Axiomatic
by Greg Egan · first published 1995
85% recommend15% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Short hard sci-fi stories that each build on one big idea, from Cantor sets to identity and medicine. Suits readers who want mind-bending concepts in small doses, and works as a first taste of Egan.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
AXIOMATIC is a collection of eighteen short stories including; THE HUNDRED LIGHT YEAR DIARY - Scientists can bounce messages from the future back to the present, but there's no guarantee they'll tell the truth... LEARNING TO BE ME - Crystalline minds may take the place of human brains, but where does the self really lie? CLOSER - Lovers exchange bodies and minds, but their experiments go just that little bit too far, proving that you can have too much of a good thing...
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Greg Egan is my favorite sci-fi writer. Read http://www.amazon.com/Axiomatic-Greg-Egan/dp/0061052655 and have your mind blown.
on “SF author Greg Egan reviews Avatar” ↗This reminds me of Greg Egan's short story "The Hundred Light-Year Diary". The text is at [1] but better still buy the book [2] [1] http://pastebin.com/f341e113e [2] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Axiomatic-Greg-Egan/dp/0575081740
on “Gravitational Lensing to Observe Ancient Earth” ↗…and/or see things through another lens. They are also really good reads that are very hard to put down. Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality Firefall series by Peter Watts (Blindsight & Echopraxia) Axiomatic by Greg Egan N.N. Taleb's books These are all books I had seen written about in previous HN threads like this and ended up reading, so glad I did!
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗…expected sci-fi, I'd actually place him closer to fantasy. Perfect for anyone who enjoys short stories with a scientific, social, or philosophical twist. Another anthology I'd recommend with fresh ideas is Axiomatic by Greg Egan.
on “Life is more than an engineering problem” ↗You should try Greg Egan's books, if you like SF at all. I think a good introduction would be Schild's Ladder or Axiomatic, but my personal favorite is the Clockwork Rocket trilogy and Dichromatic. The latter two are conceptually related. If you know about metric signatures, you'll be able to tell how. If not, well, you…
on “Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers” ↗Try Greg Egan's Axiomatic. I picked it up from a free books charity knowing nothing about it, and found the author to be a little "harder" than Chiang but with the same focus on the humanity to be found in sci-fi.
on “Ted Chiang: Realist of a Larger Reality” ↗Boom! Another Greg Egan fan, here. Reading through Axiomatic right now and loving it. One thing I've noticed (& which I'm sure a lot of people have stated) is that his fictional works are mostly just a platform for him to explore ideas. Whether or not they entertain…
on “Ask HN: Books that altered your view of reality” ↗Greg Egan wrote a good short story with a related premise: a pathologist investigating evidence discovers the DNA is formed of novel bases. It's called 'The Moat' and is published in the collection 'Axiomatic'. The whole collection deserves a content warning, but if you enjoy Black Mirror then you'll enjoy these.
on “Four new DNA letters double life’s alphabet” ↗The "The Infinite Assassin" short story in Greg Egan's Axiomatic is awesome. Some other short stories embed mathematical thoughts as their main plot, for instance "Dark integers".
on “Ask HN: Books that blend math and fiction” ↗…is very much an "ideas" man though. I find that his narratives while intellectually stimulating sometimes don't translate well to a novel format. I find Egan's short stories to be a delight (check out Axiomatic if you haven't) but his novels can be a real slog if you are not a subject matter expert. Neal Stephenson writes in the same "genre" but he has a much more approachable style while not sacrificing on…
on “Hard comp-fi reading list” ↗…stories, try some Greg Egan. Or, his book with short stories is also really nice: [1] [0]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223380.Stories_of_Your_L... [1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/156783.Axiomatic
on “The Last Question” ↗As someone who finds most fiction to take much too long to get to any interesting points, I’d like to recommend Greg Egan’s Axiomatic, a collection of thought-provoking SF short stories.
on “Why read Dostoevsky? A programmer's perspective” ↗Explored brilliantly in "Learning To Be Me" by Greg Egan, a short story in his collection "Axiomatic."
on “Welcome to Life: the singularity, ruined by lawyers by Tom Scott” ↗I read a lot of books, the one I'd recommend the most is Greg Egan's "Axiomatic" short story collection.
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗Second Egan, for 'Permutation City' and his short stories (in 'Axiomatic', especially). Also, Greg Bear's 'Blood Music' inspired me both with its vision and its jumbling of genres, especially given its publication date (1985).
on “Ask YC: What's the most inspiring sci-fi book you've read?” ↗