''Crystal Nights and Other Stories'' is a collection of nine science-fiction short stories by

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

writer

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 Lo ...

, published on 30 September 2009 by

Subterranean Press Subterranean Press is a small press publisher in Burton, Michigan. Subterranean is best known for publishing genre fiction, primarily Horror fiction, horror, suspense and dark mystery, fantasy, and science fiction. In addition to publishing novel ...

. Two of the stories were nominated for the

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by th ...

Background

" Singleton" and "Oracle" are set in the same universe as Egan's novel ''

Schild's Ladder In the theory of general relativity, and differential geometry more generally, Schild's ladder is a first-order method for ''approximating'' parallel transport of a vector along a curve using only affinely parametrized geodesics. The method is ...

'' from 2002, but 20,000 years earlier. After their release, Egan was active in campaigning for refugee rights, including the end of mandatory detention for asylum seekers in Australia, for a few years. In an interview with

David Conyers David Conyers (born 30 May 1971) is an Australian author. Conyers writes predominantly science fiction and Lovecraftian horror. Biography Conyers was born in Sydney. Most of his childhood was spent in the Adelaide Hills, before moving to Melb ...

for ''Virtual Worlds and Imagined Futures'' in 2009, Egan called it an "eye-opening experience to see people mistreated in that way", revealing that " Lost Continent" about a time traveler seeking asylum but facing burocratic incompetence is "an allegory of the whole thing, just to get some of the anger out of my system and move on."

Reception

Reviews

Greg Johnson, writing on the ''

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 ...

'', states that the collection "represent Egan both at his best, and his most accessible" and that he "finds a way to balance the complexity of his ideas with enough story and character for the reader to care about them as stories and not just speculative essays on the latest in cosmology, physics or artificial intelligence research." This "shows how good a writer Greg Egan can be." In further detail, Johnson describes " TAP" as "a testament to Egan's depth as a science fiction writer" and writes that "Hot Rock" is "in many ways a throwback to the old style of hard science fiction, a story which presents us with the mystery of a new place, one that on first examination shouldn't exist." He adds that the "appeal of the story lies mainly in solving the mystery, but the main character is portrayed just sympathetically enough that we care at least as much for how the story affects her as we do for solving the mystery of how the planet of the story's title came to be." ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' referred to the collection as "steadfastly reductionist", noting that Egan "makes room for the moral implications of the treatment of refugees in 'Lost Continent,' while ' Crystal Nights' offers a pointed critique of technologists enthused by the idea of enslaved creations." They further claimed that "Egan can be heavy-handed at times, as in 'Oracle,' where the character Jack serves as a straw-man version of

C.S. Lewis CS, C-S, C.S., Cs, cs, or cs. may refer to: Job titles * Chief Secretary (Hong Kong) * Chief superintendent, a rank in the British and several other police forces * Company secretary, a senior position in a private sector company or public se ...

." They concluded, "More conventional SF puzzle stories like 'Hot Rock' and 'Tap' and a forcefully worded introduction on the ethics of artificial intelligence round out the volume".

Awards

"Border Guards" was nominated for the

Hugo Award for Best Novelette The Hugo Award for Best Novelette is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novelette award is available for works of fiction of ...

in 2000. "Oracle" was nominated for the

Hugo Award for Best Novella The Hugo Award for Best Novella is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novella award is available for works of fiction of between ...

in 2001. " Crystal Nights" was nominated in 2008, and " Singleton" was nominated in 2002 for the British SF Association Award.

References

External links

*
Author's website
with full texts of "Crystal Nights", " Singleton", "Oracle" and "Border Guards" {{Greg Egan Short story collections by Greg Egan 2009 short story collections