Tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine, these stories will change the way you think, feel, and see the world. They are Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic, revelatory.
In “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In “Exhalation,” an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom,” the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.
Several great short stories, though the longest one in the book is not as successful. Chiang keeps the spirit of his previous book 'Stories of your life', with short narratives that investigate deep philosophical questions in a creative and engaging way, without being artificial. I found the earlier book to be brilliant cover-to-cover, while this one is more uneven.
Every story is a thought experiment—like the best episodes of Twilight Zone. I was completely absorbed. I still talk about stories in this collection. "The Great Silence," the story from the perspective of a (critically endangered) Puerto Rican parrot, left me choked up. "Omphalos," a pseudo-epistolary story from a timeline where creationism is real and science and religion are closely intertwined. I'm still telling people about those about 4 months after reading them.
Many of the stories are glaringly built around a fixed idea so that the notes at the end are redundant—or are more interesting than the stories themselves. The surrounding texts are more filler than breathing worlds. "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate", "The Lifecycle of Software Objects", and "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom" are the most organic.
Some really solid speculative fiction. The good stories are really good (Omphalos, Exhalation, Software Objects, Anxiety), and the collection as a whole was great.
Some really solid speculative fiction. The good stories are really good (Omphalos, Exhalation, Software Objects, Anxiety), and the collection as a whole was great.
My kind of sci-fi. Chiang transcends the engineering approach to life typical of much science fiction. He creates believable cultures that aren't superficial tweaks but shows a deep understanding of what life is about.
Confession time: I am in love with Ted Chiang. Deeply. I fell hard in 2003 with his story “Liking What You See: A Documentary.” Today, having finished “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” and “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom,” I’m head over heels. What a beautiful mind. The stories in this collection all dance around the nature of consciousness; of personality, decisionmaking, determinism. Communication, empathy, freedom, culture, storytelling, adapting to change. Everything we think about what makes us human, he takes in interesting directions. All told with grace, empathy, humility, compassion and gentle humor. All of them, every one, making me stop reading afterward to reflect.
Whoever you are, wherever you are, read these. You’ll grow.
The author is a well-known short-fiction and technical writer with an unusually simple and lucid style at the sentence level. In that regard, he reminds me of Kazuo Ishiguro. This book is a collection of 10 good to excellent short stories that do not have strong plot development or dramatic conclusions but have clever and insightful themes with unusually deep intellectual rumination. Chiang is concerned about the intersection of technology and humanity, the costs of progress, linguistics, and the nature of human and animal cognition.
Ted Chiang is perhaps the most cerebral sci-fi author I have read; he accomplishes in 30 pages what Neal Stephenson needs 300 [3,000?] pages to do. (I enjoy Stephenson very much, but he's a slow-burn kind of guy, you know?)
This collection is notable in that I actually enjoyed every story in it. (Okay, okay, "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" could've been a tad shorter — but I still liked it overall.) The standouts for me, however, are "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling," "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom," and of course, the eponymous "Exhalation." Special thanks to [a:Amy Sturgis|785795|Amy H. Sturgis|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1278628951p2/785795.jpg] for introducing me to that last one several years ago in one of her classes, which largely prompted me to pick up this collection in the first place.
For all the differences in these stories, there is also an …
Ted Chiang is perhaps the most cerebral sci-fi author I have read; he accomplishes in 30 pages what Neal Stephenson needs 300 [3,000?] pages to do. (I enjoy Stephenson very much, but he's a slow-burn kind of guy, you know?)
This collection is notable in that I actually enjoyed every story in it. (Okay, okay, "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" could've been a tad shorter — but I still liked it overall.) The standouts for me, however, are "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling," "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom," and of course, the eponymous "Exhalation." Special thanks to [a:Amy Sturgis|785795|Amy H. Sturgis|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1278628951p2/785795.jpg] for introducing me to that last one several years ago in one of her classes, which largely prompted me to pick up this collection in the first place.
For all the differences in these stories, there is also an unexpected, but much welcome, cohesiveness to them. Each of the stories in this collection explores a variation in what it means to be human and the significance (and insignificance) of our thoughts, decisions, actions in a nihilistic and deterministic universe. Chiang does not offer any answers, only approaches, and that is, I believe, a large reason for why his stories ultimately succeed.
Замечательный набор зарисовок, которые автор использует чтобы исследовать большие вопросы: свобода воли, взаимное влияние науки и религии, формирование картины мира через несовершенные воспоминания. Ни одна не даёт ответов, это работа уже для читателя.
Не пять звёзд только из-за того, что The Lifecycle of Software Objects, занимающая треть книги, ставит вопросы, замученные в жанре (миры Чана обычно не слишком типичны для современной научной фантастики, и имеют больше общего с творчеством Филипа Дика - титульный рассказ, Exhalation, вдохновлён Electric Ant - чем с привычными картинами далёкого и не очень будущего, но эту историю я бы условно отнёс к посткиберпанку, и довольно спокойной и степенной даже его разновидности) уже абсолютно до смерти, и не смогла захватить мой интерес какими-то новыми интерпретациями.
Остальные - чистое удовольствие; собственно Exhalation уже была в... хотел написать, что в самом известном (спасибо фильму Arrival) сборнике автора Stories of Your Life and Others, но беглый фактчек это не подтверждает, …
Замечательный набор зарисовок, которые автор использует чтобы исследовать большие вопросы: свобода воли, взаимное влияние науки и религии, формирование картины мира через несовершенные воспоминания. Ни одна не даёт ответов, это работа уже для читателя.
Не пять звёзд только из-за того, что The Lifecycle of Software Objects, занимающая треть книги, ставит вопросы, замученные в жанре (миры Чана обычно не слишком типичны для современной научной фантастики, и имеют больше общего с творчеством Филипа Дика - титульный рассказ, Exhalation, вдохновлён Electric Ant - чем с привычными картинами далёкого и не очень будущего, но эту историю я бы условно отнёс к посткиберпанку, и довольно спокойной и степенной даже его разновидности) уже абсолютно до смерти, и не смогла захватить мой интерес какими-то новыми интерпретациями.
Остальные - чистое удовольствие; собственно Exhalation уже была в... хотел написать, что в самом известном (спасибо фильму Arrival) сборнике автора Stories of Your Life and Others, но беглый фактчек это не подтверждает, ладно, я её уже читал ГДЕ-ТО, но даже это не позволило мне её пропустить. Good stuff.
Such an excellent collection of stories. Just so very good.
'The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling' is my favourite, by far, for how the story dovetails with an anthropological description of writing. Reading 'Omphalos' during the holidays -- a story which revolves around the role of faith in science and research -- was illuminating and interesting. And the beauty of the redemption arc in 'Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom' was a perfect end to the series.