_Exhalation_
Dec. 21st, 2019 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellow_Exhalation_ is Ted Chiang's second collection of short F/SF pieces, and is as much a delight as the previous one, _Stories of Your Life and Others_, which I discussed previously. I was going to list a few of my favorites, but most of the stories fall into that category. These are the stories (five out of nine) that impressed me most.
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" is a story of time travel, set within a world of unchanging fate, and reconciles the two in entertaining fashion. The word I want is "neat".
"Exhalation", like many of Chiang's stories, is set in a world whose scientific underpinnings are quite different from our own, but some things are inevitable. (It's not too much of a stretch to speak of "death and taxes"...)
"The Lifecycle of Software Objects" won the Hugo in its year, and deservedly so. The subject is right there in the title; the "objects" are virtual creatures, and their sentience and even sapience is the main topic. "And sometimes one loves them..."
"The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" deals with revolutions in time-binding - the development of writing, and of another mechanism fully as radical in nature - and its effect on people, individually and collectively. There are two story-lines, one set in West Africa around the time of WWII and the other in the not-too-distant future.
"Omphalos" is set in a world in which a variant of young-Earth creationism is provably true, and involves a disquieting astronomical discovery. It's cleverly and sympathetically done.
The other four stories didn't impress me quite as much, but I should probably think about the stories "What's Expected of Us" and "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom". They both deal with questions of determinism and free will, but in different ways; the second story is much the stronger, I think.
Anyway, Chiang continues to hold his position in my mind, as probably the best writer of short F/SF currently in the business. I've enjoyed both collections.
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" is a story of time travel, set within a world of unchanging fate, and reconciles the two in entertaining fashion. The word I want is "neat".
"Exhalation", like many of Chiang's stories, is set in a world whose scientific underpinnings are quite different from our own, but some things are inevitable. (It's not too much of a stretch to speak of "death and taxes"...)
"The Lifecycle of Software Objects" won the Hugo in its year, and deservedly so. The subject is right there in the title; the "objects" are virtual creatures, and their sentience and even sapience is the main topic. "And sometimes one loves them..."
"The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" deals with revolutions in time-binding - the development of writing, and of another mechanism fully as radical in nature - and its effect on people, individually and collectively. There are two story-lines, one set in West Africa around the time of WWII and the other in the not-too-distant future.
"Omphalos" is set in a world in which a variant of young-Earth creationism is provably true, and involves a disquieting astronomical discovery. It's cleverly and sympathetically done.
The other four stories didn't impress me quite as much, but I should probably think about the stories "What's Expected of Us" and "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom". They both deal with questions of determinism and free will, but in different ways; the second story is much the stronger, I think.
Anyway, Chiang continues to hold his position in my mind, as probably the best writer of short F/SF currently in the business. I've enjoyed both collections.
