This is hard SF at its hardest. There are two storylines inIncandescence, which only meet up near the end. The first tells the story of Rakesh, a DNA-derived post-human[1] in a intergalactic post-scarcity society called the Amalgam. The second is about two alien inhabitants exploring a mysterious and primitive world called the Splinter.
Rakesh wants to be a grand explorer, but feels he was born too late. All the big problems of science are solved. Every star and planet in the galaxy has been identified and explored. People can transmit themselves across the vast distances of interstellar space with ease. The biggest problem facing the Amalgam (or at least wunderkinde like Rakesh) is boredom.
This is not a boring book. Or at least, it is not a boring book if you enjoy listening in to discussions by mysterious aliens on the nature of physics. Greg Egan claims that Incandescence is a celebration of the scientific method. I agree. But the pursuit of science has left the characterisation of the aliens[2] of the Splinter rather undeveloped.
But maybe that was the point. The social structure of the Splinterites is one of Foucauldian control, in which individuality is not valued, and with good reason, as being excessively individual will generally threaten the survival and sustainability of their world.
In terms of the grand debate between Roberts and Egan (Robert's review[3] Adam Robert's review of Incandescence is here and Greg Egan's response to Adam Robert's review is here) I come down on Egan's side. This book didn't need "strong characters", it needed largely-interchangeable drone-like scientists, which is what most of the characters are.
All in all, a good book, and strongly recommended if you enjoy science for science's sake. But not recommended if you want to read a Booker-prize-longlisted Hampstead novel about the internal lives of heterosexual middle class white people.
[1]: There are no clearly distinct "alien races" in the Amalgam. Individual post-humans identify with the ancestral chemical replicators from which they descend. Rakesh descends from "DNA", but then so do the inhabitants of the Splinter. It is never specified whether Rakesh is a descendent of DNA from Earth, but I guess worrying about that sort of thing would be chauvinistic.
[2]: As I imply in the last footnote, it would be as well to think of everyone in this story as an alien. The Splinterites are just the "most" alien.
[3]: One of the reasons I've been holding off on writing reviews is the presence of so many straightforwardly superior reviewers in the blogosphere. Roberts is one of the best. But what the hell, it's the only way I'll learn.
