Stories of Your Life and Others in The Sword and Laser

Dec 22, 2009 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, sci-fi-fantasy, sword-and-laser, read2014, short-stories, science, techie

Ted Chiang is a brilliant storyteller, and this set chronicles his first decade or so of stories, including the first story he ever wrote ("Tower of Babylon," the one that went on to win a bunch of awards.)

What I like about Chiang is that he isn't afraid to include all the science and math that made him want to explore a concept to begin with. I like knowing that the stories come from research and thinking, not just inside his head. Something in me as a reader connects to that.

My favorites:

"Unde ...more

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Feb 25, 2010 Jlawrence rated it really liked it

Shelves: sword-and-laser

Mostly excellent collection of science-fiction (with a bit of fantasy) stories. Ted Chiang has amazing ideas in every one of these stories, and when the narrative/characters match the strength of the ideas, the effect is incredible.

"Tower of Babylon" - A variation of the Tower of Babel myth, examined literally, and with the builders' goal being meeting God instead of a display of human prowess. The tower reaches past the sun and moon (ancient cosmology is made literal too), takes months to climb Mostly excellent collection of science-fiction (with a bit of fantasy) stories. Ted Chiang has amazing ideas in every one of these stories, and when the narrative/characters match the strength of the ideas, the effect is incredible.

"Tower of Babylon" - A variation of the Tower of Babel myth, examined literally, and with the builders' goal being meeting God instead of a display of human prowess. The tower reaches past the sun and moon (ancient cosmology is made literal too), takes months to climb, and touches the physical vault of heaven -- the miner protagonists of the story have the job of breaking into that vault after their climb. The concept and details were all intriguing, only the twist at the end was not as satisfying as it should have been.

"Understand" - The rapid evolutions in the perceptions of a man who is given an experimental super-intelligence-enhancing drug. At first this seemed story-wise too little of a variation on Daniel Keyes's amazing "Flowers for Algernon", but as soon as the thriller elements of him evading the CIA and learning of a super-intelligent rival were introduced, its unique take became clear, and Chiang's attempts to render the heightened consciousness in words were fun.

"Division by Zero" - The idea of a mathematician losing her faith by logically proving that all mathematics is actually inconsistent is intriguing, and I see what Chiang was aiming for by trying to intertwine steps of the history of that proof with steps of dissolution/change in the relationship between the mathematician and her lover, but it didn't quite gel. I think there would need to more character development before the crisis for the dissolution of both the relationship and her belief to have the impact Chiang wanted.

"Story of Your Life" - This is where idea, character and story all perfectly meshed into a powerful, touching whole. A linguist is pulled in to help the government decipher the language of aliens who are orbiting Earth and attempting to communicate through two-way "looking glass" devices they have given humanity. The unraveling of how the alien's speech and writing are totally different, and especially the analysis of the alien pictograms and how they seem to relate to the aliens' view of time, is fascinating, but what makes the story a knock-out is how this becomes intertwined with the narrator's memories of her daughter, and the way the entire narrative is structured ends up being a mirror of how the alien's all-moments-connected-at-once pictograms/viewpoint has affected the linguist's view of time and life. This is the kind of union of form, emotion and idea that Chiang was attempting in "Division by Zero", done perfectly.

"The Evolution of the Human Sciences" - a short thought-experiment article instead of a story, but as expected from Chiang, the ideas are great.

"Seventy-Two Letters" is another knockout - it reimagines the scientific revolution as being rationally based on the laws of golem-making and (also once seriously held theory of) homunculi descendants embodied in individual sperm (ie tiny versions of complete humans packed into each sperm, waiting to grow and be born). The implications of this are briefly but richly worked out in an industrial-revolution-like setting, and a biological crisis of looming extinction (it's discovered that universally there's only so many generations of homunculi descendants left to go) is brilliantly resolved by (view spoiler).

"Hell is the Absence of God" examines the implications of there being literal proof of God's existence: regular Earthly visitations by angels. The visitations are always accompanied by natural-disaster-like extremes of weather and seemingly random smatterings of both miracle blessings and curses. The story examines a trio of characters whose lives have been changed (often for the worse) by these visitations, and their wildly different interpretations and responses to those events. Engrossing and provoking, even if it relies very heavily on exposition to summarize the course of the different characters' emotions and thoughts.

"Liking What You See: A Documentary" employs a multitude of narrative voices (as if they were being interviewed by a journalist) in response to the use of a technology that blocks the brain's ability to perceive beauty in the human face (facial recognition still occurs, there is just no mental evaluation on an attractiveness scale). Specifically, it is proposed that it be mandatory of all students at a particular university (it's already been in voluntary use by some of the general population). Does a great job surveying a variety of believable pro and con takes on the social/personal implications of such a device.

If any of the above sounds interesting, read it!
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Sep 09, 2014 Maire rated it really liked it

a couple of duds, but overall a nice and thought provoking collection. I'm glad I read it ...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Chris C rated it it was amazing

Sublime, incredibly tight writing and filled with ideas that one will think of for the following weeks. Anyone who even purports the slightest to like science fiction should read this book. Ted Chiang is definitely one of the top writers of his generation.

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Jan 12, 2017 Chadwick rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, short-stories

Absolutely essential. If you want to know what the high water mark for stories in English is right now, you can't ignore this book. A beautiful collection of lapidary, deeply felt prose. ...more

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