Paperback, 310 pages
English language
Published Aug. 12, 1995 by Millennium.
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.
My favorite kind of scifi is large scale, sometimes absurd, thought experiments and I cannot believe how many ideas about consciousness are crammed into this short book. Recommended to people who liked the Black Mirror Christmas episode or, to a lesser extent, Dollhouse.
Another of Egan's philosophical fictions in the guise of science fiction. By setting the book in cyberspace where humans have uploaded themselves, he is able to discuss the possibilities when we are free of bodies and able to change ourselves.
Although I like his short stories better, because he is able to explore many different ideas in one book, he does manage to fit in quite a lot of thought-provoking notions as well as enough of a plot to prevent things getting too heavy.
Because people are able to change more readily, he is able to explore ranges of gender and culture fairly widely, though in this futuristic context I suspect that people who are LGBTQ+ in today's world may not feel adequately represented, though I can't be more sure than that.
