Rating: 
Summary: First rate 'hard' SF from the Antipodes.
Review: Egan is the best of the Australians currently working in the 'hard' SF genre. Well up there with Niven, Bear, Benford and Brin.
Like much of Egan's work, "Distress" is set in the very near future. Many of Egan's readers can reasonably expect to live long enough to see how many of the political, societal and scientific trends and events he describes actually come to pass.
Much of the SF published to date seems to focus on 'mechanistic' technological advances. Egan gives rather more weight to 'bio-tech' than most of his contemporaries.
Despite a wealth of interesting and potentially distracting ideas, appropriately the plot remains firmly centred on the characters and "Distress" - essentially a mystery - moves along apace.
I don't expect to meet a Pak Protector, or to witness the development of a near-FTL space drive, but I just might be able to visit 'Stateless' one day. It's that kind of plausible possibility, amongst many others, that makes Egan's writing paricularly interesting
Rating:
Summary: Egan's best so far. A real masterwork.
Review: Epistemology and TOE metaphysics stretched together in the best work of fiction I have ever read on the subjects. The rationals are top notch as are allways with Egan, embroidering here his most ambitious and compelling work to date. One of the very few writers in the same intelectual league with Stanislaw Lem.
Rating:
Summary: Great thought provoking reading
Review: From the opening "revival" scene that I had to read three times to the final page, Distress was a great read. I really enjoyed his play with gender--ve and ver, for example, were intriguing. The Theory of Everything was scientific enough to be credible, but written such that even a non-science reader could appreciate it. And the concept of "Stateless" was great. This is science fiction as it is meant to be: plausible, but pushing the envelope.
Rating: 
Summary: Unconventional Science Fiction
Review: Greg Egan's "Distress" is a most unusual work of science fiction. Most of the story takes place on Earth in the middle of the next century, but on an artificially created island called "Stateless" that is diplomatically shunned by most of the rest of the world because of how it was created. On the island, a convention is gathering to decide on the new "Theory of Everything" which is supposed to be as revolutionary as the Theory of Relativity. Lurking in the background is a new psychological malady named Distress, which is somehow linked to these events. Egan is a good storyteller and "Distress," like most of the best science fiction, is brimming with unusual ideas.
Rating:
Summary: Unconventional Science Fiction
Review: Greg Egan's "Distress" is a most unusual work of science fiction. Most of the story takes place on Earth in the middle of the next century, but on an artificially created island called "Stateless" that is diplomatically shunned by most of the rest of the world because of how it was created. On the island, a convention is gathering to decide on the new "Theory of Everything" which is supposed to be as revolutionary as the Theory of Relativity. Lurking in the background is a new psychological malady named Distress, which is somehow linked to these events. Egan is a good storyteller and "Distress," like most of the best science fiction, is brimming with unusual ideas.
Rating:
Summary: If you're comfortable with reality, don't read Egan.
Review: Greg Egan's greatest strength is that he questions everything. In "Distress" preconceptions about physics, gender, the human soul, and reality in general are ruthlessly placed on the chopping block. While Egan is far more in love with his bioengieneered island than I was, he makes up for it with the mind-bending concepts he juggles. "Distress" is pure science fiction, not just another soap opera with metal walls.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshingly cerebral!
Review: I am not a regular reader of much speculative fiction, however Egan's work (which I picked up basically on a whim) may change that. I found Distress to be challenging and mentally invigoration especially after the great deal of sludge I've forced my way through when I've given SF a try previously. I don't know if I completely agree with or even fully understand the metaphysics Egan appears to be endorsing at the end of the story, I'd be interested in hearing his comments on the work. If the book has any imperfections, it's that the characters are a bit under-developed, but that certainly didn't stop me from recommending it to my friends or to whoever's reading this right now.
Rating: 
Summary: Tons of Technology Presented Awkwardly
Review: I gave it my best shot, but I guess I'm not a "hard" science fiction fan (if that means all technology and no character development). There was too much technology, or it was presented awkwardly with the narrator introducing concepts/gadgets to the reader with no cultural context or a very rushed development of one. The use of technology in science fiction works best for me when the reader see it's social ramifications. I didn't get that here. All the different cults and scientific organizations seemed very unrealistic, hard to follow and over done. I didn't care about the characters or the story after part one. I had high hopes because the first part of the book was so engaging with technical and emotional depth. Chapter 1, especially, with it's great first line, works so well. It introduces a technology which raises important ethical issues and also strikes an emotional cord with the reader. The other characters in Part 1 where interesting and the situations were engaging. The author then moves the local of the story to Stateless, a manmade Island into he middle of nowhere. This is also where the story and character development went. For me the book took on more than it could present in an interesting way. 2 stars for part one.
Rating:
Summary: Tons of Technology Presented Awkwardly
Review: I gave it my best shot, but I guess I'm not a "hard" science fiction fan (if that means all technology and no character development). There was too much technology, or it was presented awkwardly with the narrator introducing concepts/gadgets to the reader with no cultural context or a very rushed development of one. The use of technology in science fiction works best for me when the reader see it's social ramifications. I didn't get that here. All the different cults and scientific organizations seemed very unrealistic, hard to follow and over done. I didn't care about the characters or the story after part one. I had high hopes because the first part of the book was so engaging with technical and emotional depth. Chapter 1, especially, with it's great first line, works so well. It introduces a technology which raises important ethical issues and also strikes an emotional cord with the reader. The other characters in Part 1 where interesting and the situations were engaging. The author then moves the local of the story to Stateless, a manmade Island into he middle of nowhere. This is also where the story and character development went. For me the book took on more than it could present in an interesting way. 2 stars for part one.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but like much "hard" sci-fi, it sags
Review: If it were possible, I'd give this work three-and-a-half stars instead of just three. The problem with Egan, and many other "hard" sci-fi writers, is that they spend so-much time building and explaining their settings that all other elements of fiction, such as characters and plot, are left underdeveloped. That has left a genre filled with great ideas, but little literary value. This work is a perfect example. Egan has filled the novel with wonderful themes both scientific and philosophical. But I do not feel that Egan had the literary talent to pull what he set to accomplish. His prose is bland, his scientific observerations are often long and unneeded, his characters never assume any type of three-dimensional personality, and his plot has so many twists and turns that it soon becomes predictable. But before I become to cynical, I should state that his themes are thought-provoking, and that he wisely uses them for more than plot development. If Egan could learn some writing skills, then he could become a fairly good writer. But until then he is limited to his genre.
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