salute dà il tempo di moltiplicarlo, grazie ai rendimenti cumulati..), la ricercatrice Marla, che ha subìto da bambina un furto di arti, si dedica alla ricerca con valide colleghe dell’Istituto come Nadia e Svetlana, solo per scoprire che la dott.sa Lapeta della Fondazione le sta facendo spiare da entità che si nascondono dentro di loro stesse..
Uno dei valori fondanti di Egan è la solidarietà umana, vista come il comportamento non solo più emotivamente “buono”, ma anche più razionale; e Marla e le ricercatrici riusciranno a difendersi dalle spie non eliminandole tramite un trattamento farmacologico, ma promettendo loro un trattamento migliore di quello che riceverebbero dalla Fondazione.. così come Zaleh, anzichè inorridire alla scoperta di avere dentro di sé Ruth2, o credersi pazza o simile, riesce a instaurare con lei prima una forma di comunicazione (già non facile) e poi una vera e propria collaborazione, che porterà lontano.
In tutto ciò Egan si sbizzarrisce nell’immaginare le percezioni degli strani animali in cui le coscienze delle protagoniste si trovano intrappolate di rinascita in rinascita, e i modi di comunicazione via via più ingegnosi che adottano per comunicare con le umane che le guidano: l’autore ci mette via via nei panni soggettivi di una rana, di un furetto, di strane creature ibride, ognuna con un apparato sensoriale diverso.. raggiungendo il non plus ultra nei panni di un gigantesco scarafaggio, pressochè cieco sordo e muto, ma che ugualmente saprà comunicare.
Leggendo mi sono chiesto inizialmente di cosa fossero metafora quegli scambi cellulari (il capitale sociale delle persone? Quello intellettuale?), per abbandonarmi poi all’impegnativo ma appagante gioco intellettuale rinnovato a ogni capitolo; qualcuno più profondo troverà ulteriori significati!
(in tutte le 447 pagine avrò trovato solo 2-3 refusi: bravo l’editore, e un vero sfizio la funzione che permette di segnalarglieli direttamente)
Egan ha l’intelligenza puramente logica e sulfurea di un razionalista come Odifreddi, o meglio di polemisti anglossassoni come Dawkins e Hitchens, sempre unita a una tensione etica: la logica che sviscera la realtà, che esamina ogni fatto per tutti i versi. Oltre a questo, come sappiamo, impone ai suoi lettori “tours de force” che possono includere la fisica quantistica, come per la “Scala di Schild”.. in questo caso me la sono cavata più alla leggera: il tema del romanzo è la biologia, in particolare un assunto di fantasia (ma non impossibile, secondo ricerche che l’autore documenta in appendice): come saremmo, se le nostre cellule avessero una plasticità tale da poter liberamente formare nuovi tessuti, ma anche abbandonare il nostro corpo per passare a un altro, se lo sentono più sano?
Detto così sembra astruso, ma Egan ne ricava il quadro di una società dove c’è chi riesce a vivere per secoli (le Flourishers, sospettate dalle altre di turpi pratiche per ottenere questo risultato), chi per migliorare il proprio mix genetico si espone a rischiose pratiche di scambio di ceppi cellulari con altre donne (le Swappers, appunto), e chi infine non va per il sottile e si appropria di membra altrui con le buone o con le cattive: le Scavengers (non temete: le membra appunto ricrescono, non c’è nulla di cruento).
(avete notato che uso solo il femminile? L’autore fa l’esperimento di immaginare solo personaggi femminili, probabilmente perchè questa NON è comunque una civiltà umana se non in apparenza; e perchè allora usare un maschile generico? Esperimento un po’ straniante dato che, a differenza che nei romanzi di Joanna Russ e Nicola Griffith, non è mai spiegato)
In questo ambiente si intrecciano due storie principali: la rivalità tra due istituti di ricerca, la Fondazione Avant e l’Istituto del Morfotipo, scatenata da un misterioso filmato dove si vede una scrofa generare un topolino, nel cercare di capire se è possibile che le proprie cellule partecipino addirittura a organismi di altre specie; e Ruth, una Swapper sfortunata, che dopo un intenso scambio cellulare con un’altra Swapper, Zaleh, si trova scissa in due: la Ruth “originale”, che torna un po’ scossa alla sua vita, e un’altra Ruth, rimasta intrappolata nel corpo di Zaleh: inizia quindi per lei un’odissea di tentativi per tornare alla sua vita originale, o almeno averne una sua propria.
