Stories of Your Life and Others

by Ted Chiang

Paperback, 2015

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Genres

Science Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Pan Macmillan (2015), Edition: Main Market Ed.

Description

Fiction. Literature. Science Fiction. Short Stories. This new edition of Ted Chiang's masterful first collection, Stories of Your Life and Others, includes his first eight published stories. Combining the precision and scientific curiosity of Kim Stanley Robinson with Lorrie Moore's cool, clear love of language and narrative intricacy, this award-winning collection offers listeners the dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar. Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change-the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens-while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy. In the amazing and much-lauded title story (the basis for the 2016 movie Arrival), a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her knowledge of alien languages and non-linear memory recollection. A clever pastiche of news reports and interviews chronicles a college's initiative to "turn off" the human ability to recognize beauty in "Liking What You See: A Documentary." With sharp intelligence and humor, Chiang examines what it means to be alive in a world marked by uncertainty and constant change, and also by beauty and wonder.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member reading_fox

Superb. Amazing collection of really inventive and imaginative science fiction stories. All of them are clever, all of them have some relevance to modern life, all of them branch out in an unusual and clever manner. Some are of course better than others, but even the least good of the stories is

still much better than so many others I've read.

It's very difficult to review collections of short stories, especially one covering such diverse themes as this. The title 'Story of your Life' was recently adapted into a film, and I can see how that would have worked although I haven't seen it. Aliens have arrived on earth, but communication has not been achieved until your heroine changes how she sees the world. Many of the other stories sort of follow a similar theme - changing your view of how you see religion, death, fashion etc. The title story is great, but some of the others are probably even better, 'Liking what you see:A Documentary' is my favourite. A series of interviews with college students leading up to a vote on whether or not to apply a mental block against physical beauty. This is true of all the stories - the science is hand wavy. It's there to provide a concept, and a context not for rigorous understanding of the physical universe we live - and yet even better, as far as I could tell, none of the "Laws of Nature" we know about have broken. There's no FTL etc.

Some of the best SF I've read in a long time. Thought provoking, unique, clever, relevant, fun and well written. What more could you ask for? I just wish he'd write a novel, or a LOT more stories.

Show Less

24 more

LibraryThing member thelorelei

Each of the eight stories included in the collection is astounding in its completeness and uniqueness. Chiang has a consistent style of prose but beyond that he leaps from idea to idea nimbly and each story makes its own universe and point of view. What impresses me most about Chiang's work here is

the pairing of hard science with thoughtful characterization of his protagonists. These are incredibly delicate, personal stories of love, loss, desire, and hope. Most of all, I am surprised at how accessibly he writes about complicated scientific principles that would normally be miles above the head of a non-scientist.

Show Less

LibraryThing member DanielSTJ

A mixed bag of short stories with variable results. However, when Chiang scores a goal, it is resounding and surprisingly great. The Tower of Babylon, Understand, and the titular story are all great ones-- the rest I found missed their mark. Nevertheless, this is some great new development in the

realm of science fiction, and I surmise that Chiang is a writer to watch for.

3.5-- well worth it.

Show Less

LibraryThing member pwaites

Stories of Your Life and Others is a truly amazing collection of science fiction short stories. Between them, the stories have a huge array of award nominations, and I can completely see why. Really, the quality of this collection is remarkable.

The most famous story in the collection is probably

the titular “Stories of Your Life,” which was recently turned into the first contact movie Arrival. While there’s obviously differences between the short story and the feature film length adaption, it turned out that the film stayed pretty close to the original. In “Stories of Your Life,” a linguist is contacted by the government to translate the aliens who have mysteriously arrived on Earth, purpose unknown. The story hinges around the idea of “linguistic relativity,” language shaping the speaker’s thoughts and worldview. I learned a little bit about the idea in high school and found it fascinating. “Stories of Your Life” takes it to the next level, where an alien language starts to give the narrator an alien view of time. I won’t say much more, but it’s worth reading the story or watching the movie adaption.

One story in the collection I’d actually read before – in a companion book to Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series of all places. “Liking What You See: A Documentary” is story told via the transcript of a documentary on calli, a reversible procedure that switches off people’s ability to perceive whether or not a person is beautiful. In this near future, calli is becoming a cultural force, with groups campaigning to make it mandatory for their colleges and others fighting against it. The supporters of calli argue that it combats lookism, supports social justice, and counters the un-achievable beauty norms set by the media and cosmetics industry. I have to admit, I’d be with the students against making it mandatory. I can see the benefits… but I wouldn’t want to see less beauty in the world. Anyway, it’s a really good story that got me thinking.

