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Riding The Crocodile
"Riding the Crocodile" is a science-fiction novella by Australian writer Greg Egan, first published in '' One Million A.D.'' edited by Gardner Dozois in December 2005. The novella was included in the collections '' Dark Integers and Other Stories'' in 2008 and ''Oceanic'' in 2009. The short story is set in the same universe as Egan's short stories " Glory" and "Hot Rock" as well as Egan's novel ''Incandescence''. Plot For millions of years, an alien civilization known as the Aloof living in the core of the galaxy have kept a strict isolation. Any attempts to communicate have been ignored and any non-sentient probes sent into their territory have been shut down and sent back decades later. Leila and Jasim, after having been married for more than ten thousand years and, voluntarily having chosen death, want to start another attempt for contact and travel through the communication network of an alien civilization known as Amalgam from their home planet Najib to the planet Nazdeek. M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greg Egan
Greg Egan (born 20 August 1961) is an Australian science fiction writer and mathematician, best known for his works of hard science fiction. Egan has won multiple awards including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Hugo Award, and the Locus Award. Life and work Egan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Western Australia. He published his first work in 1983. He specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness. Other themes include genetics, simulated reality, posthumanism, mind uploading, sexuality, artificial intelligence, and the superiority of rational naturalism to religion. He often deals with complex technical material, like new physics and epistemology. He is a Hugo Award winner (with eight other works shortlisted for the Hugos) and has also won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. His early stories feature strong ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller islands. It has a total area of , making it the list of countries and dependencies by area, sixth-largest country in the world and the largest in Oceania. Australia is the world's flattest and driest inhabited continent. It is a megadiverse countries, megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and Climate of Australia, climates including deserts of Australia, deserts in the Outback, interior and forests of Australia, tropical rainforests along the Eastern states of Australia, coast. The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south-east Asia 50,000 to 65,000 years ago, during the Last Glacial Period, last glacial period. By the time of British settlement, Aboriginal Australians spoke 250 distinct l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language
English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples that Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, migrated to Britain after its End of Roman rule in Britain, Roman occupiers left. English is the list of languages by total number of speakers, most spoken language in the world, primarily due to the global influences of the former British Empire (succeeded by the Commonwealth of Nations) and the United States. English is the list of languages by number of native speakers, third-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish language, Spanish; it is also the most widely learned second language in the world, with more second-language speakers than native speakers. English is either the official language or one of the official languages in list of countries and territories where English ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space exploration, time travel, Parallel universes in fiction, parallel universes, and extraterrestrials in fiction, extraterrestrial life. The genre often explores human responses to the consequences of projected or imagined scientific advances. Science fiction is related to fantasy (together abbreviated wikt:SF&F, SF&F), Horror fiction, horror, and superhero fiction, and it contains many #Subgenres, subgenres. The genre's precise Definitions of science fiction, definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Major subgenres include hard science fiction, ''hard'' science fiction, which emphasizes scientific accuracy, and soft science fiction, ''soft'' science fiction, which focuses on social sciences. Other no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One Million A
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sports, where it commonly denotes the first, leading, or top thing in a group. 1 is the unit of counting or measurement, a determiner for singular nouns, and a gender-neutral pronoun. Historically, the representation of 1 evolved from ancient Sumerian and Babylonian symbols to the modern Arabic numeral. In mathematics, 1 is the multiplicative identity, meaning that any number multiplied by 1 equals the same number. 1 is by convention not considered a prime number. In digital technology, 1 represents the "on" state in binary code, the foundation of computing. Philosophically, 1 symbolizes the ultimate reality or source of existence in various traditions. In mathematics The number 1 is the first natural number after 0. Each natural number, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts. Definition The Italian term is a feminine of ''novello'', which means ''new'', similarly to the English word ''news''. Merriam-Webster defines a novella as "a work of fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel". There is disagreement regarding the number of pages or words necessary for a story to be considered a novella, a short story or a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association defines a novella's word count to be between 17,500 and 40,000 words; at 250 words per page, this equates to 70 to 160 pages. See below for definitions used by other organisations. History The novella as a literary genre began developing in the Italian literature of the early Renaissance, princip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gardner Dozois
