I tried to read this book three times. The opening chapters are so boring that each time I quit. They're a point-of-view account about how a piece of software learns about its surroundings. I've learned Greg Egan really delivers when it comes to hard sci-fi, so I thought I oughta give this another try. Boy did it deliver. This is book goes far in terms of new learnings in physics, the branching of our species, and the long-term horizon of humankind. It was a lot of fun.
Beside the boring opening, the only other annoyance of this book is the use of weird pronouns for some characters: ve, ver, vis. Reading with those throughout the book is a constant distraction and take me out of the element of the story.
Beside the boring opening, the only other annoyance of this book is the use of weird pronouns for some characters: ve, ver, vis. Reading with those throughout the book is a constant distraction and take me out of the element of the story.