Another story in the collection I loved was “Seventy-Two Letters.” The story could be considered steampunk, as it’s set in an alternate vision of Victorian era London. However, instead of creations powered by machinery, this world is powered by golems and meticulously crafted names of seventy-two letters. The protagonist, Robert Stratton, has always been fascinated by golems, and he grows up to make a career out of creating them. He wants to revolutionize society by making golems affordable, thus improving the lot of the lower classes. One other major change dominates “Seventy-Two Letters”: in this world, a proto-evolutionary theory is correct. Humans and all other animals reproduce by containing within their eggs and sperm tiny reproductions of themselves, nestled together like Russian dolls, one inside the other. But here we get to the crux of the matter: scientists have discovered that the human species is within five generations of extinction. Robert Stratton is tasked with distilling humanity into seventy-two letters that can be imprinted on an egg, allowing humanity to continue artificially. The implications are vast, making “Seventy-Two Letters” a truly brilliant and unique story.

Chiang also delves into the mystical with his first published (and Nebula award winning) story, “Tower of Babylon.” In this story, the city of Babylon has built a tower so high it touches the vault of heaven. The protagonist is a stone mason, hired to ascend the tower and chisel into heaven itself. Most of the story is taken up with ascent up the tower, a journey that lasts months. Chiang’s vision of the tower was spellbinding, and the circular logic of the story’s ending was again brilliant.

In “Understand,” an ordinary man enters a drug trial to help him recover from a crash that damaged his brain. The drug turns out to not only heal his brain but to improve it, making him into a genius like no other. But he is not content with mere genius – he wants to be able to understand anything and everything, to see the totality of the connections that make up the world.

There were a couple of short stories that didn’t strike me the way the others did. In “Division by Zero,” a mathematician devises a formula that proves all of math is a lie and has a mental breakdown over the destruction of what she loves most. “The Evolution of Human Science” is written in the form of a journal article, looking at the scientific disparities between humans and “meta-humans.” Neither of these stories were bad, they just didn’t do anything for me. Luckily, they were both the shortest stories in the collection.

Throughout this review, I’ve repeatedly used the word “brilliant” because no other word can as succinctly explain this collection. Ted Chiang is a true master of his craft, and his stories should be required reading for anyone interested in speculative fiction or short fiction.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

Show Less

LibraryThing member MattB99

I'm still not quite half through half these stories, but this won't be a collection I soon forget.

LibraryThing member stacyinthecity

This was a collection of short stories that was like nothing I'd ever read before. I'm still processing them, as I'm sure I will for time to come. What if the tower of Babel was real, and humans did reach all the way to heaven? What would they find when they broke through into heaven? The answer

was surprising and elegant, but as satisfying as the ending was, the journey up the tower was worth the price of admission as well, with the descriptions of the tower, building it, and how the people lived there. This is how I found each of the short stories. The theme gave me more than enough to think about, but the way each story unfolded itself was beautiful. Some of the stories even impacted me in surprising ways, with tears or a deepened understanding of love.

I can't recommend this collection highly enough.

Show Less

LibraryThing member jshillingford

Book lovers’ conundrum: “I can’t wait to get to the end of the book! I don’t want to get to the end of the book!” I usually avoid short stories because I hate to see a good story come to an end. It’s why I prefer long running series. But, I caved to curiosity on this collection because

I enjoyed the film “Arrival” and wanted to read the story it was based on. I’m glad I did as this collection is exceptional. I enjoyed all but one of the eight stories, and I thought about each long after I finished it. I think the best science fiction examines what it means to be human through realistic, but extraordinary circumstances. Chiang is a masterclass.

