Skinneresque experiment in the mechanization of nurturing done in the style of a museum catalog description (originally for an entire collection of same).īooks We All Live In The Dark, But Some Of Us Live In 'The Dark Dark' In 'Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny' it is the dead-end of a B.F. In 'What's Expected of Us,' it is the consequence of a stupidly simple piece of technology: A little light that will always light a second before we push a button, disproving utterly the notion of free will. Weirdly, the brief chapter of notes is almost the best story of all - just to witness Chiang's inspiration and the way his mind works - but each of the others, the stories themselves, operate with a simple logic: Chiang is telling the stories of consequences. Some are ridiculously short ('What's Expected of Us' is a letter from the future to us in the past - a warning that runs three pages and change) and one, 'The Lifecycle of Software Objects,' is a novella-length exploration of emergent AI, artificial digital life and how we love our pets, our children, each other. Some have appeared elsewhere, some are brand new. Nine stories plus a collection of notes on those nine stories. His new collection, Exhalation, is out now. A man who has never bothered to write a novel because, you know, why bother? His voice and style are so beautifully trim it makes you think that, like one of his characters, he has a magical looking-box hidden in his basement that shows him nothing except the final texts of stories he has already written - just so he'll know exactly how to write them well in the first place.Ĭhiang is, among other things, a short story specialist. A man who has never bothered to write a novel because, you know, why bother? He takes an idea (sometimes big, sometimes small, most often somewhere nebulously in-between) and gives it exactly the number of words it needs. To read the second is like contemplating eternity at the bar with a friend you've known forever.Īnd to read Ted Chiang is to do both at the same time.Ĭhiang is, among other things, a short story specialist. To read the first kind of book is to walk behind a madman spilling diamonds from a hole in his pocket. There are others that take a single fascinating notion and walk all the way around it that take the time to examine it from all angles and see the way the light hits it at dawn and midday and dusk. There are books so jammed with brilliant, mind-exploding ideas it's like the author packed fireworks between the covers, all strung together on a very short fuse. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Exhalation Subtitle Stories Author Ted Chiang

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