Luminous - Greg Egan

Number of words : 12600
Percent of complex words : 13.1
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 15.3


READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 11.4
Flesch : 54.0
Flesch-Kincaid : 9.5


PEOPLE

Bruno

Alison's ex-lover and co-operator. Mapper of mathematical defects.

Alison

Bruno's ex-lover and co-operator. Has idea that mathematics might be wonkier than we think.

Julia and Ramesh

Friends of theirs.

Andrew Wiles

Princeton researcher.

Lu Xun

A writer.

Andy Warhol

Artist.

Mao

Chinese leader.

Pinochet

Chilean dictator.

Yuen Ting-fu

Alison's supervisor for her Ph.D. on advanced applications of ring theory.

Cantor

A famous mathematician.


PLACES

Shanghai

Large Chinese city.

Hotel Fleapit

In Shanghai.

Hanoi

Vietnamese city.

Yuyuan Bazaar

Market in Shanghai.

Helsinki

Finnish city.

Zurich

Swiss city.


TECHNOLOGY

Necrotrap

Implanted carrying technology that breaks if disconnected from the host's biology.

Luminous

Chinese supercomputer made of light.

Surgical grade tissue repair cream

Good for stopping bleeding.


CONCEPTS

Mandarin

Chinese dialect.

Fermat's Last Theorem

No three positive integers a , b, and c can satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n.

Platonist

Follower of Plato's ideas.

Big Bang

Universe creation event.


ORGANISATIONS

Industrial Algebra

Aggressive UK IT company that wants their secrets.

Star TV

International Asian broadcaster.

Fu-tan University

Where Alison studied ring theory.

Exxon

Large corporation.

McDonnell-Douglas

Large corporation.

People's Institute for Advanced Optical Engineering

In Minhang. Houses Luminous and Yuen works there.


RACES

Han

A Chinese race that Bruno looks nothing like.

Australopithecus

Early human ancestor.


MEDIA

1984

Science fiction novel by George Orwell.

Winston Smith

Major character in 1984.


ANIMALS

Sea-urchin

Small, shiny ball-shaped ocean creature.


PLOT

Bruno wakes, having been found by an agent, but their precautions defeat her.

In June 1994, his fellow student Alison and he had a discussion, where she said:
"You're claiming that . . . mathematics might be strewn with primordial defects in consistency? Like space might be strewn with cosmic strings?"

"Exactly." She stared back at me, feigning nonchalance. "If space-time doesn't join up with itself smoothly, everywhere . . . why should mathematical logic?"

Which led to them researching such defects with success, and to agents of IA wanting their secrets to use in financial manipulations.

To further their work they manage to obtain some time on the most advanced computer in the world, thanks to Alison's old supervisor. They are quite shocked to find that what they are doing is being resisted - and stunned when they are contacted with information from this far side realm.


5 out of 5

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b974/Luminous/Greg-Egan/?