TOWER OF BABYLON – I loved how Chiang reimagined the famous biblical tale by examining how it would function. If it takes a year to reach the top – how do people live while making the journey?
UNDERSTAND – this was my favorite story because it reminded me so much of Nancy Kress’ Sleepless saga, or Julian May’s Galactic Milieu. When some humans evolve to a higher level, what does that mean for existing in a society that hasn’t reached that level?
DIVISION BY ZERO – what happens when the very foundation of your life is ripped away? How do we deal with such a loss?
STORY OF YOUR LIFE – Arrival was based upon this; and it is one of those rare instances where I think the film was better. A linguist is brought in to learn to communicate with an alien species. She is telling the tale to her daughter, as it is the “story of her life”. Chiang made me think about language in ways I never had before – giving it a magic I never appreciated until now. However, Louise is a distant character. She didn’t evoke any empathy or emotional response for me, which made the “twist” underwhelming. In the story, language trumps the human aspect. I think flipping this is what made the film so good. The story was good; the film was memorable.
SEVENTY-TWO LETTERS – I only got halfway through before I abandoned this story. I think the author let technobabble overwhelm, rather than enhance, this “steampunk” tale. Every paragraph was overflowing with created terms (or existing terms reapplied), which made it a slog. Why should I care about these characters again? Others may appreciate this more than I did.
EVOLUTION OF HUMAN SCIENCE – this was only a few pages long; what would happen to regular scientists if enhanced humans advanced beyond their comprehension.
HELL IS THE ABSENCE OF GOD – this was…provocative. Heaven and hell both manifest in the world regularly, with unexpected consequences for those who witness such events. Neil is dealing with the death of his wife after she is killed during an angelic visitation. He wants to love God so he can reunite with her in heaven, but how can he? I suspect this story will be polarizing.
LIKING WHAT YOU SEE: A DOCUMENTARY – what if science had created a “filter” to prevent us from seeing beauty in human faces? This story is the most socially relevant to today’s world of any in the collections. Super-thin models, plastic surgery, body-shaming, this story confronts them all in a thought-provoking manner.

The book concluded with “story notes” from the author with the inspiration, background and insights into each story. These were fantastic and enhanced the entire reading experience for me. Overall, this collection is exceptional. Highly recommended.

Show Less

LibraryThing member alexlubertozzi

My rating would be 5 stars if all of the stories in this collection were as amazing as "Tower of Babylon" and "Story of Your Life" (the story the film "Arrival" is adapted from, which I haven't seen). But there are a couple clunkers and a few other good though not great stories. All of the stories,

however, reveal an author who is incredibly smart and thoughtful. I think the stories I didn't like as much were a little slow for my taste, a bit of a slog. But almost all of the stories give you something interesting to think about after you've read them, which ain't nothin'.

Show Less

LibraryThing member francoisvigneault

The collection was a delight overall, full of thought experiments and clever riffs on the ever-changing (and always constant) human condition. Some of the quirkiest were riffs on alternate belief systems and cosmologies, "Tower of Babylon," "Seventy-Two Letters," and "Hell is the Absence of God"

all take as their baseline a world that is quite different from our own and spin out a work of science fiction from those new assumptions, of these the Borgesian "Tower of Babylon" was a real delight, beautifully written. Two of my favorites from this collection, "Understand" and "Liking What You See: A Documentary" take a different tack, projecting neuroscience just a few years into the future and then laying out the unintended consequences of new technologies to both amusing and terrifying effect. "Liking What You See," which riffs on a near-future debate on "lookism" and a way we might combat it, seems destined to become a classic for college classrooms everywhere, I know that I would certainly assign it.

Like many, I came by this collection by way of the film Arrival (2016), adapted from the book's (semi?) eponymous tale "Story of Your Life." That story, quite cerebral and focused on the fairly un-Hollywood subject of linguistics, must have been a tremendous challenge to adapt, but overall I felt that director Denis Villeneuve and screenwriter Eric Heisserer did a pretty exemplary job... Short stories seem like a great source material for a film, a great big "high concept" to hang the plot on but lacking the multitude of little details that make novels so immersive and which inevitably get left on the cutting room floor when the book makes its transition to the screen. A few of the other stories here seem ripe for adaptation, though all would present major challenges... Chiang is using his medium of the written word very cleverly and very carefully throughout this book. I'm looking forward to reading more by him.

