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A review by nwhyte
The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang
5.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1743109.html
I'm frankly astonished that Ted Chiang's The Lifecycle of Software Objects didn't win the Nebula. Chiang's few stories are always memorable; this one is about intelligent software pets, and the human owners who become fascinated with them, and how changing circumstances - both the shift in fashionability and power of online environments and the altered circumstances of the humans in them. It is really poignant and will ring very true for anyone who's been online for more than five years, anyone who has children, and anyone who is interested about reading about either of those experiences. Charles Stross summed it up well as "that very rare thing: a science fictional novel of ideas that delivers a real human impact" and I think that whatever wins the Hugo, this is the one story from all three of the short fiction lists of 2011 that will be remembered for many years to come
I'm frankly astonished that Ted Chiang's The Lifecycle of Software Objects didn't win the Nebula. Chiang's few stories are always memorable; this one is about intelligent software pets, and the human owners who become fascinated with them, and how changing circumstances - both the shift in fashionability and power of online environments and the altered circumstances of the humans in them. It is really poignant and will ring very true for anyone who's been online for more than five years, anyone who has children, and anyone who is interested about reading about either of those experiences. Charles Stross summed it up well as "that very rare thing: a science fictional novel of ideas that delivers a real human impact" and I think that whatever wins the Hugo, this is the one story from all three of the short fiction lists of 2011 that will be remembered for many years to come