Book: Exhalation

A new collection of short stories by Ted Chiang, author of "Story of Your Life" upon which the movie "Arrival" was based.  Supposedly this collection is just as powerful as his first collection (which was incredible).  Can't wait to start it.

As soon as I finish the 2 or 3 books in front of it.

First story, about a time-traveling merchant in Baghdad, was fantastic.

Second story, the title story, is about a pneumatic robot disassembling his own brain to see how it works. It reads like some kind of dream, logical within its own realm but then you stop and think, wait, what???

#3 was an ultrashort story (3 pages) about a toy that drives users insane. It's a little box with a push button and a light. The light flashes immediately BEFORE you push the button. No matter how you try to fool the device, it only blinks if you're actually about to push the button. Users play with it a while, then realize free will is an illusion and go catatonic.

#4 is an ultralong story (111 pages) about avatars in a virtual environment which are allowed to grow up and become sentient.

#5 was about a robotic nanny, and how it raised neurotic kids. Chiang didn't mention the experiments conducted in the 1960s where baby chimps were raised by wireframe chimp dolls with embedded baby bottles, but the results were similar.

#6 is two stories told in parallel, both about memory versus documented history. One describes the effects of recording every moment of your life and being able to play it back at will. The other describes a man in a pre-literate culture who is visited by a missionary who teaches him writing. The man is torn between believing the written word, or believing the memories of his village elders.

#7 is by a parrot who says mankind should look to earth for alien intelligence instead of out in space. Haven't I been saying this?

Found out Ted Chiang will be reading June 25 at my favorite book store (he still lives locally). I have a ticket.

The last one is another story about free will, this time about "pyramids" which allow users to peer into a parallel reality where they made different choices. The premise is pretty clunky, the execution is pretty clunky, and overall this was the low point of the collection.

But still overall, wow.

Now off to re-read that first collection.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Found out Ted Chiang will be reading June 25 at my favorite book store (he still lives locally).  I have a ticket.

Turned out not to be a read from the book.  Ted instead decided to read a long essay he'd written about the difference between sci-fi and fantasy (a distinction he is often accused of bridging), between magic and "sufficiently-advanced technology," between a mechanistic world and one ruled by superstition and gods.  It was interesting, though he seemed a little too invested in "magic" and I told him so. I got a chilly response.

Afterward he was asked about influences and favorite authors, and I got some new names to investigate.  It was a collegial audience of about 30 people.