[PhilD]

Originally posted by LordArioch:

Oh, and PhilD, if you haven't noticed yet, you can find a couple of Egan's short stories on his webpage along with entertaining java applets and background science at varying levels of techicality. I would have to agree that at least some level of understanding of science is necessary. Honestly I'm not really sure what happens during the second half of Schild's Ladder myself. Sometime I'll have to educate myself about spin networks and read it again.

Oh, usually by the second half of Egan's books, nothing makes much sense anyway. The first third of each book is absolutely brilliant, then it's a series of "huh?", and the end, while enjoyable, is usually so far in pure speculation that it doesn't help anymore to have a decent science education (or maybe I just don't have enough, but between my own PhD in CS, my girlfriend's in statistical physics, and our general mathematical background, I'd say we're somewhat ahead of his general target readership, or he would have a very hard time making a living out of his books).