Bradley's Reviews > Exhalation
Exhalation
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All said, Chiang's new collection rocks. :) I've read a good number of these in other places, but it doesn't diminish my enjoyment. I'm referencing the stories I liked the most.
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate - 1001 Nights meets fixed-timeline time-travel. Easily one of my favorites.
Exhalation - A rather interesting logical-breakdown of universal principles from the PoV of a robot race.
The Lifecycle of Software Objects - Novella, and easily the most wrenching, exploratory of the lot. Touches not only on artificial life and AI, but the same kind of feelings we might have for autistic children and trying to save Zoos. For pretty much the same reasons. And I got rather invested in this. I can see it becoming a problem in our future.
Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny - So cool! A mix of our recentish Science History and a very plausible alternate past, part psychology, part 'oh, crap, we definitely could have done this to ourselves'.
The Great Silence - A Fermi gut-punch.
Omphalos - A great reversal of an alternate reality, where proof of god's intervention, creation, is everywhere, but scientists come to a startlingly different conclusion. :)
Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom - Another novella, and fascinating as hell. Part self-help group, part scam, and all focusing on the nature of alternate reality informational crosstalk. :) I'm really surprised at how well this one worked for me.
I keep noticing how much Chiang loves to mess with our understanding of our basic reality. It's a Thing. A great Thing.
How does it compare to the previous collection? Neither better nor worse, because it is all him. Quality, a lot of exploration in different ways, but always reaching for the same high standard. :)
I loved it. :) No complaints at all.
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate - 1001 Nights meets fixed-timeline time-travel. Easily one of my favorites.
Exhalation - A rather interesting logical-breakdown of universal principles from the PoV of a robot race.
The Lifecycle of Software Objects - Novella, and easily the most wrenching, exploratory of the lot. Touches not only on artificial life and AI, but the same kind of feelings we might have for autistic children and trying to save Zoos. For pretty much the same reasons. And I got rather invested in this. I can see it becoming a problem in our future.
Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny - So cool! A mix of our recentish Science History and a very plausible alternate past, part psychology, part 'oh, crap, we definitely could have done this to ourselves'.
The Great Silence - A Fermi gut-punch.
Omphalos - A great reversal of an alternate reality, where proof of god's intervention, creation, is everywhere, but scientists come to a startlingly different conclusion. :)
Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom - Another novella, and fascinating as hell. Part self-help group, part scam, and all focusing on the nature of alternate reality informational crosstalk. :) I'm really surprised at how well this one worked for me.
I keep noticing how much Chiang loves to mess with our understanding of our basic reality. It's a Thing. A great Thing.
How does it compare to the previous collection? Neither better nor worse, because it is all him. Quality, a lot of exploration in different ways, but always reaching for the same high standard. :)
I loved it. :) No complaints at all.
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Reading Progress
July 20, 2019
–
Started Reading
July 20, 2019
– Shelved
July 22, 2019
– Shelved as:
2019-shelf
July 22, 2019
– Shelved as:
sci-fi
July 22, 2019
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-16 of 16 (16 new)
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Trish
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Jul 22, 2019 12:59PM
Glad that this collection, too, was great! :)
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Thanks for sharing your take on each short. I didn’t get the digients’ appeal until I read your review.
"I keep noticing how much Chiang loves to mess with our understanding of our basic reality. It's a Thing. A great Thing. " - Philip K. Dick does nearly the same, but Chiang is more literary!
If he did, I'm sure it would be quite different from anything else he's done. Or compared to PKD. But both know their literature. :)
I spoke my mind, Chiang's phrases appealed to me much more than PKD's. Of course, Chiang, PKD, Lem and Egan more or less dwell on similar themes. :-)