Come si può immaginare. Egan utilizza una situazione del genere per indagare su quale sia il senso dell’identità personale, nonchè del concetto di specie, nonchè molti altri concetti: ogni capitolo sembra porre un nuovo problema etico o scientifico, ma le 447 pagine scorrono come un romanzo di spionaggio: sotto la guida della multisecolare miliardaria Ada, di cui seguiremo in flash-back parte dell’ascesa sociale (a chi ha un capitale, vivere a lungo in buona salute dà il tempo di moltiplicarlo, grazie ai rendimenti cumulati..), la ricercatrice Marla, che ha subìto da bambina un furto di arti, si dedica alla ricerca con valide colleghe dell’Istituto come Nadia e Svetlana, solo per scoprire che la dott.sa Lapeta della Fondazione le sta facendo spiare da entità che si nascondono dentro di loro stesse..
Uno dei valori fondanti di Egan è la solidarietà umana, vista come il comportamento non solo più emotivamente “buono”, ma anche più razionale; e Marla e le ricercatrici riusciranno a difendersi dalle spie non eliminandole tramite un trattamento farmacologico, ma promettendo loro un trattamento migliore di quello che riceverebbero dalla Fondazione.. così come Zaleh, anzichè inorridire alla scoperta di avere dentro di sé Ruth2, o credersi pazza o simile, riesce a instaurare con lei prima una forma di comunicazione (già non facile) e poi una vera e propria collaborazione, che porterà lontano.
In tutto ciò Egan si sbizzarrisce nell’immaginare le percezioni degli strani animali in cui le coscienze delle protagoniste si trovano intrappolate di rinascita in rinascita, e i modi di comunicazione via via più ingegnosi che adottano per comunicare con le umane che le guidano: l’autore ci mette via via nei panni soggettivi di una rana, di un furetto, di strane creature ibride, ognuna con un apparato sensoriale diverso.. raggiungendo il non plus ultra nei panni di un gigantesco scarafaggio, pressochè cieco sordo e muto, ma che ugualmente saprà comunicare.
Leggendo mi sono chiesto inizialmente di cosa fossero metafora quegli scambi cellulari (il capitale sociale delle persone? Quello intellettuale?), per abbandonarmi poi all’impegnativo ma appagante gioco intellettuale rinnovato a ogni capitolo; qualcuno più profondo troverà ulteriori significati!
(in tutte le 447 pagine avrò trovato solo 2-3 refusi: bravo l’editore, e un vero sfizio la funzione che permette di segnalarglieli direttamente)
April 22, 2024
Well thought out, as always
This book takes the premise of multicellularity developing in a very different way -- animals are colonies of multiple populations of "cytes" that form the overall organism voluntarily and can abandon it at if the going gets rough, reverting to unicellular life as something like an amoeba. People reproduce by budding, and pigs are kept seemingly only for the production of "salve" -- cytes induced to return to a pluripotent state used to repair injuries. Except for the complete absence of males, their world is quite similar to our own. One thing that is odd is than humans appear to only eat plants (I assume due to the dangers of exposure to living animal cytes), but there are carnivorous animals, which seems odd. The book centers on researchers investigating the mechanisms of cute signaling and morphology, so the concepts are thoroughly explored. The characters are well drawn, and sympathetic. I definitely found it a little more accessible than his books on relativity and variations of the Penrose Inequality -- Incandesce, the Orthogonal series, and Dichronauts.
This book takes the premise of multicellularity developing in a very different way -- animals are colonies of multiple populations of "cytes" that form the overall organism voluntarily and can abandon it at if the going gets rough, reverting to unicellular life as something like an amoeba. People reproduce by budding, and pigs are kept seemingly only for the production of "salve" -- cytes induced to return to a pluripotent state used to repair injuries. Except for the complete absence of males, their world is quite similar to our own. One thing that is odd is than humans appear to only eat plants (I assume due to the dangers of exposure to living animal cytes), but there are carnivorous animals, which seems odd. The book centers on researchers investigating the mechanisms of cute signaling and morphology, so the concepts are thoroughly explored. The characters are well drawn, and sympathetic. I definitely found it a little more accessible than his books on relativity and variations of the Penrose Inequality -- Incandesce, the Orthogonal series, and Dichronauts.
