Oceanic

Excellent hard sci-fi story collection, of the 12 stories I thought 11 were great. I particularly liked "Hot Rock" for its weirdness, Egan's not afraid to depict truly alien species, cultures, etc. All the stories are excellently speculative. Sometimes he indulges a bit too much in nerdy world-building and a few of the stories could use a more human touch on the characters, but overall it's really solid writing. File next to "Vernor Vinge".