Axiomatic by Greg Egan is a collection of short stories, encompassing a wide range of themes from questions of identity to strange attractors. Some stories I particularily liked are
- The Moat, racist tensions in Australia form the background to a story about a lawyer who deals with emigration law. His pathologist partner makes some odd discoveries in a rape case, which lead to questions about the idenity of the attacker.
- Closer, two lovers try to get a deeper understanding of each other, they experiment with different methods of being one another.
- The Hundred Light-Year Diary, you can read about the future from your diary and see what happens in your life with surprising results.
- The Caress, a policeman finds a dead academic with an odd pet in the cellar.
- The Infinite Assassin, drugs induce space time disturbances in the world, the assassin is sent to stop it each time.
- The Cutie, a man obsessed with having a child buys a kit to make one.
His writing is good and he comes up with powerful visions of the near future. There is a strong scientific element to the writing, but also several stories that question what is our identity and how others relate to us, often involving machines to transfer us to another virtual place or ensure we can live on in different forms.
Sparkling stuff, lots of ideas and challenges to how we think life is and what it could become. His website is updated regularily and highlights new books and links to some of his passions and interests, such as the rights of asylum seekers, and odd mathematical visualisations.
