Stories of Your Life and Others

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

This thought provoking science fiction collection deals more with philosophy than hard science. (Though mathematicians and linguists may beg to differ.) The story notes were rather short and placed at the end rather than after each story.

Story List (titles rom Wikipedia entry):

"Tower of Babylon" (originally published in Omni, November 1990) (Nebula Award winner)

This is an exploration of the Tower of Babel with a "literal" cosmology like the bible. It is fun, but not super insightful.

"Understand" (originally published in Asimov's, August 1991)

A man receives a medical treatment that gives him super-human intellect. The scientists are trying to study this, but he is always one step ahead of them due to his abilities. He later secretly obtains more of the treatment, making him even more intelligent. He eventually connects with another super-human. They fight with their capabilities, leading to one surviving. Could we have any control over "super-capabilities"? Part of super-smartness would be an understanding of what people are trying to test, making it difficult to measure. 

"Division by Zero" (originally published in Full Spectrum 3, June 1991)

What if math were not fixed and division by zero were possible? The woman who discovers this struggles with sanity and causes issues with her marriage. Her husband is both her support and falling out of love with her.

"Story of Your Life" (originally published in Starlight 2, November 1998) (Nebula Award and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award winner)

How would we learn to communicate with aliens? A scientist is tasked with understanding the language of heptapods that have visited earth. Their language is structured different from ours, with a non-linear structure closely related to how they are. They also find some math "simple" that we find more advanced. It is an intriguing look at the challenges of communication when there are large differences. It also comes to an abrupt end when they decide it is time to leave.

"Seventy-Two Letters" (originally published in Vanishing Acts, June 2000) (Sidewise Award winner)

Names have power. While this was one of the reasons I read this collection, I was a bit lost in the story.

"The Evolution of Human Science" (originally published as "Catching Crumbs from the Table" in Nature, June 2000)

What would the role of humans be if we had "metahumans" with greater capacity?

"Hell Is the Absence of God" (originally published in Starlight 3, July 2001) (Hugo Award, Locus Award and Nebula Award winner)

In this world angelic visitations are common, but not worry free. Sometimes people are healed, while others may be injured by flying shrapnel. People may end up in heaven or hell depending on their behavior and everyone knows where they go. The story focuses on people with different faith journeys. It is portrayed as pure fantasy which allows it to better explore relationships between faith and knowledge. It has an interesting structure nearer to a documentary of intertwined people.

"Liking What You See: A Documentary"

People can get a special treatment that causes them to not notice people's looks. Thus they will not be lead astray by common concepts of beauty. Many parents would have their kids undergo this process. The central focus is a college where the students are voting to have this treatment mandatory so as not cause harm to people without good looks. It is an interesting exploration of equality gone to extremes, while also exploring how we often make bad decisions based on appearance. How would life be if we could have this treatment?

Tailored Realities

Tailored Realities by Brandon Sanderson

I've preferred Sanderson's science fiction work to his Cosmere mainstream. This collection does not disappoint. It contains many "short" works outside his typical universe. Many have been published in other areas. (After getting into the first one, I realized I had already read "Snapshot" before.) The length ranges from super-short flash fiction to long novella. The final work, "Moment Zero" is a new work that has Christopher Nolan vibes. A mad scientist has created a wormhole that has created a zombie apocalypse. The people that were at the scene of the wormhole creation were sent backwards and forwards in time. A couple detectives involved can somehow communicate across the timeline. They figure out what went wrong and work to push the "real" timeline to a peaceful ending.

Sanderson also includes notes for each story, often describing the genesis of the story and other important aspects. We learn that some of these stories were written as a pre-published starving author, while others were written well into his career. The "notes" are always one of my favorite parts of short story collections.