May 18, 2024
Greg Egan is excellent at writing about scientists and their practice. Morphotrophic delves into an intriguing alternate biology for humans and the scientific and sociological implications within its fictional world. It's impressive how grounded the story feels even with the far-out ideas it considers.
November 12, 2024
I’m to embarrassed to say how long it took me to realize just why every character had a female name. Explaining the premise to my girlfriend made it seem insane but it really is a lot of fun. This rocked where Darwin’s Radio sucked which is great because I had such high hopes for Darwin’s Radio while I was reading it.
Egan really has a way of putting some form of the human mind out to sea and tasking it with returning home. It’s exhilarating but also anxiety inducing. The best is definitely the Instantiation trilogy. That could be a fucking movie man.
Made me start looking into computational cell bio grad school programs ugh.
Egan really has a way of putting some form of the human mind out to sea and tasking it with returning home. It’s exhilarating but also anxiety inducing. The best is definitely the Instantiation trilogy. That could be a fucking movie man.
Made me start looking into computational cell bio grad school programs ugh.
May 20, 2024
Uncanny valley squared
Greg Egan has produced another creative masterpiece but this time it ventures into what was for me very disturbing territory. I guess I'm squeamish - but it was certainly novel and interesting, I persevered and ultimately really enjoyed it.
( I wrote this next bit before I read the Acknowledgments section - thanks to the Kindle apps dumb software making me rate it).
I strongly suspect the author has been inspired by the work of Michael Levin, who has manipulated the electrical/ionic fields of flatworms to produce offspring with two heads and no tails and also ones with no heads and two tails. His work proceeded from the premise that DNA does not precisely define the morphology of life, eg. of the shape of organs, but rather that there is a hierarchy of attractors, chemical and electrical the define the final shape of things like species and their organs.
Egan has apparently extrapolated from this to explore the opportunities and disturbing ramifications that future work on controlling morphology might lead to. Medical advances we can only dream of plus the massive risk of inequality of access are highlighted, but I personally fear humans cracking longevity for all would be a disaster for all other species.
( I am still totally amazed by the advances in biology in my lifetime alone, since I was 11 when Crick and Watson published The Double Helix and now in 2024 we have Green Flourescent Protein leading to Brainbow and then it’s use as a tool in molecular biology to help visualise targeted proteins of interest, eg we can now watch gene expression in the neurons of zebra fish brains. With addition of AI we now have Alphafold 3 showing protein / ligand 3D structures , the discovery of lipid membraneless organelles and decoding of whale alphabets. )
Anyway it should really be 5 stars but I still prefer my SF to leave humans and earth far behind, parallel worlds or not.
Greg Egan has produced another creative masterpiece but this time it ventures into what was for me very disturbing territory. I guess I'm squeamish - but it was certainly novel and interesting, I persevered and ultimately really enjoyed it.
( I wrote this next bit before I read the Acknowledgments section - thanks to the Kindle apps dumb software making me rate it).
I strongly suspect the author has been inspired by the work of Michael Levin, who has manipulated the electrical/ionic fields of flatworms to produce offspring with two heads and no tails and also ones with no heads and two tails. His work proceeded from the premise that DNA does not precisely define the morphology of life, eg. of the shape of organs, but rather that there is a hierarchy of attractors, chemical and electrical the define the final shape of things like species and their organs.
Egan has apparently extrapolated from this to explore the opportunities and disturbing ramifications that future work on controlling morphology might lead to. Medical advances we can only dream of plus the massive risk of inequality of access are highlighted, but I personally fear humans cracking longevity for all would be a disaster for all other species.
( I am still totally amazed by the advances in biology in my lifetime alone, since I was 11 when Crick and Watson published The Double Helix and now in 2024 we have Green Flourescent Protein leading to Brainbow and then it’s use as a tool in molecular biology to help visualise targeted proteins of interest, eg we can now watch gene expression in the neurons of zebra fish brains. With addition of AI we now have Alphafold 3 showing protein / ligand 3D structures , the discovery of lipid membraneless organelles and decoding of whale alphabets. )
Anyway it should really be 5 stars but I still prefer my SF to leave humans and earth far behind, parallel worlds or not.
