Greg Egan's science fiction is always dense, challenging and, if the reader is willing to work a little harder than usual, very entertaining. Distress, a novel whose central action is the formulation of a watertight Theory of Everything, is no exception. It's the year 2055, and science reporter Andrew Worth is caught up in the political and ethical turmoil surrounding a physics convention where the all-explaining Theory will be presented. An extremist group known as the Anthrocosmologists believes that the Theory itself creates and is the key to the universe, and that the Theory's creator is the creator of the universe. As the story unfolds, Egan drags Worth further into the confusing realm of cosmology and scientific thought; it's a credit to his craftsmanship that the book remains readable while its hero laboriously grapples with the issues surrounding the very basic ideas behind science itself. Egan adds the usual futuristic touches: Worth's camera and computer are built into his body, there are now seven recognized genders, living things can be invented and patented, and so on, but this is the story's setting. Egan is careful never to allow these details to become the story itself. In the end, of course, Distress is speculative fiction concerned with ideas, and like much science fiction the characters seem a little shallow, the situations a little too pat. But by grappling with old ideas—Can the universe be explained? Can it be explained by human beings, through the use of a single set of ideas? Do we create our world simply by living there? How does knowledge change humanity?—Egan keeps the reader's attention despite overwhelming amounts of thought and information. Distress is sweeping, epic science fiction at its most basic and most absorbing.