"Dark Integers" by Greg Egan, A Story Review by Evelyn Leeper

[SFAB...@gmail.com]

The following mini review is reprinted with permission from:

THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
07/11/08 -- Vol. 27, No. 2, Whole Number 1501

Note: This is excerpted from a longer review of this year's Hugo
Award nominees which will be posted on the SFABC Books & Authors
Group.

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"Dark Integers" by Greg Egan (ASIMOV'S Oct/Nov) is a sequel to his
short story "Luminous". The idea is that there are areas of space (or
parallel universes) where the laws of mathematics are
different than here, and attacks can be made by pushing our
mathematics into them (and vice versa). I think that reading
"Luminous" is a prequisite for "Dark Integers", even though Egan
attempts to fill in the background in the latter. There is actually at
least some basis for the notion of conflicting mathematical systems,
since the has been proven that there are propositions such that both a
statement and its negation would be consistent with our system of
mathematics. Mathematical science fiction is rare, so it is always
good to see another work added to it, especially by someone as skilled
as Egan.