Show Less

LibraryThing member antao

Are you familiar with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? Back in the day when I was in college I remember writing a paper on applying this language paradigm to coding. It was so long ago I don’t really remember what I wrote, but I still remember agreeing with the fact that coding could also be a fitting

subject to the Sapir-Whorf wisdom… Thinking it over once again, and being a “more mature human being” (meaning: “being advanced in years”), I still think we can draw some parallels between natural and programming languages. For starters, the way both types of languages are built allow coders to adapt and shift their ways of thinking more fluidly as they learn new programming languages than as they learn new spoken languages. It is that diversity that allowed me to both grow individually as a programmer and further advanced my own tastes when it came to choosing my favourite programming languages.

The rest of this review can be found on my blog.

Show Less

LibraryThing member g33kgrrl

I've enjoyed other Ted Chiang stories I've read, so I was excited to have a chance to read this collection. As with any collection I liked some stories better than others, and since the stories in this collection ranged from such a large time period I felt it was intriguing to see the evolution in

his writing. If you don't feel like reading reviews of each story, please sum up this review as: excellent, would read again, highly recommended.

"Tower of Babylon" was a great counterfactual about what happens during and after the building of the Tower. I can't say what made it interesting, as that would ruin the whole end of the piece, but it was well-thought out.

As a person who enjoys math, "Division By Zero" was quite enjoyable - but it goes well beyond the math and shows different sides of how things make us who we are, and how that can change.

"Understand" and its themes seemed very familiar to me, and I was kind of surprised that he would be writing such already-trod material, until I looked at the original publication date and saw that it was published in 1991 - well before this sort of thing had become old hat.

"Story of Your Life" was brilliant. It was emotionally compelling, scientifically interesting, and still understated - a wonderful piece of writing. I know I'll go back and read it again someday. I loved it.

"The Evolution of Human Science" was a small and interesting piece, but since there was no emotional component it didn't hook me the way other stories did.

I'd already read "Seventy-two Letters" and that was the story that made me want to seek out more of his works, and it held up quite well on a second read.

"Hell is the Absence of God" was well thought-out, an interesting world, well told, but still just a sad story. I don't always do well with sad stories. If there were more stories set in the same world, I would read them in a heartbeat, though. Even if they were sad too.

"Liking What You See: A Documentary" was quite possibly a perfect piece of writing! Seriously. It has an interesting premise, is told in a novel way, still manages to contain a human story as well as the big-picture, and most amazingly - Chiang accurately expresses all sides that I could think of of the "issue" at hand, with quite accurate nuance and depth. Contradictions and all, because we're all humans. It was just a really enjoyable piece of fiction to read, and I was really impressed.

Show Less

LibraryThing member DRFP

The first thing to say is that Ted Chiang's ideas are brilliant. Each of these stories contains a riveting central premise. However, as is the case with much hard SF, characters and plot feel tacked on to suit the science fiction, rather than being an integral part of the story. The imagination

behind Stories of Your Life and Others is brilliant but sometimes I do wish that Chiang would build his characters and plots up more than the minimum required. The human side to the title story and Division By Zero almost feel tacked on; as if Chiang would almost be happier writing something like speculative non-fiction. Perhaps this is all for the best though as probably the most fictionalised story of the collection - Seventy-Two Letters - with its steampunk setting is probably the weakest of the lot.

That's not to say these stories are at all bad, they're really top tier stuff, I merely say this because I do like a bit more character depth and plot development in my stories. That's the only reason this collection doesn't get five stars.

But I suppose critcising Chiang in this manner is akin to criticising Picasso for not painting in a realistic style - that's not the point. Chiang tackles extremely interesting ideas in this collection and his prose, even if it lacks the desired characterisation, is crystal clear, something that can't be said for many SF writers. Read this expecting some of the best hard SF you'll come across and, despite the high expectations, you won't be much disappointed.

Show Less

LibraryThing member csmith0406

Really good collection of speculative fiction. I particularly enjoyed Story of your life and Hell is the absence of God.

LibraryThing member chellerystick

This is a book we found because one of the ScienceBlogs writers was using it in his visit to a literature class. We looked it upon it, my partner and I, and it was good.

Chiang writes lovely, thought-provoking spec-fic ideas, and does so in elegant, literary prose. I felt like recommending at least

one of these stories to everyone I know: the title story, "Story of Your Life," to my fellow-poets, and "Seventy-Two Letters" to my more numerical friends who will be amused by this bit of what my partner calls "alternative science" (in analogy to "alternative history"). I even bought this book for my mother's birthday (don't tell her yet), although that may mean more to those who know my mother.

