- Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Harpercollins (Mm) (Oct 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 006105481X
- ISBN-13: 978-0061054815
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.7 x 2.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,802,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Permutation City
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
What would happen if you could copy your memories and personality into a computer generated universe, live there, and return? Greg Egan, author of Quarantine explores the possibilities in this suspenseful book. Battles rage on different levels as computer personalities on a locked chip fight to escape. Meanwhile sticky legal questions are raised in the real world. Think about the copyright laws, and what about the legal rights of computer programs?
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
The story of a man with a vision - immortality : for those who can afford it is found in cyberspace. Permutation city is the tale of a man with a vision - how to create immortality - and how that vision becomes something way beyond his control. Encompassing the lives and struggles of an artificial life junkie desperate to save her dying mother, a billionaire banker scarred by a terrible crime, the lovers for whom, in their timeless virtual world, love is not enough - and much more - Permutation city is filled with the sense of wonder.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
Paul Durham opened his eyes, blinking at the room's unexpected brightness, then lazily reached out to place one hand in a patch of sunlight at the edge of the bed. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Paul Durham opened his eyes, blinking at the room's unexpected brightness, then lazily reached out to place one hand in a patch of sunlight at the edge of the bed. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book introduces the concept of running 'Copies' of people on computers on the very 1st page. But it is about so much more than Artificial Inteligence. Greg Egan explores concepts of existance and consciousness that I never knew existed.
This is just a SF book, but it has still changed my perspective of the world.
Read it and then think.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I read this book in 1994. It still crops up daily in my mind. What would you do if your soul was offered immortality? Would you accept the offer? If not, why? And if you do, how would you spend the rest of eternity? There are passages in the book that I find I live my life by. I don't want to give the plot away - but if you are at all interested in the riddle of where the border between external and internal reality lies you will enjoy this book.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Set in the mid 21st century, this sci-fi novel, like Egan's later novel Diaspora, ties together many fascinating scientific and metaphysical ideas in a single book (The emphasis is very definitely on the "sci"). However, unlike Diaspora, there is a strong central theme underlying the story, a baffling idea called the "Dust theory". Any attempt to describe that theory here would be pointless, but I can say that it compels the reader to ponder some fundamental questions about the nature of reality. The theory is completely absurd yet not all that easy to refute. It has certainly caused me a few headaches... The dust theory is motivated and explained via another key theme in both this book and Diaspora - the concept of having a human "download" his mind onto a computer. Aside from the suspension of disbelief required in order to accept that such a thing is possible, Egan presents us with a well-thought-out and plausible scenario regarding these downloaded humans or "copies".
There are several other themes, of lesser importance, but fascinating in their own right, notably the "Autoverse": A piece of software that allows you to have complete control over your own virtual mini-universe - a world capable of modelling objects as complex as bacteria, down to the level of individual atoms.
Well that's the sci part. The human story behind all this doesn't have much intrinsic interest - the characters are vehicles for the ideas, and often one gets the impression that it is Egan who is speaking, not the character (they all seem to be uncannily good at making detached, intelligent comments on whatever is happening). This aspect didn't really bother me, as I think the ideas deserved some detached, intelligent commentary anyway.
The biggest flaw, I found, was the contrived ending. I won't go into details here, but needless to say, the dust theory turns out to be correct (in the story, at least). Once this is established, the author needs some kind of crisis with which to sustain the reader's interest, and it is this crisis, and the circumstances that brought it about, that I found to be rather contrived.
All in all though, I would definitely recommend Permutation City to any fan of "hard" sci-fi, or anyone interested in metaphysics or the philosophy of mind.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Sci-fi at its best!
This is what all hard sci-fi should be like - brilliant. I full of great concepts and ideas, Greg Egan is a very intelligent ideas man - and this is jam-packed full of great ideas... Read more
Published 5 months ago by TalkingAfricanApe
Thought-provoking
In this book Greg Egan packages together a series of interesting thought experiments with a gripping narrative. Read more
Published 15 months ago by David Clarke
Stunning - and even better the second time you read it
This is not just sci-fi. It's a philosophical masterpiece.
If the following terms mean something to you, then you will absolutely love this book. Read more
If the following terms mean something to you, then you will absolutely love this book. Read more
Published on 29 May 2010 by MarkM
!!!Concept Vertigo!!!
Firstly; watch out for plot spoiler reviews!!
(it's not a mystery tour if you know where your heading)
Egan's work is 'Hard' Sci-Fi of the highest order. Read more
(it's not a mystery tour if you know where your heading)
Egan's work is 'Hard' Sci-Fi of the highest order. Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2010 by numpty
Great Idea ................Poorly Executed
The writing is laboured and uninspiring. I was very dissapointed with this attempt especially as I had read his short stories which are excellent.
Published on 19 Jun 2009 by Kaizer Bill
Complex but compelling.
In the near future humans can have their personalities scanned and stored in computers so that after they eventually die the Copies can be activated and can live on in an... Read more
Published on 19 Oct 2008 by March Payne
Fantastic
I first read this book in the mid '90s and it has stuck with me ever since. As a vision of the future it is breathtaking; as a depiction of what could happen to someone who has... Read more
Published on 18 Sep 2008 by Zoe
Disappointing
Hard sci-fi novels without an engaging plot are really hard to swallow; you can take a few pages of fully convincing explanations of how to create an artificial universe, but if... Read more
Published on 29 Jun 2008 by JJ Merelo
'Permutation city' Greg Egan
In 'Permutation City' Egan contrasts the most utterly convincing techno mysticism, with a forensic inquiry into identity that will leave you unable to speak. Read more
Published on 17 Jun 2004 by Ben Jones
Loads of potential...fell on it's face.
A fantastic idea, ruined by lack of story, character and over complicated atrophysical babblings throughout. Read more
Published on 15 Oct 2001
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