"True Names"is a 2008science fictionstory byCory DoctorowandBenjamin Rosenbaum.It was first published in the anthologyFast Forward 2.
Doctorow and Rosenbaum subsequently made the story available under the terms of theCreative Commonslicense.[1]
Synopsis
editBeebe and Demiurge arematrioshka brains,at war with each other as they both try to convert all matter in the universe intocomputronium.
Receptions
edit"True Names" was a finalist for the 2009Hugo Award for Best Novella.[2]
Strange Horizonspraised it as an "exercise in extreme imagination" and a "magnificent display of pre-existing ideas arranged in fabulous geometries and twisted into pleasing, recombinant strategies of exuberance", but nonetheless found it lacking in literary quality, with "stultified" dialogue, and characters whose "behavior comprised more of wide-eyed naivete and sardonic posturing than any real emotion".[3]
TheLos Angeles Review of Booksobserved that "True Names" "obviously pays homage to(Vernor) Vinge'sclassic story of that title,"[4]while theSF Siteconsidered that it "resonate(s) a bit with(Greg) Egan."[5]
References
edit- ^Fast Forward 2: original sf from the cutting edge, including "True Names," a novella by Benjamin Rosenbaum and me!,byCory Doctorow,atBoingBoing;published December 2, 2008; retrieved May 19, 2019
- ^2009 Hugo Awards,at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved May 19, 2019
- ^Fast Foward 2, edited by Lou Anders,reviewed by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro; atStrange Horizons;published November 24, 2008; retrieved May 19, 2019
- ^Attack of the Singularity,by Pawel Freilk, in theLos Angeles Review of Books;published September 10, 2012; retrieved May 19, 2019
- ^Incandescence, by Greg Egan,reviewed by Rich Horton, at theSF Site;published 2009; retrieved May 19, 2019