If you are reading this review, you probably ought to read this book. At least try it! It's short stories, so none of this getting 100 pages into it and then trying to decide if it's worth continuing.

Highly recommended.

Show Less

LibraryThing member shawnr

Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others is an incredible collection of short stories, containing some of the best examples of the form and some of the most engaging contemporary fiction.

Chiang is generally known as a slipstream writer, which is a relatively new genre classification which is

supposed to indicate the genreless-ness of the work. I love many things that are called “slipstream” but I resist the urge to genre-fy those works.

Regardless of how you label them, Chiang’s stories are imaginative and thoughtful. He tells stories of the Tower of Babel, of steampunk-influenced Kabbalistic genetic research, of contemporary mathematics and of both aliens and angels. Chiang has an amazing ability to bring fantastic events down to earth and represent them to you as earnestly as good literary fiction is supposed to. The juxtaposition is jarring in just the right way to make Chiang’s stories feel more exciting and smarter than many of his contemporaries.

Discovering Ted Chiang as an adult felt a lot like discovering Ray Bradbury as a child. It’s a feeling that cannot occur often, but it’s one of the primary reasons I read.

Show Less

LibraryThing member veevoxvoom

There’s a lot of buzz in science fiction about Ted Chiang, who publishes rarely but whose every story seems to be a winner. Stories of Your Life is a collection of his work. Chiang is a writer who puts the science and math back in science fiction. In his stories he explores concepts such as

calliagnosia to preformation theory to the concept of hell.

I liked every one of his stories. Chiang is a careful, engaging, but above all, intelligent writer. He takes concepts and explores them examining all possible angles. Chiang’s world is not black and white but full of colour. Lacking a background in science and technical knowledge, I don’t pretend to grasp all of his hypotheses. But I don’t feel I need to. What Chiang does is instill a sense of wonder, to make the scales fall from your eyes.

Chiang exhibits an impressive variety too. He swings from advanced physics to Kabbalah with the ease of a monkey swinging from tree to tree. My favourite story is “Story of Your Life”, which blew me away with its ideas but also human touch. I loved how the strings and themes were brought together so that halfway through I sat up straight in bed and yelled, “Holy crap, I GET it!” I also liked “Hell is the Absence of God” and “Liking What You See.” But really, every story in this anthology is remarkable and worth your time.

Show Less

LibraryThing member tundranocaps

This is a short-story collection book, Sci-Fi, this is, hands down, one of the best books I've ever read, and I've read a lot of books.

LibraryThing member figre

How can one author have so little output, yet have such an impact. This book contains all the short stories Ted Chiang published between 1990 and 2001. That is only eight stories (one of which written for this collection.) Yet, they have garnered three nebula awards, a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial

award (and three nominations), a Locus award (and six nominations – oh yeah, this collection also won one), a Hugo award (and five nominations) a World Fantasy Award nomination, and one James Triptree, Jr. award. (And I’m not going to say I’ve found them all.) That is a 30-year career for many authors.

So, this becomes the worst kind of review – one which talks about what the stories have accomplished, rather than what the stories really are. But this is too long a list to be ignored. Anyone can win one award, and there can be a fluke where even the grandest hack wins two. But seven (and eleven nominations)???

Within the pages of this book is a collection of unbelievable stories. Okay, some aren’t as strong as others. But that is like saying Yosemite just isn’t up to the standards of the Grand Canyon. These are stories that take strange concepts, wrap them in an engrossing story, and suck you in before you even know it has happened to you. I will just speak to two of the stories (award winners – imagine that.) Before I recognized the name of the author (in other words, not even recognizing they were by the same person) the stories “Tower of Babylon” and “Hell is the Absence of God” were emblazoned in my memory. Both take Biblical concepts (one, the story of the Tower of Babel and the other…well, the premise for hell and for angels) and accept them as literal truths. These make good premises, but in Chiang’s hands he has delved deeply into what these can really mean. I have read both stories numerous times. But, reading them this one more time, I still found new depth and meaning to the stories.

Quite simply, read this collection and be amazed.

Show Less

LibraryThing member elmyra

Ted Chiang is a man of ideas, and that alone makes him worth reading. The execution isn't always great, sometimes what he does with the ideas isn't brilliant either, but the ideas themselves are wonderful.