August 6, 2024
My first novel by Egan, I loved it! I understand biology is not his focus, but Egan wrote such a imaginative story about the dangers of scientific pursuit using a unique world where living cells have the free will to leave a organism and reproduction is done asexually. Cant wait to read more by him!!
December 29, 2024
I mean, this is one of the most bizarre books – SF or otherwise – I have ever read. The first chapter alone would make Cronenberg green with envy – and by using an alternate biology as the starting point, it only gets more insane from there. I can’t think I’m alone in realizing halfway through the novel that there are no male names – so there’s no men in this world. I’ve read several other Egan books – this one didn’t quite leave me in the dust the way Schild’s Ladder or Permutation City did (though I am gearing up for a Permutation City reread in the near future), and I have not attempted his books of an alternate physics (or something) Dichronauts or the Orthogonal Trilogy – at first, and throughout much of the book, it did feel like Egan describing his dreams. Pigs giving birth to rats, some sort of cellular rebellion with a communication system through flickering lights (!) – or is it really a rebellion? It seemed to me like Ruth’s rogue cytes just wanted to return home – and the immense path of transformation through species to get there.
I would be lying if I closely followed EVERYTHING that was going on in Morphotrophic – once the agencies get involved and cytes can be used for clandestine operations (!) corporate espionage and the like, you know, it gets hard to follow as people are not what they seem. And it took me a long time to read – not because it was difficult per se – the Day got in the way – but I was really enjoying and treasuring being in the presence of Egan’s imagination – I cannot believe he is not recognized more for the books he’s written. I’ve read a lot of SF, maybe not enough Asimov or Stapledon to see the origins of this type of SF – but I have never read anything on a par with Quarantine or Diaspora for sheer wonder. And Morphotrophic kinda starts in his more bio based books (Distress, Teranesia) but isn’t like either of those. He really has created a new form of life here – one that reproduces and exists on a set of rules not like the biology that we recognize as our own. I was reminded a bit of the other 8-lettered Greg (Bear) where he winds up at the end of Blood Music – this is where Morphotrophic begins! It still feels dreamlike to me – part of me would love to take the first chapter and turn it into a short film – it would be somewhat expensive and would have a pretty serious ick/body horror component, but wow – the visuals would be pretty stellar. There’s the beginning of the 2nd Cronenberg Crimes of the Future where the boy consumes plastic – it reminded me of that.
One last stupid thing – seeing some of the other GR reviews of Egan where there are complaints about characterization and what-not – that’s like going to a phenomenal sushi restaurant and complaining about why steak isn’t on the menu. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of other writers you can turn to for characterization – in fact, they have full novels that are detailed psychological explorations of behavior. Egan has created a story about an alternate biology where the detailing of these processes is the crux of the story. Sure there moments where I did feel some emotional connection – but there’s a sense of wonder to Egan that very very few other writers convey. He is just unlike any other writer. Uncork the brain and hold on for the ride.
I would be lying if I closely followed EVERYTHING that was going on in Morphotrophic – once the agencies get involved and cytes can be used for clandestine operations (!) corporate espionage and the like, you know, it gets hard to follow as people are not what they seem. And it took me a long time to read – not because it was difficult per se – the Day got in the way – but I was really enjoying and treasuring being in the presence of Egan’s imagination – I cannot believe he is not recognized more for the books he’s written. I’ve read a lot of SF, maybe not enough Asimov or Stapledon to see the origins of this type of SF – but I have never read anything on a par with Quarantine or Diaspora for sheer wonder. And Morphotrophic kinda starts in his more bio based books (Distress, Teranesia) but isn’t like either of those. He really has created a new form of life here – one that reproduces and exists on a set of rules not like the biology that we recognize as our own. I was reminded a bit of the other 8-lettered Greg (Bear) where he winds up at the end of Blood Music – this is where Morphotrophic begins! It still feels dreamlike to me – part of me would love to take the first chapter and turn it into a short film – it would be somewhat expensive and would have a pretty serious ick/body horror component, but wow – the visuals would be pretty stellar. There’s the beginning of the 2nd Cronenberg Crimes of the Future where the boy consumes plastic – it reminded me of that.
