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Greg Egan
Born Gregory Mark Egan
(1961-08-20) 20 August 1961 (age 63)
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Occupation Writer, former programmer
Period 1983–present (as a science fiction writer)
Genre Science fiction

Greg Egan (born August 20, 1961) is an Australian science fiction writer and mathematician. He is best known for his hard science fiction stories. This means his stories are very detailed and based on real science, like physics and math. Greg Egan has won many important awards for his writing, including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Hugo Award, and the Locus Award.

Life and Work

Greg Egan studied mathematics at the University of Western Australia. He started publishing his stories in 1983.

His stories often explore complex ideas about mathematics, the nature of consciousness, and new ideas in physics. He is a Hugo Award winner, and many of his other works have been nominated for this award. Some of his earlier stories also included elements of supernatural horror.

You can find Greg Egan's short stories in popular science fiction magazines like Interzone and Asimov's Science Fiction.

Math and Science in His Work

Greg Egan is not just a writer; he's also a talented mathematician. In 2002, he worked with other scientists to write papers about complex math topics called Riemannian 10j symbols and spin networks. These are important in a field called quantum gravity, which tries to understand how gravity works at a tiny, quantum level. Spin networks even appear in his novel Schild's Ladder.

In 2014, Greg Egan came up with a new idea in geometry, a branch of mathematics. This idea was about how spheres fit together in different dimensions. It became known as the Egan conjecture. He even published a proof for part of this idea on a blog!

Later, in 2018, he described a way to create something called superpermutations. These are very long sequences of symbols. In 2019, he even broke a record by creating a superpermutation of seven symbols that was 5906 characters long!

Personal Life

Greg Egan lives in Perth, Australia. He is a vegetarian and does not believe in a god (he is an atheist).

He is a very private person. He doesn't go to science fiction events, doesn't sign books, and you won't find photos of him online. Sometimes, people mistakenly use pictures of others with the same name, but they are not him.

Awards

Greg Egan has received many awards for his amazing stories:

  • Permutation City: Won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1995.
  • Oceanic: Won the Hugo Award, Locus Award, and Asimov's Readers' Award in 1999.
  • Distress: Won the Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis (a German award) for Best Foreign Fiction in 2000.

His work has also won the Japanese Seiun Award for best translated fiction eight times!

In 2000, his novel Teranesia was chosen for the Ditmar Award for best novel. However, Greg Egan decided not to accept the award.

Works

Novels

  • An Unusual Angle (1983)
  • Quarantine (1992)
  • Permutation City (1994)
  • Distress (1995)
  • Diaspora (1997)
  • Teranesia (1999)
  • Schild's Ladder (2002)
  • Incandescence (2008)
  • Zendegi (2010)
  • Dichronauts (2017)
  • Perihelion Summer (2019)
  • The Book of All Skies (2021)
  • Scale (2023)
  • Morphotrophic (2024)

Orthogonal Trilogy

Main article: Orthogonal (series)
  • The Clockwork Rocket (2011)
  • The Eternal Flame (2012)
  • The Arrows of Time (2013)

Collections

Axiomatic (1995)

  • The Infinite Assassin (1991)
  • The Hundred Light-Year Diary (1992)
  • Eugene (1990)
  • The Caress (1990)
  • Blood Sisters (1991)
  • Axiomatic (1990)
  • The Safe-Deposit Box (1990)
  • Seeing (1995)
  • A Kidnapping (1995)
  • Learning to Be Me (1990)
  • The Moat (1991)
  • The Walk (1992)
  • The Cutie (1989)
  • Into Darkness (1992)
  • Appropriate Love (1991)
  • The Moral Virologist (1990)
  • Closer (1992)
  • Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies (1992)

Our Lady of Chernobyl (1995)

  • Chaff (1993)
  • Beyond the Whistle Test (1989)
  • Transition Dreams (1993)
  • Our Lady of Chernobyl (1994)

Luminous (1998)

  • Chaff (1993)
  • Mitochondrial Eve (1995)
  • Luminous (1995)
  • Mister Volition (1995)
  • Cocoon (1994)
  • Transition Dreams (1993)
  • Silver Fire (1995)
  • Reasons to Be Cheerful (1997)
  • Our Lady of Chernobyl (1994)
  • The Planck Dive (1998)