The collection includes:

1. Snapshot
2. Brain Dump
3. I Hate Dragons
4. Dreamer
5. Perfect State
6. Probability Approaching Zero
7. Defending Elysium
8. Firstborn
9. Mitosis
10. Moment Zero

Antibodies

Antibodies by Charles Stross

This short story was first published in 2000, and later published in the compilation Toast: And Other Rusted Futures. A mathematician publishes a paper that solves the traveling salesman problem and transforms NP-complete problems to easily solvable ones. This seemingly breaks all cryptography. The story them picots to AIs gone amok. The AI has grown and taken on an identity of its own. It has started to consume all electronic resources and then goes on to inhabit the real world. A couple is trying to reach an "extraction point" where they can escape from this world. Alas, they are caught a little before escaping. Luckily, they appear to have "anitbodies" and are able to escape. There are a few interesting concepts in this story, but they don't quite come together.

Bracebridge Hall

Bracebridge Hall by Washington Irving

This is a collection of short stories about occupants of an English manor house. They have the "small town" quarrels and challenges in their life. It is hard to get really attached to them.

Wireless

Wireless by Charles Stross

This science fiction collection includes a variety of works spanning different time periods. I enjoyed the commentaries that were associated with the stories. The author praises the short story as a medium that allows earning money and receiving quick feedback. Alas, this was written before the influx of AI has caused issues in the field.

Stories included:

Missile Gap

Rogue Farm

A Colder War

MAXOS

Down on the Farm

Unwirer

Snowball's Chance

Trunk and Disorderly

Palimpeset

Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories

Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories by Washington Irving

What stood out most for me was the brevity. The whole point of Rip Van Winkle is made quickly without much fuss. The headless horseman seems to be an incidental character in Sleepy Hollow. The other stories were not bad, but I do not recall many of the details.

"Rip Van Winkle" (1819 from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.)

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820 from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.)

"The Spectre Bridegroom" (1819 from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.)

"The Adventure of the German Student"  (1824 from Tales of the Traveler)

"The Devil and Tom Walker"  (1824 from Tales of the Traveler)

"The Adventure of the Mason" (1832 from Tales of the Alhambra)

"Legend of the Rose of Alhambra" (1832 from Tales of the Alhambra)

"The Governor and the Notary" (1832 from Tales of the Alhambra)

"Governor Manco and the Soldier" (1832 from Tales of the Alhambra)

Platinum Pohl

Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories by Frederik Pohl

This is a long science fiction short story collection that spans a half century of Pohl's work.

The works are various lengths and explore different topics. 

A few that stand out: 

"The Day the Icicle Works Closed" - this gave the name to the "Whisper to a Scream" singers. A "company planet" is moved to an economic tailspin when the company's product is no longer needed. All it has left is tourism, and as part of this people rent out their bodies to tourists. The plot covers a lawyer defending some kids that went through lengths to avoid renting their body. He ends up discovering that the products are still needed and that it was just a plot by some to get the company stock on the cheap. It shows stock manipulation gone crazy.

"The Celebrated No-Hit Inning" - a baseball story where a star player travels to a time where sport is played primarily for TV audiences and robots have a role in the game. Robot ball players and games just for TV don't seem too far off today. Heck, this could just be a twitch-streamed videogame play. What seems the most far-fetched is baseball still being relevant in the far future.

"Waiting for the Olympians" - The Roman empire never fell and proceeded to advance to the modern days. People are awaiting extraterrestrials that have been communicating with them. At the last minute they cut off communication and decide not to come. The book focuses on the experience of a writer who had tried writing a novel that made fun of this extraterrestrial olympians. This story is censored. He then decides to write an alternate history novel where Christianity rose up and Rome fell. This has a number of twists with alternate history within alternate history with a mixture of science fiction bits.

There are a number of other good stories in this collection as well as some fairly forgettable ones.