One last stupid thing – seeing some of the other GR reviews of Egan where there are complaints about characterization and what-not – that’s like going to a phenomenal sushi restaurant and complaining about why steak isn’t on the menu. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of other writers you can turn to for characterization – in fact, they have full novels that are detailed psychological explorations of behavior. Egan has created a story about an alternate biology where the detailing of these processes is the crux of the story. Sure there moments where I did feel some emotional connection – but there’s a sense of wonder to Egan that very very few other writers convey. He is just unlike any other writer. Uncork the brain and hold on for the ride.
May 6, 2024
So good! It's up there with my favorite Greg Egans! In Clockwork Rocket and Incandescence style, the plot revolves around research in a setting where something fundamental is different. This time we are in a world full of body horror. Your arm can just decide to leave you. The people of this world are used to this, so the book sets off from this baseline and heads for the ever weirder.
The characters are the typical Greg Egan fare: level-headed and reasonable to the extreme. In some stories these come off as bland, but here I really loved them. Being level-headed and reasonable in this world comes off as heroic.
The book is a fun variation on the Bechdel test.
I love the way clues are dropped for an important mystery. You are clued in gradually. Someone will figure it out on the first hint, someone will take five hints. No matter where you figure it out, it feels like you solved the puzzle. I suppose it's a common approach, but I found it done well here. All the flashbacks are paced well. Everything works great. There's enough drama left even for the last pages, and I loved how the conclusion wrapped up every thread. Very satisfying.
While the whole book is well made, the unique part is the research fantasy. It's not extremely technical. But it's still fun, and makes you think about how researchers have figured out similar things in our world.
The characters are the typical Greg Egan fare: level-headed and reasonable to the extreme. In some stories these come off as bland, but here I really loved them. Being level-headed and reasonable in this world comes off as heroic.
The book is a fun variation on the Bechdel test.
I love the way clues are dropped for an important mystery. You are clued in gradually. Someone will figure it out on the first hint, someone will take five hints. No matter where you figure it out, it feels like you solved the puzzle. I suppose it's a common approach, but I found it done well here. All the flashbacks are paced well. Everything works great. There's enough drama left even for the last pages, and I loved how the conclusion wrapped up every thread. Very satisfying.
While the whole book is well made, the unique part is the research fantasy. It's not extremely technical. But it's still fun, and makes you think about how researchers have figured out similar things in our world.
July 12, 2025
An alt-universe SciFi novel exploring agential cells, and self-organizing bodies.
This book is inspired by research by Mike Levin and others into "basal cognition," or the idea that every cell in a body has some limited cognitive capacity, and that a body is constructed in a self-organizing, bottom-up way. While the science is very real, this novel explores a parallel universe where biology works a bit differently. It tells a strange and perspective-shifting story full of excitement and drama, which explores how society would be different if our cells were just more flexible and autonomous than they really are.
I love Greg Egan's writing, mostly because of how scientifically plausible his work usually is. So, I was disappointed that he chose to bend reality as much as he did here. However, he did clearly think out the rules for this alternate universe in great detail, and made sure to be consistent through. I'll admit, those changes made for a fun story that wouldn't have been possible in our world, with many twists I didn't see coming. Like many of his books, it suffers from the characters being a bit too insightful and too similar in how they think, but the story still had me hooked. It was a quick, fun read, and in the end I was delighted.
Perhaps not his best book, but if you love Egan's writing, or if you think the themes sound interesting, this is definitely worth a read. Give it a pass if medical scenes or body horror make you squeamish.
This book is inspired by research by Mike Levin and others into "basal cognition," or the idea that every cell in a body has some limited cognitive capacity, and that a body is constructed in a self-organizing, bottom-up way. While the science is very real, this novel explores a parallel universe where biology works a bit differently. It tells a strange and perspective-shifting story full of excitement and drama, which explores how society would be different if our cells were just more flexible and autonomous than they really are.
