I heard a lot of hype around Ted Chiang's short stories, a handful produced over a few years and everyone saying they were brilliant. Therefore I had high expectations. I'm glad to say that it didn't let me down.
Tower Of Babylon is the first story in the collection, and Chiang's first published story. It won a Nebula, not bad for a first story. It's about the tower of Babel, a tower built to reach the gods and the story of a climb up it. It's a relaxed tale, nice description, nice ideas, it's sort of like an ancient version of Willian Gibson's Skinner's Room. And then it has a nice twist in the end. Entertaining and thought provoking.
Next up is Understand, a stunning 21st century version of Flowers For Algernon. (Despite being written in the late 20th Cenutury). I'm happy to say that I liked this a lot more than I liked Flowers For Algernon. In fact this was probably my favourite story in the whole collection. It follows a man who gains ever increasing intelligence by a new medical technique. It builds up and up, just when you don't think it can go any further it does, into an amazing finale. Nice characters and stunning intelligent ideas. It reminded me of Greg Egan for it's "hardness".
Division By Zero is another story infused with hard science, this time mathematics. But it also contains some nice emotionally rich characters and story. It has an interesting technique of three points of view, the two main characters and err... the maths. It finishes with a nice emotional pang, and I enjoyed it a lot.
The Story Of Your Life is a tale of alien contact, intertwined with an emotional strand about the main character. I can't really tell you anymore without spoiling it, but from the first paragraph you know that something is a bit strange. It doesn't disappoint. A story with everything, great ideas, good characters, emotional impact and a nice ending. It won a Nebula in 2000.
Seventy Two Letters was the only story that I didn't like in the collection. I can't deny that it's a good story, but it's just not to my taste. It's about using names to control golems and has a Victorian, steampunkish feel to it. It didn't do anything for me, I couldn't get into the characters or the idea.
Hell Is The Absence Of God hooked me in from the first few paragraphs. It describes a world where visitations from angels are a regular occurrence, and the existence of Heaven and Hell is taken as given. The story follows three people and their religious journeys. It tackles religious ideas head on in an incredibly clever and intelligent way. All the way through it was filling my head with questions. A story that leaves you thinking about it way after you've finished. It won a Hugo in 2002 and a Nebula in 2003.
Liking What You See: A Documentary is a story about turning off the mind's ability to see beauty. It has a dozen or more points of view, related in first person and covering a whole range of opinions. In the end it is a great discussion of the pros and cons of the technology, covering all the angles, and throwing in a character to care about. Another one to get your mind buzzing.
As an added bonus Chiang has included story notes, a page for each story describing it's genesis. Interesting.
So all in all a fantastic story collection, one I can heartily recommend. It'll make you think, both intellectually and emotionally.
Here's the Locus award list of Ted Chiang's stories. Impressive.
