mahdi reviewed Výdech by Ted Chiang
75%
4 stars
Byly tam hodne nabuseny povidky, stejne tak par slabsich. Celkove povedena sbirka zaokrouhlime nahoru na 4 hvezdy.
Paperback, 329 pages
Published Dec. 1, 2019 by Yilin Press.
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.
Tyler Cipriani reviewed Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Exhalation: stories by Ted Chiang
5 stars
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.
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.
norb reviewed Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Wonderful Collection of Short-ish Stories
4 stars
I've not read anything else by Ted Chiang, and after getting this I noticed he also wrote the story that Arrival was based on (which I have seen and enjoyed) so I was looking forward to this.
The stories collected here all share a common humanity, while they are still kind of sci-fi based (and one isn't even written from the point of view of a human).
These stories definately made me think, but especially The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate (I am a sucker for time travel stories, and this one works better than a lot of them because of the way the premise is set up), The Lifecycle of Software Objects (the story notes at the end really shed some light on the author's intent with this one), The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling (a wonderful exploration of memory and how it effects us), …
I've not read anything else by Ted Chiang, and after getting this I noticed he also wrote the story that Arrival was based on (which I have seen and enjoyed) so I was looking forward to this.
The stories collected here all share a common humanity, while they are still kind of sci-fi based (and one isn't even written from the point of view of a human).
These stories definately made me think, but especially The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate (I am a sucker for time travel stories, and this one works better than a lot of them because of the way the premise is set up), The Lifecycle of Software Objects (the story notes at the end really shed some light on the author's intent with this one), The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling (a wonderful exploration of memory and how it effects us), and Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom (a bit of a con-man story with some sci-fi trappings - really interesting premise).
I will definitely need to check out his other collection and go from there!
