Sf/fantasy

摘要

Though the many races of the Amalgam are spread throughout the galaxy, one place they do not visit lies at the brilliantly hot galactic center, known as the "bulge." One race, called the Aloof, dwells there in polite but firm isolation. But when Rakesh is asked to travel to the Aloof's realm in search of a lost race, he and a few trusted companions accept the opportunity. Meanwhile, Roi, one of the members of that unknown race, turns away from her life of constant toil and joins with a group of pioneering "thinkers" to solve an intriguing mystery fundamental to their world's existence and that may portend its destruction. Hugo Award winner Egan {Permutation City, Quarantine; Diaspora) writes clearly and vividly about the cutting edge of science yet doesn't forget that characters are the windows through which the world is viewed. His latest novel, a whirlwind foray . into the world of science theory coupled with the urgency of a doomsday scenario, belongs in all sf collections.