Gardner Raymond Dozois ( ; July 23, 1947 – May 27, 2018) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the founding editor of '' The Year's Best Science Fiction'' anthologies (1984–2018) and was editor of '' Asimov's Science Fiction'' (1986–2004), garnering multiple Hugo and Locus Awards for those works almost every year. He also won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story twice. He was inducted to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on June 25, 2011. Biography Dozois was born July 23, 1947, in Salem, Massachusetts. He graduated from Salem High School with the Class of 1965. From 1966 to 1969 he served in the Army as a journalist, after which he moved to New York City to work as an editor in the science fiction field. One of his stories had been published by Frederik Pohl in the September 1966 issue of '' If'' but his next four appeared in 1970, three in Damon Knight's anthology series ''Orbit''. Dozois said that he turned to reading fiction partially as an e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dark Integers And Other Stories
''Dark Integers and Other Stories'' is a collection of five science-fiction short stories by Australian writer Greg Egan, published on 25 March 2008 by Subterranean Press. One of them, "Oceanic", won the Hugo Award for Best Novella, while two others were nominated. Contents Background " Luminous" and "Dark Integers" are connected with each other. The events of the latter are set ten years after the events of the former. "Riding the Crocodile" is set in the same universe as Egan's novel ''Incandescence'', but the short story is not part of it with the plot being set 300,000 years prior. Reception Reviews Rich Horton, writing on the ''SF Site'', gets the impression that "this book serves as a good sampling, and as a sort of link between the old Egan and the new." He thinks that it "makes sense to include both older and newer stories", claiming that "the new stories range from solid to excellent", that "the book at hand is strong work, and very welcome" as well as that "i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oceanic (book)
''Oceanic'' is a collection of 12 science fiction short stories by Australian writer Greg Egan, published on 16 July 2009 by Gollancz. In 2009, the collect won the Aurealis Award for Best Collection. The eponymous short story "Oceanic", won the Hugo Award for Best Novella; three more were nominated. Contents Background "Singleton" and "Oracle" are set in the same universe as Egan's novel ''Schild's Ladder'' from 2002, but 20,000 years earlier. "Riding the Crocodile" is set in the same universe as Egan's novel ''Incandescence'' from 2008, but 300,000 years prior. None of the short stories is part of the novels. Between the release of both novels, Egan was active in campaigning for refugee rights, mainly including the end of mandatory detention for asylum seekers in Australia, for a few years. In an interview with David Conyers for ''Virtual Worlds and Imagined Futures'' in 2009, Egan called it an "eye-opening experience to see people mistreated in that way", revealing th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glory (novelette)
"Glory" is a science-fiction novelette by Australian writer Greg Egan, first published in the anthology '' The New Space Opera'' edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan in 2007. The novelette was included in the collections ''Dark Integers and Other Stories'' in 2008 and ''Oceanic'' in 2009. The novelette is set in the same universe as Egan's novellas "Riding the Crocodile" and "Hot Rock" as well as Egan's novel ''Incandescence''. Plot Joan and Anne transfer their consciousness into alien Noudah bodies to visit their world and mediate between the rivaling factions of Tira and Ghahar as well as research their history. Their world is closest to the sun in a system with five planets, while Joan and Anne spy the conversation from Baneth, the moon of the gas giant in the system. Using a signal from a node in the communication network of the Amalgam, an advance alien race, sent from twenty light-years away, Joan and Anne can prove to the Noudah to be alien visitors. Together th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Incandescence (novel)
''Incandescence'' is a 2008 science fiction novel by Australian author Greg Egan. The book is based on the idea that the theory of general relativity could be discovered by a pre-industrial civilisation. Plot summary The novel has two narratives in alternate chapters. The first follows two citizens of the Amalgam, a Milky Way-spanning civilisation, investigating the origin of DNA found on a meteor by the Aloof. The Aloof control the galactic core and, until the novel begins, have rejected all attempts at contact by the Amalgam. The second narrative is set on a small world known as the Splinter, and covers the attempts by its inhabitants to understand the environment within which their home exists. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the Splinter orbits a collapsed star within its accretion disk and is subject to various dangers. The two stories come together in a complex twist which involves a kind of past/future first contact role reversal. Much of the narrative ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SF Site
''SF Site'' is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine edited by Rodger Turner. It is among the oldest of websites dedicated to science fiction and primarily publishes book reviews. It has won the Locus Award and received nominations for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. ''SF Site'' also provides web hosting services, and was instrumental in the online presence of major magazines such as '' Analog'', ''Asimov's'', '' F&SF'' and '' Interzone''. History Established in June 1997 by John O'Neill and Rodger Turner, ''SF Site'' is an online magazine of science fiction and fantasy, and among the oldest of SF websites. It is based in Ottawa, Canada, but includes contributors from around the world, and had 200,000 unique visitors per month in 2001. It primarily publishes reviews of science fiction books; it also reviews films, television, and features interviews with authors and fiction excerpts. Contributors include Steven H Silver, Richard Lupoff, Rick Norwood, Victoria ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
