"True Names" is a 2008 science fiction story by Cory Doctorow and Benjamin Rosenbaum. It was first published in the anthology Fast Forward 2.
Doctorow and Rosenbaum subsequently made the story available under the terms of the Creative Commons license.Fast Forward 2: original sf from the cutting edge, including "True Names," a novella by Benjamin Rosenbaum and me!, by Cory Doctorow, at BoingBoing; published December 2, 2008; retrieved May 19, 2019
Synopsis
Beebe and Demiurge are matrioshka brains, at war with each other as they both try to convert all matter in the universe into computronium.
Receptions
"True Names" was a finalist for the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novella.2009 Hugo Awards, at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved May 19, 2019
Strange Horizons praised 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".Fast 2, edited by Lou Anders, reviewed by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro; at Strange Horizons; published November 24, 2008; retrieved May 19, 2019
The Los Angeles Review of Books observed that "True Names" "obviously pays homage to (Vernor) Vinge's classic story of that title,"Attack of the Singularity, by Pawel Freilk, in the Los Angeles Review of Books; published September 10, 2012; retrieved May 19, 2019 while the SF Site considered that it "resonate(s) a bit with (Greg) Egan."Incandescence, by Greg Egan, reviewed by Rich Horton, at the SF Site; published 2009; retrieved May 19, 2019
References
External links Text of the story, at archive.org Audio of "True Names" (part 1 of 3), read by Cory Doctorow, at archive.org Audio of "True Names" (part 2 of 3) Audio of "True Names" (part 3 of 3)