Dark Integers and Other Stories (2008)

  • Luminous (1995)
  • Riding the Crocodile (2005)
  • Dark Integers (2007)
  • Glory (2007)
  • Oceanic (1998)

Crystal Nights and Other Stories (2009)

  • Lost Continent (2008)
  • Crystal Nights (2008)
  • Steve Fever (2007)
  • TAP (1995)
  • Induction (2007)
  • Singleton (2002)
  • Oracle (2000)
  • Border Guards (1999)
  • Hot Rock (2009)

Oceanic (2009)

  • Lost Continent (2008)
  • Dark Integers (2007)
  • Crystal Nights (2008)
  • Steve Fever (2007)
  • Induction (2007)
  • Singleton (2002)
  • Oracle (2000)
  • Border Guards (1999)
  • Riding the Crocodile (2005)
  • Glory (2007)
  • Hot Rock (2009)
  • Oceanic (1998)

The Best of Greg Egan (2019)

  • Learning to Be Me (1990)
  • Axiomatic (1990)
  • Appropriate Love (1991)
  • Into Darkness (1992)
  • Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies (1992)
  • Closer (1992)
  • Chaff (1993)
  • Luminous (1995)
  • Silver Fire (1995)
  • Reasons to Be Cheerful (1997)
  • Oceanic (1998)
  • Oracle (2000)
  • Singleton (2002)
  • Dark Integers (2007)
  • Crystal Nights (2008)
  • Zero For Conduct (2013)
  • Bit Players (2014)
  • Uncanny Valley (2017)
  • 3-adica (2018)
  • Instantiation (2019)

Instantiation (2020)

  • The Discrete Charm of the Turing Machine (2017)
  • Zero For Conduct (2013)
  • Uncanny Valley (2017)
  • Seventh Sight (2014)
  • The Nearest (2018)
  • Shadow Flock (2014)
  • Bit Players (2014)
  • Break My Fall (2014)
  • 3-adica (2018)
  • The Slipway (2019)
  • Instantiation (2019)

Sleep and the Soul (2023)

  • You and Whose Army? (2020)
  • This Is Not the Way Home (2019)
  • Zeitgeber (2019)
  • Crisis Actors (2022)
  • Sleep and the Soul (2021)
  • After Zero (2022)
  • Dream Factory (2022)
  • Light Up the Clouds (2021)
  • Night Running (2023)
  • Solidity (2022)

Phoresis and Other Journeys (2023)

  • The Four Thousand, The Eight Hundred (2016)
  • Dispersion (2020)
  • Phoresis (2018)

Other Short Fiction

  • Artifact (1983)
  • The Way She Smiles, The Things She Says (1985)
  • Tangled Up (1985)
  • Mind Vampires (1986)
  • Neighbourhood Watch (1987)
  • Scatter My Ashes (1988)
  • The Extra (1990)
  • The Vat (1990)
  • In Numbers (1991)
  • The Demon's Passage (1991)
  • Fidelity (1991)
  • Before (1992)
  • Dust (1992)
  • Worthless (1992)
  • Reification Highway (1992)
  • Wang's Carpets (1995)
  • Yeyuka (1997)
  • Only Connect (2000)
  • In the Ruins (2013)
  • Didicosm (2023)
  • Death and the Gorgon (2024)
  • Vouch for Me (2024)

Excerpted Stories

  • Diaspora:
    • "Orphanogenesis" in Interzone issue 123, September 1997

Academic Papers

Greg Egan has also written scientific papers, showing his deep knowledge in mathematics and physics:

  • An Efficient Algorithm for the Riemannian 10j Symbols by Dan Christensen and Greg Egan
  • Asymptotics of 10j Symbols by John Baez, Dan Christensen and Greg Egan
  • Conic-Helical Orbits of Planets around Binary Stars do not Exist by Greg Egan

Short Movies

A short film inspired by Greg Egan's story "Axiomatic" was made and released online in October 2017.

See also

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