Trade paperback, 285 pages
English language
Published June 14, 2016 by Vintage Books.
Ted Chiang's first published story, "Tower of Babylon," won the Nebula Award in 1990. Subsequent stories have won the Asimov's SF Magazine reader poll, a second Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternate history. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992. Story for story, he is the most honored young writer in modern SF.
Now, collected here for the first time are all seven of this extraordinary writer's stories so far--plus an eighth story written especially for this volume.
What if men built a tower from Earth to Heaven--and broke through to Heaven's other side? What if we discovered that the fundamentals of mathematics were arbitrary and inconsistent? What if there were a science of naming things that calls life into being from inanimate matter? What if exposure to an alien language forever changed our perception of time? …
Ted Chiang's first published story, "Tower of Babylon," won the Nebula Award in 1990. Subsequent stories have won the Asimov's SF Magazine reader poll, a second Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternate history. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992. Story for story, he is the most honored young writer in modern SF.
Now, collected here for the first time are all seven of this extraordinary writer's stories so far--plus an eighth story written especially for this volume.
What if men built a tower from Earth to Heaven--and broke through to Heaven's other side? What if we discovered that the fundamentals of mathematics were arbitrary and inconsistent? What if there were a science of naming things that calls life into being from inanimate matter? What if exposure to an alien language forever changed our perception of time? What if all the beliefs of fundamentalist Christianity were literally true, and the sight of sinners being swallowed into fiery pits were a routine event on city streets? These are the kinds of outrageous questions posed by the stories of Ted Chiang. Stories of your life . . . and others.
Questo libro sembra scritto ieri, eppure ha già più di vent'anni.
Tutti i racconti sono affascinanti, ma soprattutto l'ultimo racconta una facciata della società… attualissima. Non vedo l'ora di leggere altro di Chiang, se è tutto di questo livello… wow.
This is one of those science fiction books that really manage to blow your mind with the possibilities that the writer proposes. As a short story collection, you're always left out wanting more of the stories. But they are as long as they have to be.
特德姜擅长把一个概念拓展成一个世界。他的故事是另一个世界的一片截面，常常是我们随着主角一起去探索世界。其力量感也正在于此。
我特别喜欢审美滤镜那篇。
The stories were interesting speculative journeys, but none of them really inspired me that much. Read up to Seventy Two Letters, and then my loan expired.
The only reason I finished this book is that I don't like to give up. I will also cop to the fact that I'm probably not smart enough to get it, and miss the hype. These stories bored me. I find the whole God thing dumb. The narratives are weak. And mostly, it felt like the stories were divided between the religious stuff, and the science-du-jour type. And most of the stories fell flat in the end.