I love Greg Egan's writing, mostly because of how scientifically plausible his work usually is. So, I was disappointed that he chose to bend reality as much as he did here. However, he did clearly think out the rules for this alternate universe in great detail, and made sure to be consistent through. I'll admit, those changes made for a fun story that wouldn't have been possible in our world, with many twists I didn't see coming. Like many of his books, it suffers from the characters being a bit too insightful and too similar in how they think, but the story still had me hooked. It was a quick, fun read, and in the end I was delighted.
Perhaps not his best book, but if you love Egan's writing, or if you think the themes sound interesting, this is definitely worth a read. Give it a pass if medical scenes or body horror make you squeamish.
May 13, 2024
The premise of Morphotropic is wildly imaginative. Imagine if 100 million years of multicellular evolution had proceeded differently, that an animal's cells could defect at any point, and that different species could exchange cells. Now imagine that this world is otherwise basically familiar, with cell phones and accountants and wealth disparities.
The plot seems to flow logically from the science. Each twist, each turn along the way, I found myself nodding, thinking, yes, that is what would happen, isn't it?
Of course, the plots of most books I read and enjoy flow logically from the psychology, motivations, and circumstances of the characters, but this book's characterizations were so shallow, there would be no way for the book to flow from that. There are four primary characters (Deborah, Zaleh, Ada, and Erin) and a cast of more-or-less interchangeable NPC research scientists, who you can roughly distinguish only based on which lab they are working for and how they feel about their boss.
Fun read that mostly succeeds on its own term, though full of little kludges (eg. ) that become annoying by the end.
The plot seems to flow logically from the science. Each twist, each turn along the way, I found myself nodding, thinking, yes, that is what would happen, isn't it?
Of course, the plots of most books I read and enjoy flow logically from the psychology, motivations, and circumstances of the characters, but this book's characterizations were so shallow, there would be no way for the book to flow from that. There are four primary characters (Deborah, Zaleh, Ada, and Erin) and a cast of more-or-less interchangeable NPC research scientists, who you can roughly distinguish only based on which lab they are working for and how they feel about their boss.
Fun read that mostly succeeds on its own term, though full of little kludges (eg. ) that become annoying by the end.
November 27, 2024
This is my first Egan, but I’ve heard his name many times. He is known for being a challenging read due to being very technical with the science in his books.
That applies more to physics normally, I understand, but this book proposes an alternate biology, somewhat shaped by the science of Michael Levin’s research into Xenobots (if you haven’t looked that up yet, it may blow your mind).
This book started off great with some fascinating world building as the idea of “cytes” that can choose their body were introduced through the horror of a characters arm and leg literally just…dissolving away as her cytes leave her body; and the unexpected consequence of another character, after an underground cyte exchanging ritual, finding herself in an unexpected complication.
Great setup and the study of the scientists in the book around cytes and morphotypes was fascinating.
Unfortunately the story was just a little too long and the plot and characters did not live up to the fascinating scientific concepts. Ultimately I wish that this book had been 100 pages shorter. The ending felt drawn out and lacked suspense.
Still, lots of clever details (like everyone being female in a world where all animals reproduce biologically).
That applies more to physics normally, I understand, but this book proposes an alternate biology, somewhat shaped by the science of Michael Levin’s research into Xenobots (if you haven’t looked that up yet, it may blow your mind).
This book started off great with some fascinating world building as the idea of “cytes” that can choose their body were introduced through the horror of a characters arm and leg literally just…dissolving away as her cytes leave her body; and the unexpected consequence of another character, after an underground cyte exchanging ritual, finding herself in an unexpected complication.
Great setup and the study of the scientists in the book around cytes and morphotypes was fascinating.
Unfortunately the story was just a little too long and the plot and characters did not live up to the fascinating scientific concepts. Ultimately I wish that this book had been 100 pages shorter. The ending felt drawn out and lacked suspense.
Still, lots of clever details (like everyone being female in a world where all animals reproduce biologically).
