4 ms·

I keep trying to read Diaspora and struggle too much with the concepts presented early on. Very "hard sci-fi", just stick it out and it all gets explained?

• k__ 8mo ago
  lol, that was exactly my thought. The whole birth of an virtual identity part is so dense, I didn't understand half of what was "explained". However, after that it becomes a much easier read. Not much additional explanation, but I think, it's not really needed to enjoy the rest of the book.
• marcusf 8mo ago
  Egan is always dense. It's some mind bending physics/comp sci, but all cooked up in his brain so doesn't really apply to anything productive. I struggled with his books and his writing but toughened it out because I liked the concepts, but he's divisive.
  • killerstorm 8mo ago
    That's not really true. Some of his works are science-heavy, others are not. Particularly, many of short stories require little-to-no context.
• marcellus23 8mo ago
  The beginning describes the formation of an intelligence and it is indeed very dense. You can figure out what's going on but it takes some slow reading, and probably best to revisit it once you have some more context from later in the book. The whole book isn't like that. Once you get past that part, as the other commenter said, it gets much easier.
  • igor47 8mo ago
    I actually love the beginning of Diaspora, and have recommended just that section to people. I found it beautiful and moving. It's starting to learn that people have to "get past" that section...