Book Review 131
"Exhalation" by Ted Chiang
A short story collection.
Ted Chiang is probably the best living Sci-Fi short story writer. Even though for more than 20 years of his career he has published less that 20 stories (and not a single novel!), each of his stories is a gem, which won (or, at least, was nominated for) some prestigious Sci-Fi reward.
His signature style is to come with some original idea, and try to think about all its aspects: historical, scientific, social... His stories are peculiar specimens of a meticulously built plot, which is engaging their reader from the first page.
This collection is his second (and the last one by today). The central piece - a story "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" is not a story, but novella. Still a short form, but bigger than others. And even despite the fact, that it won both Locus and Nebula awards for the best novella in 2011, I like it the least.
This story is about an artificial intelligence. Not omnipotent, nor malicious, not even a weird alien one. Just some cripled attempt to create some AI in the virtual world (today the "Metaverse" is a fashionable word for that). True to his style, author is investigating all the aspects of its evolution, mapping it to the existing software lifecycle.
Maybe it is because this topic is aligned with my profession, or just because its volume, I've found it somewhat boring. But still a good piece of literature.
However, this piece is still much better than the average Sci-Fi story, even if I am comparing it with the stories which were actually published.
So I can highly recommend this collection, who want to read some good Sci-Fi. Not too grim, not too complicated or too "scientific". Without any particular "high literature" tricks. Just some nice stories for the both your brain and your heart.