April 9, 2025
I love Greg Egan (especially his short stories), but for the right books, I often lack the mathematical understanding to enjoy them. That's why I was very excited when I read that his latest book is heading in a biological direction (which he has also addressed in some very good short stories). The idea itself, with altered cell behavior, is interesting and original, but it would have been enough for a short story. The book feels partly drawn out, which affects the suspense. It's also a shame that the further consequences of this altered biology on the world and society are not really explored. It seems somewhat unrealistic that human development would have proceeded almost identically despite such a significant biological difference. From Egan, who usually pays extreme attention to accuracy, I would have expected more. All in all, it's a nice book, and unlike some of Egan's other works, I was able to finish it. However, there's still a feeling of wasted potential, logical inconsistencies, and the fact that the underlying concept could have been explored in a more exciting and profound way in another story/with other characters.
December 9, 2024
It pains me to do this. I usually like Egan but... this was not a great example of his stuff. For one, I find myself in a strange position - seriously having a problem with his science. I can suspect my questioning to argue that, okay, in the world of this book the biology of a pig can cause it to "birth" other types of animals such as rats and butterflies. A stretch but accepting the world of this book, okay. But then the book violates those rules and says the only animal it cannot give birth to is a human and only humans can do that. Sorry but that is a fundamental violation of the world the book is set in.
And if the characters had been intriguing I'd consider that a flaw but not a bad one. But the characters... aren't. They are flat and much too objective in their reactions. And at least one character arises in the first half that is forgotten about later on.
This is one of his more accessible books but probablly the worst Greg Egan book I have read. Still 3 out of 5 but Egan is usually a 5 out of 5.
And if the characters had been intriguing I'd consider that a flaw but not a bad one. But the characters... aren't. They are flat and much too objective in their reactions. And at least one character arises in the first half that is forgotten about later on.
This is one of his more accessible books but probablly the worst Greg Egan book I have read. Still 3 out of 5 but Egan is usually a 5 out of 5.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 10, 2025
As always, Greg Egan explores interesting ideas about the mind, though I found this setting to be less engaging than his other books that I've read. The setting itself is creative, an all-female, seemingly vegan world with a totally different biology. Despite a somewhat less heady world than his in his other works, imagining myself coming to consciousness with no sensory input and trying to make sense of things, as Ruth/Deborah does, was an interesting exploration.
The most compelling topic was perhaps the rumination on lifespan extension and death- very pertinent in today's world. I appreciated Ada's sentiments near the end of the book:
"Even in the hardest times, I never wanted {death}. But that's not the same as wanting to live at any cost."
"Just keep going until you know a thousand times more."
"One day we'll all outlive the oldest oak trees, but for now, do what you can."
Not my favorite Greg Egan but definitely still enjoyed it.
The most compelling topic was perhaps the rumination on lifespan extension and death- very pertinent in today's world. I appreciated Ada's sentiments near the end of the book:
"Even in the hardest times, I never wanted {death}. But that's not the same as wanting to live at any cost."
"Just keep going until you know a thousand times more."
"One day we'll all outlive the oldest oak trees, but for now, do what you can."
Not my favorite Greg Egan but definitely still enjoyed it.
March 1, 2025
Weird Science Egan is back, with engaging worldbuilding and well-drawn characters! It's Weird Biology this time not Weird Physics, but still good!
In a world where cells are not stuck to their roles in one body, but move between bodies (or even monocellular puddles) when threatened, one protagonist who has somehow managed to keep her brain in an abnormal form is trying to be human again. Spy drama, body horror, identity questions, and corporate rivalry follows - along with lots of fun weird science.
This's one of Egan's better books again. The science isn't as deep as Clockwork Rocket or Dichronauts - or maybe it's just that biology is closer to stamp-collecting than physics is - but it's still good and pervades the book very well. Couple that with good sympathetic characters, and I recommend this to everyone who likes having science as a main character.
In a world where cells are not stuck to their roles in one body, but move between bodies (or even monocellular puddles) when threatened, one protagonist who has somehow managed to keep her brain in an abnormal form is trying to be human again. Spy drama, body horror, identity questions, and corporate rivalry follows - along with lots of fun weird science.
This's one of Egan's better books again. The science isn't as deep as Clockwork Rocket or Dichronauts - or maybe it's just that biology is closer to stamp-collecting than physics is - but it's still good and pervades the book very well. Couple that with good sympathetic characters, and I recommend this to everyone who likes having science as a main character.
December 25, 2024
Greg Egan at his best, yet in an unfamiliar territory, biology.
