Dark Integers and Other Stories

2008 science fiction collection by Greg Egan

Dark Integers and Other Stories

Author| Greg Egan
Language| English
Genre| Science fiction, Hard science fiction
Publisher| Subterranean Press

Publication date

| March 25, 2008
Pages| 232
ISBN| 978-1596061552

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,[1][2][3] while two others were nominated.[4][5][3]

## Contents

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* Luminous (1995)
* Riding the Crocodile (2005)
* Dark Integers (2007)[6]
* Glory (2007)[7]
* Oceanic (1998)

## Background

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"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

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### Reviews

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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 "it only further whets the appetite for Egan's new novel, Incandescence." In further detail, Horton describes "Luminous" as "fascinating" for its central premise, but says that "it didn't quite sell this idea, and the thrillerish material wasn't convincingly integrated." Its sequel "Dark Integers" concerns "not so much the idea, though that remains fascinatingly loopy, but the sad political reality that Egan derives from the underlying state of affairs." In "Oceanic", "Egan succeeds again in marrying character with idea – perhaps in part because the central idea is more sociological than mathematical."[8]

Writing in Strange Horizons, Karen Burnham discussed suspension of disbelief in regard to multiple of Egan's short stories. Burnham indicated that "Luminous" and "Dark Integers" "aren't necessarily Egan's best stories" as they "both rely heavily on their plots, with very little characterization", and "it's very hard to find a narrative toehold when the infodumping gets confusing". However, she found that "reading the introduction" of Dark Integers and Other Stories makes "them easier to read". She explained, "Then I knew that my feeling of disjointedness wasn't because I was stupid, but because the stories' conceit really was completely without basis in any real-world science or genre convention."[9]

Salik Shah claims in the Reactor Magazine, that the idea behind "Luminous" and "Dark Integers" "would make an exciting premise for radio or film adaptation."[10]

Russell Letson, writing in the Locus Magazine, says that "Oceanic" "edges into extreme post-human and/or far-future territory, but that story’s armature is a kind of bildungsroman" and "is a whole novel’s worth of material that remains background."[11]

### Awards

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The collection reached the 6th place in the Reader Poll of the Locus Award in 2009.[12][13]

"Luminous" was nominated in 1996 and[4][3] "Dark Integers" was nominated in 2008 for the Hugo Award for Best Novelette.[5][3] "Oceanic" won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1999.[1][2][3] In 2001, "Oceanic", in 2003, "Luminous", and in 2010, "Dark Integers", all won the Japanese Seiun Award.[14] "Oceanic" was also a finalist in the 1998 Aurealis Award for best science fiction short story, a long list nominee for the 1999 James Tiptree Jr Memorial Award, and a short-list nominee for the 1999 HOMer Award for best novella.[15][16][17]

## See also

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* 2008 in Australian literature

## References

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1. ^ a b "Hugo Awards 1999". thehugoawards.org. 13 August 2008. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
2. ^ a b "The Locus Index to SF Awards: 1999 Hugo Awards". Locus Online. Archived from the original on 2010-01-14. Retrieved 2010-03-24.
3. ^ a b c d e "Greg Egan Awards Summary". 2023-10-15. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
4. ^ a b "1996 Hugo Awards". thehugoawards.org. 26 July 2007. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
5. ^ a b "2008 Hugo Awards". thehugoawards.org. 13 August 2008. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
6. ^ Egan, Greg (October 2007). "Dark Integers". Asimovs.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
7. ^ "Harper Voyager Books: FREE HUGO SHORT STORIES: Ken Macleod and Greg Egan". Outofthiseos.typepad.com. 27 March 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
8. ^ Horton, Rich. "Dark Integers and Other Stories". sfsite.com. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
9. ^ Burnham, Karen (2008-06-02). "Axiomatic and Dark Integers by Greg Egan". Strange Horizons. Retrieved 2024-04-18.
10. ^ Shah, Salik (2020-04-08). "Why Greg Egan Is Science Fiction's Next Superstar". reactormag.com. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
11. ^ Letson, Russell (2019-06-14). "Russell Letson Reviews The Best of Greg Egan by Greg Egan". Locus Magazine. Archived from the original on 2024-04-30. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
12. ^ "2009 Locus Poll Award". Retrieved 2024-04-09.
13. ^ "Greg Egan Awards Summary". 2023-10-15. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
14. ^ "星雲賞受賞作・参考候補作一覧". Prizes World (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-04-09.
15. ^ "The Locus Index to SF Awards: 1999 Aurealis Awards". Locus Online. Retrieved 2010-03-24.
16. ^ "The Locus Index to SF Awards: 1999 James Tiptree Jr Memorial Award". Locus Online. Archived from the original on 2010-01-14. Retrieved 2010-03-24.
17. ^ "The Locus Index to SF Awards: 1999 HOMer Awards". Locus Online. Retrieved 2010-03-24.

## External links

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* Dark Integers and Other Stories title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
* Author's website with full texts of "Riding the Crocodile" and "Oceanic"

* v
* t
* e

Greg Egan

Novels|

* An Unusual Angle (1983)
* Quarantine (1992)
* Permutation City (1994)
* Distress (1995)
* Diaspora (1997)
* Teranesia (1999)
* Schild's Ladder (2002)
* Incandescence (2008)
* Zendegi (2010)
* Dichronauts (2017)
* Perihelion Summer (2019)
* The Book of All Skies (2021)
* Scale (2023)
* Morphotrophic (2024)

| Orthogonal|

* The Clockwork Rocket (2011)
* The Eternal Flame (2012)
* The Arrows of Time (2013)

|

Collections|

* Axiomatic (1995)
* Luminous (1998)
* Dark Integers and Other Stories (2008)
* Crystal Nights and Other Stories (2009)
* Oceanic (2009)
* The Best of Greg Egan (2019)
* Instantiation (2020)
* Sleep and the Soul (2023)
* Phoresis and Other Journeys (2023)

Short Stories|

* "Neighbourhood Watch" (1987)
* "The Cutie" (1989)
* "The Moral Virologist" (1990)
* "Axiomatic" (1990)
* "Eugene" (1990)
* "Learning to Be Me" (1990)
* "The Safe-Deposit Box" (1990)
* "Appropriate Love" (1991)
* "Into Darkness" (1992)
* "The Hundred Light-Year Diary" (1992)
* "Unstable Orbits in the Space of Lies" (1992)
* "The Walk" (1992)
* "Chaff" (1993)
* "Mitochondrial Eve" (1995)
* "A Kidnapping" (1995)
* "Wang's Carpets" (1995)
* "Luminous" (1995)
* "TAP" (1995)
* "Silver Fire" (1995)
* "Reasons to Be Cheerful" (1997)
* "The Planck Dive" (1998)
* "Oceanic" (1998)
* "Border Guards" (1999)
* "Singleton" (2002)
* "Riding the Crocodile" (2005)
* "Glory" (2007)
* "Dark Integers" (2007)
* "Lost Continent" (2008)
* "Crystal Nights" (2008)
* "Zero for Conduct" (2013)
* "This Is Not the Way Home" (2019)
* "The Slipway" (2019)
* "Dream Factory" (2022)
* "After Zero" (2022)
* "Crisis Actors" (2022)
* "Didicosm" (2023)

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