Diaspora (1997) by Greg Egan

 Book Review

Diaspora (1997)

by Greg Egan

   I forget how I came to read Diaspora by Australian writer Greg Egan but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the Netflix version of the first book of The Three Body Problem by Chinese author Liu Cixin.  I am a big fan of that book and the trilogy itself.  I'm also interested in what you might call cosmic scale science fiction.  Cosmic in the sense that the story takes place beyond the Earth and that it typically deals with an issue that confronts the entire solar system/universe/galaxy/etc.  Cosmic Science Fiction has cousins (Cosmic Horror) and antecedents (War of the Worlds style alien invasion and the space opera) but Cosmic Science Fiction really begins with the Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov.  Those books remain widely read- there is an ongoing Apple TV version available, the books are still in print and the first book is a canon-level title even outside of lists of science fiction books.  There is  a strong overlap between Cosmic Sci Fi and "Hard" Science Fiction since most Cosmic Science Fiction requires characters and plots that revolve around the frontiers of physics, and that is very clear in The Three Body Problem trilogy, where the later books involve heavy levels of multi-dimensionality.

  Now, having read Diaspora, I can say that compared to Diaspora, the world of The Three Body Problem is almost comically unsophisticated.   In Diaspora Egan manages to surpass the wildest passages of The Three Body Problem trilogy in the first five pages, and the pace does not, at any point, slacken.  

   I'm sure there is no point in describing the plot- either you are in or out, and if you are out you will know after the first 5 pages.  Diaspora isn't exactly a joy to read- unless you enjoy multiple pages of made up physics experiments and a narrative that progresses entirely through non-human narrators and largely takes place in ai generated virtual reality spaces- but if this review intrigues you then trust me, Diaspora is an absolute must.    And again, how did I make it this far without every hearing tell of this author, it seems like I should have crossed his path twenty years ago.