cam: IMO Egan is Australia\'s greatest writer: I first discovered him with \"Permutation City\" and was surprised to discover it was set in Glebe, Sydney. An area I could relate to. Until that time Sco-Fi happened in exotic technological wonder polis\' like New York, Tokyo or London.

He manages to maintain an optimism and purity in the science, it is untainted by an intrinsic moral nature. But science falls under the sway of the human policitcal and social desolation. My favourite short story of his is \"The Moat\", it entwines in a short story ecological themes, science being used to create an \"us and them\" class, and human fallibility of discrimination.

From his essay;

ike thousands of other Australians, I was jolted by the events surrounding the Tampa into educating myself about the refugee processing system. Part of this education involved writing to detainees to hear their side of the story, and after months of correspondence I eventually had a chance to meet some of my pen friends face-to-face.

wow.

As I have been going through Egan\'s books I have been writing down questions on the books and themes in them. I think I only have Teranesia to go. I should finish it and then see if I can get an email interview with him.

I hate Australia\'s immigration and refugee policies. They are \"small Australia\" personified. They represent a vindictive, nasty, self-centered and exclusionary Australia. I dont like that at all. IMO increase immigration so that the 10,000 refugees we get a year go from 10% of immigration to 1% would solve the problem.

cam

Scrymarch: Egan: Yeah, I\'ve never got a lot of traction out of Egan\'s Australian settings, because I\'ve never lived precisely there.  When we went to Sydney for a few days, my wife said \"It\'s like Australia on TV\".  But it is cool to read a book set in a real place that you know.  One of the few enjoyable things about Vanity Fair was that a friend of mine was living near Russell Square at the time.

I remember The Moat .  I think Axiomatic is one of the most outstanding books of fiction I\'ve ever read.  Possibly my favourite short story ever is Learning To Be Me .

I wonder if Egan does interviews.  I suspect he would do an email interview if it was intelligent and well-backgrounded.  He posted very occassionally to aus.sf when I was reading it a few years back.