Andrew Worth, periodista especializado en divulgación científica, rechaza investigar una nueva y misteriosa enfermedad mental, la Angustia; en su lugar acepta un reportaje en la isla artificial de Anarkia, donde se celebra el Congreso del Centenario de Einstein y en el que se presentan a debate varias teorías candidatas a la TOE, la Teoría del Todo soñada por los físicos. Pero allí descubre una trama que amenaza la vida de los físicos más eminentes y se ve abocado a una carrera contrarreloj mientras se acerca el Instante Aleph, una catástrofe de dimensiones cósmicas que se extenderá por el tiempo hasta alcanzar el mismísimo Big Bang.

Good, but not in the same league of book #2. Clearly ahead of its time - it anticipates today's "culture wars" in 20 years. Also, great dialogues on libertarianism. But the first few chapters make you expect a lot and the rest of the book doesn't deliver. ( )

Ok ... technically that 5 star rating isn't exactly deserved. Yes, i liked the book, but it's no egan's best. It had some weaknesses.

So, why 5 stars? When I started reading this I thought that Egan was riding a bit on some of the more recent trends with the gender pronouns, genders in general, the dystopian news stuff and the general zeigeist he expressed, especially in the first third. So I was more than a little surprised when I went to check reviews and noticed that this bookwas published in 1995. I guess Egan was ahead on this one, but this time in the sociological sense as well as the sf sense.

starting from the middle, the book turned more into a relatively standard cyberpunk-ish techno-thriller, with a few nice mindfuck aspects. The science was ok, but I thought some of Egan's other books were quite a bit better on that front. ( )

Another great Greg Egan book, the last book of his first trilogy. Great hard SF, although I found the physics "Theory of Everything" main theme to be less interesting than the themes of Permutation City (Simulation) or Quarantine (Quantum Mechanics). However, the secondary theme ("Stateless", an anarchist libertarian island paradise) more than made up for it. (Audible audiobook edition for most of the book, some Kindle edition.) ( )

It has been a long time since I've read any Greg Egan. That was silly of me. Distress is evidence of his exceptional ability to craft a good story around intriguing ideas. He is clearly willing and able to casually sweep aside the acculturated biases that dominate our lives -- economic, political, and social -- today. The end result is illuminating, engaging, and crisply presented so that everything becomes clear to the invested reader.

I wish I had known this was the third book in a series before I was two thirds of the way through. I certainly intend to read the preceding two novels soon. If there's anything wrong with this book, I think it's the fact that the publisher did not see fit to make it clear that it was a sequel. Lack of familiarity with the preceding novels does not seem to have damaged the enjoyment and inspiration I experienced reading it, though; the author did an excellent job of making it stand well on its own. ( )