LibraryThing member zinschj

Not every short story in the collection will be your thing, but the ones that are? Excellent and though-provoking.

LibraryThing member gonzobrarian

It’s doubtful I've ever had a more daunting though rewarding belly-flop into science fiction than after reading Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. Curiously, for someone who hasn’t written a whole lot, readers most likely won't find a more highly praised and deserving work of short

stories. Apparently he can literally write no wrong.

Perhaps it’s because Chiang restores a sense of balance in what we have conceived as science-fiction. Many, perhaps most writers in the genre focus solely on the fiction, and relegate the science to some fantastical, nebulous and/or contrived aspect of the story that is ultimately incomprehensible but nevertheless important somehow; we as readers and viewers simply have to take the scifi aspect on faith, which is irony stabbing us in the eye when closely pondered. It’s the current mentality you’ll see on TV, whereby viewers are force-fed tried and boring apocalypse movies, criminally underwritten Star Wars remakes and even more inane mecha-squirrel vs. dino-possum nonsense that really should be categorized under horror and general stupidity, or worse, willful lack of imagination rather than “science-fiction”.

That being said, the stories written by Chiang are slow, complex and require effort. They take time to comprehend, but if the reader follows closely enough, his stories build a momentum of brilliance. Admittedly, even I was doubtful as the stories are literally surrounded, even choking on the multitude of blurbs, from cover to cover. Chiang uses several familiar settings like alien visitations, mad scientists, rogue collectives, and even cybernetic experimentation, but with a tender detachment and unexpected conclusions. Despite the effort required, the reward is certainly worth the effect of emerging a more enlightened reader than a merely entertained one. My favorite entries include Understand, Story of Your Life, Seventy-Two Letters, and Liking What You See. It’s literature that’s more than just science, more than just fiction.

Show Less

LibraryThing member joeyreads

(I've only read the novella, Story of Your Life. Still need to find the other stories in this collection.)

Beautiful writing. Great concepts.

I wonder if it was written with pure functional programming in mind -- the descriptions of the nonlinear writing are very similar to what it's
often like to

program functionally (although we still reason about functional programs linerally in the end.. mostly).

Show Less

LibraryThing member silentq

I'd read one story in this volume (Seventy Two Letters, about golems in Victorian London) when I was reading a steampunk collection, but the others were all new to me. Tower of Babylon was an interesting musing on what could have happened if the tower was finished. Understand was a child of

"Flowers for Algernon", showing what would happen in the present day if someone reached ultra genius levels of intelligence - I really liked how the writing in the story progressed. Story of Your Life linked time and communication and love in a non linear way. Hell is the Absence of God played with the idea of angels visiting the earth and curing and cursing people at each visit and how the victims coped. Liking What You See: A Documentary did a good job at showing different sides of the issue of "lookism".
There was a bit too much religion in the text and subtext for me, but the pure science parts were interesting.

Show Less

LibraryThing member daemon6

This is one of the finest collections of short fiction ever published, period. The fact that it is science fiction means nothing: give this to someone who adores the short prose format, who loves George Saunders and Ray Carver, and they will inevitably see its merit. These are taut, masterfully

constructed stories that truly do tell us about what it means to be alive and think and feel.

Show Less

LibraryThing member isabelx

"I'm reading just what it'll say here," I'll say, all innocence.
"No you're not. That's not how the story goes."
"Well if you already know how the story goes, why do you need me to read it to you?"
" 'Cause I wanna hear it!"

A book of short stories that put the science back into science fiction.

The

only story I didn't get on with was "Division By Zero", as I'm afraid my maths isn't up to understanding the concepts involved, but all the others were extremely thought-provoking.

I loved "Story of Your Life", especially once I realised what was going on, but my absolute favourite was "Seventy-Two Letters" a story of scientific advances in the early Victorian era. It was based on the premise that pre-Darwin/Mendel/Crick&Watson ideas about human reproduction were actually true, as well as there being a branch of science called nomenclature that is devoted to discovering names to power ever more sophisticated types of golem - very interesting how he linked the concept of golems' names to DNA.

I've always liked reading short stories and this collection came highly recommended by members of the LJ sf_with_bite community. I'm glad I was paying attention when it was mentioned, because I'd never heard of Ted Chiang before.

Show Less

Fewer