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A review by hakimbriki
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
5.0
So, that's what they call "Love at first read". Or "Literary Orgasm".
Simply put, all of the short stories featured in "Stories of Your Life and Others" are gems. I ignore the reasons why Ted Chiang seldom writes, but a man that talented should consider giving the gift of words more often.
Ted Chiang's science fiction is idea-driven; my favorite kind. In the first story of the book, "Tower of Babylon", the author makes his characters ascend the imposing biblical Tower of Babel. Stellar descriptions and absorbing dialogues move the story along, towards a surprising/fitting conclusion.
"Understand" is what I would describe as a more intellectual/scientific "Flowers For Algernon". It tells the story of a man who is injected with a hormone that regenerates his damaged neurons after an accident. The hormone makes him gradually smarter, and a lot more paranoid. The staggeringly fascinating climax of this story is priceless.
"Story of Your Life", which is being made into a movie, is another stunner. It is about a linguist recruited by the military to attempt to communicate with a strange race of aliens. As she learns their language, she realizes that her perception of time has changed.
The steampunkish "Seventy-two Letters" is the longest and most unsettling story of the collection. It is set in an alternative Victorian England populated with "automata" or golems, which are brought to life by nomenclators or linguists that insert a piece of paper with the appropriate word, or "epithet" written on it, into the golem. Our protagonist, Robert Stratton, who works in a factory that produces golems, is a nomenclator prodigy. He is approached by a nobleman who is funding a secret and utterly peculiar project. From then on, thing got very spooky and thrilling. The origins and future of the human spices are discussed in the story, and Ted Chiang gives us a fascinating take on DNA. Beautifully crafted.
My favorite story of the bunch, "Hell is the Absence of God", is paradoxically more character-driven than it is idea-driven. In an alternate world where the existence of God, angels, souls, heaven and hell are proven, Neil Fisk (the protagonist) loses his wife during an angelic visitation, after she was "hit by flying glass when the angel's billowing curtain of flame shattered the storefront window of the café in which she was eating." He then sees her soul ascend to heaven, and as the story unfolds, he realizes that the only way he can be reunited with his late wife is to go to heaven. I am not a religious person, but I was awestruck by the heart and the originality of this story. The ending is achingly beautiful, the imagery superb and the characterization deep and moving. Please, any filmmaker, turn this into a movie, NOW!
"Divison by Zero", "The Evolution of Human Science" and "Liking What You See: A Documentary" are not as good as the other tales, but are also a trillion miles away from being lousy. "Liking what you see" is the most thought-provoking piece of the collection, an outstanding reflection on physical and moral beauty.
After I finished reading this book, all I wanted to do is use the flashlight from Men in Black to remove my memories and rediscover these amazing stories anew. Stories where Humanism, science, big ideas and concepts and love genuinely make a difference.
Simply put, all of the short stories featured in "Stories of Your Life and Others" are gems. I ignore the reasons why Ted Chiang seldom writes, but a man that talented should consider giving the gift of words more often.
Ted Chiang's science fiction is idea-driven; my favorite kind. In the first story of the book, "Tower of Babylon", the author makes his characters ascend the imposing biblical Tower of Babel. Stellar descriptions and absorbing dialogues move the story along, towards a surprising/fitting conclusion.
"Understand" is what I would describe as a more intellectual/scientific "Flowers For Algernon". It tells the story of a man who is injected with a hormone that regenerates his damaged neurons after an accident. The hormone makes him gradually smarter, and a lot more paranoid. The staggeringly fascinating climax of this story is priceless.
"Story of Your Life", which is being made into a movie, is another stunner. It is about a linguist recruited by the military to attempt to communicate with a strange race of aliens. As she learns their language, she realizes that her perception of time has changed.
The steampunkish "Seventy-two Letters" is the longest and most unsettling story of the collection. It is set in an alternative Victorian England populated with "automata" or golems, which are brought to life by nomenclators or linguists that insert a piece of paper with the appropriate word, or "epithet" written on it, into the golem. Our protagonist, Robert Stratton, who works in a factory that produces golems, is a nomenclator prodigy. He is approached by a nobleman who is funding a secret and utterly peculiar project. From then on, thing got very spooky and thrilling. The origins and future of the human spices are discussed in the story, and Ted Chiang gives us a fascinating take on DNA. Beautifully crafted.
My favorite story of the bunch, "Hell is the Absence of God", is paradoxically more character-driven than it is idea-driven. In an alternate world where the existence of God, angels, souls, heaven and hell are proven, Neil Fisk (the protagonist) loses his wife during an angelic visitation, after she was "hit by flying glass when the angel's billowing curtain of flame shattered the storefront window of the café in which she was eating." He then sees her soul ascend to heaven, and as the story unfolds, he realizes that the only way he can be reunited with his late wife is to go to heaven. I am not a religious person, but I was awestruck by the heart and the originality of this story. The ending is achingly beautiful, the imagery superb and the characterization deep and moving. Please, any filmmaker, turn this into a movie, NOW!
"Divison by Zero", "The Evolution of Human Science" and "Liking What You See: A Documentary" are not as good as the other tales, but are also a trillion miles away from being lousy. "Liking what you see" is the most thought-provoking piece of the collection, an outstanding reflection on physical and moral beauty.
After I finished reading this book, all I wanted to do is use the flashlight from Men in Black to remove my memories and rediscover these amazing stories anew. Stories where Humanism, science, big ideas and concepts and love genuinely make a difference.