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Ted Chiang is an ideas writer. This short
sentence will probably tell you whether you will enjoy this anthology
of his short stories or not. Each of the eight stories in this volume
is written around a unique premise and the exploration of the idea
is the most important part of the story. In other words, a classical
SF approach to story writing.
 Not
that the rest of Ted Chiang's skills aren't impressive because the
level of writing throughout is excellent and enjoyable to read.
The contents of this anthology have won two Nebulas, a Hugo, a Sidewise
Award, the Saturn Award and netted Chiang the John W. Campbell for
best new writer in 1992 and it shows. The writing is polished and
skilled. But occasionally the characters and plot seem to be sacrificed
to the idea.
The concepts Chiang comes up with can be breathtaking
in their originality. The alien language being studied in 'Stories Of Your Life'
and the way it alters perception of time when you learn it is audacious, but makes
wonderful sense throughout. The journey up 'The Tower Of Babylon' is as immersive
as travelling up the mythical tower yourself. Everything in Chiang's worlds are
carefully researched and planned, so that the experience throughout feels very
true and convincing.
That said, 'Understand' reads like Tom Clancy
taking on Daniel Keyes classic 'Flowers For Algernon' and the hyper-intelligent
protagonist d stories to be of such high quality bodes well for his
future as a mammoth name in SF. The sheer number of major awards to his name already
speak volumes to his current skill and even though I had a few gripes with some
of the earlier stories contained within 'Stories Of Your Life And Others', I still
enjoyed reading them.
Ted Chiang has written some excellent, award-winning
stories and conceived of some wonderful ideas in his short writing career and
all of them up to the present are contained within 'Stories of Your Life And Others'.
Having all eight stories together in one collection is a real treat and is a good
showcase of the writer who many consider one of the finest short fiction writers
in the field today. Definitely worth reading.
Tomas L. Martin |