The premise of the book is that the people in this world are colonial organisms, which reproduce by parthenogenesis, and can lose/swap individual cells - named cytes. The mechanism is plausible and explored with his trademark precision and detail.
In this setting we're treated to a spy thriller between two rival research foundations, which are exploring the most disturbing possibilities of a cyte-based world. While there's clearly a good side and an evil side, I enjoyed the fact that neither is a caricature, but have sensible motivations for their actions.
I did find implausible that in such a different world they happened to have developed precisely the same technology as us, down to smartphones.
The premise of the book is that the people in this world are colonial organisms, which reproduce by parthenogenesis, and can lose/swap individual cells - named cytes. The mechanism is plausible and explored with his trademark precision and detail.
In this setting we're treated to a spy thriller between two rival research foundations, which are exploring the most disturbing possibilities of a cyte-based world. While there's clearly a good side and an evil side, I enjoyed the fact that neither is a caricature, but have sensible motivations for their actions.
I did find implausible that in such a different world they happened to have developed precisely the same technology as us, down to smartphones.
November 1, 2024
I kind of wish Greg Egan would get someone else to write his dialogue, which doesn't sound like how people talk to each other very often (especially the dramatic and wordy lines allegedly delivered by mutant creatures using painstakingly slow Morse code), but if you suspend that this is a really well-realized story baked into a world impressively sturdy for its wild premise. Maybe loses a little steam at the very end but overall works great, and the gradual convergence of the different plot threads in the second half is genuinely thrilling.
January 10, 2025
Alright Greg Egan. You got me. You’re possibly one of the most interesting sci fi writers right now. Every book so far has been bursting with unique ideas and this one was weird, even for you, but I loved it.
Browsing for more books by you and I’m happy to see you’re quite the prolific writer, eh?
Time to go on a Greg Egan binge, next book already locked and loaded.
Difficult to pick a winner out of the Greg Egan books I’ve read so far but if I’m recommending a starting place to a friend I might go with Diaspora.
Browsing for more books by you and I’m happy to see you’re quite the prolific writer, eh?
Time to go on a Greg Egan binge, next book already locked and loaded.
Difficult to pick a winner out of the Greg Egan books I’ve read so far but if I’m recommending a starting place to a friend I might go with Diaspora.
May 25, 2025
Greg Egan is my favourite SciFi novelist and this is a solid addition to his oeuvre. 4 stars rather than 5 only because it’s not up there with his greatest novels, and what’s the point of a rating system that can’t distinguish very good from great. This one is explores an earth with an alternative biology rather than a Universe with an alternative physics. The stakes are not as high as in others of his novels and it is more focussed on the lives of characters. But science and scientists are at the centre as commonly in Egan’s novels.
May 16, 2024
This is the first book I’ve read from this author and I intend to read more, I really enjoyed it. Some good science in it, and it allowed for an interesting story to be told in the world the author created. I felt some aspects of the world left me wanting to know more (like why are there no males, what is a “normal” birth like, it is always fast). The acknowledgements at the end gave legitimacy to the science. Definitely recommend if you like science fiction.
April 13, 2024
Another great novel, but a warning that body horror happens
Another great novel from Greg Egan that I very much enjoyed. Interesting plot and characters and world building. The only thing I didn’t like was that for about half the novel there is what I would consider body horror occurring, and I really didn’t like it even though it was central to the plot
Another great novel from Greg Egan that I very much enjoyed. Interesting plot and characters and world building. The only thing I didn’t like was that for about half the novel there is what I would consider body horror occurring, and I really didn’t like it even though it was central to the plot
May 29, 2024
Наконец то старина Иган выдал годноту - полноценную книгу, чего в последние годы не наблюдалось. Описание космоса с вычурной геометрией (Dichronauts) мы с негодованием отвергаем, ибо белковый организм не может наслаждаться подобным. Не возбуждали и технические описания возведения транспортных объектов недвижимости (Phoresis)
Тут все без нареканий, только вместо физики - странная биология.
Тут все без нареканий, только вместо физики - странная биология.
April 14, 2024
Engaging exploration of a world where cells are more generic and called cytes. The cytes can survive on their own as unicellular organisms, group together in multicultural organisms and even be exchanged between different people or animals.
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