The list of stories (thanks to the Wikipedia page):

• Introduction by James Frenkel
• "The Merchants of Venus", Worlds of If, July/August 1972.
• "The Things That Happen", Asimov's, October 1985
• "The High Test", Asimov's, June 1983.
• "My Lady Green Sleeves", Galaxy, February 1957.
• "The Kindly Isle", Asimov's, November 1984.
• "The Middle of Nowhere", Galaxy, May 1955.
• "I Remember a Winter", Orbit 11, Damon Knight (ed.), 1972.
• "The Greening of Bed-Stuy", F&SF, July 1984.
• "To See Another Mountain", F&SF, April 1959.
• "The Mapmakers", Galaxy, July 1955.
• "Spending a Day at the Lottery Fair", F&SF, October 1983.
• "The Celebrated No-Hit Inning", Fantastic Universe, September 1956.
• "Some Joys Under the Star", Galaxy, November 1973.
• "Servant of the People", Analog, February 1983.
• "Waiting for the Olympians", Asimov's, August 1988.
• "Criticality", Analog, December 1984.
• "Shaffery Among the Immortals", F&SF, July 1972.
• "The Day the Icicle Works Closed", Galaxy, February 1960.
• "Saucery", F&SF, October 1986.
• "The Gold at the Starbow's End", Analog, March 1972.
• "Growing Up in Edge City", Epoch, Roger Elwood and Robert Silverberg (eds.), 1975.
• "The Knights of Arthur", Galaxy, January 1958.
• "Creation Myths of the Recently Extinct", Analog, January 1994.
• "The Meeting" (in collaboration with C.M. Kornbluth), F&SF, November 1972.
• "Let the Ants Try", (as by James MacCreigh) Planet Stories, Winter 1949.
• "Speed Trap", Playboy, November 1967.
• "The Day the Martians Came", Dangerous Visions, Harlan Ellison (ed.), 1967.
• "Day Million", Rogue, February/March 1966.
• "The Mayor of Mare Tranq", The Williamson Effect, Tor, 1996.
• "Fermi and Frost", Asimov's, January 1985.
• Afterword : Fifty Years and Counting.

Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger

Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger by Louis Sachar

This a bunch of short stories that tie together the experiences at Wayside School. The school is bizarre and many strange things just happen without people being concerned. The school has ben built up instead of across, requiring kids to use stairs to get to classes. Elevators are finally installed, but to limit conflict, one will only be used for going up and the other only for going down. These elevators are thus used once, and never again. There is a substitute that is really nice, only somebody reports that she was cruel a long time back and is still after old homework. A teacher also goes after a cruel dentist for old homework and chases her out of town. There are plenty of other bizarre and humorous tales in the book.

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville

A lawyer hired Bartleby to work for him. Bartleby starts out working strong, but then refuses to work with a phrase "I'd prefer not to". Despite multiple injunctions, the lawyer cannot get any work out of Bartleby. The lawyer then justifies keeping him on as a charity case. He later discovers that Bartleby is also living at the office. The lawyer tries to get rid of him, even paying him money to leave. However, Bartleby would prefer not to live. Finally the lawyer leaves the office altogether. The new tenant later comes back to complain to the lawyer about Bartleby. How did Bartleby infiltrate that office in the first place? How can he be so powerful to refuse to do anything with the rationale of preferring not to? Bartleby is quite the strong-willed character.

My Evil Mother: A Short Story

My Evil Mother: A Short Story by Margaret Atwood

Mother is "evil". She is a witch and controls her daughter in strange ways. She wont let her date a boy because she thinks he will die. (He does get involved with drugs a few years later and dies, but not related to the girl.) She tells her that her dad is now a garden gnome. (She believes it, but later finds out her dad served time in prison due to his past alcoholism.) Eventually the girl grows up, gets married and has a daughter. Does witchery skip a generation? The story is well written, but a little hollow.

2113: Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush

2113: Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush by John McFetridge - editor (Author), Kevin J. Anderson - editor (Author), Paul Boehmer (Narrator), Audible Studios (Publisher)

These are stories that were inspired by (or inspired) Rush songs. For some, it was easy to feel the Rush song through the story. The story that inspired "Red Barchetta" stuck the most. In it, the government made safety regulations requiring cars to withstand 10 mph collisions. This lead to people being more dangerous in their driving. It further endangered old cars, as they do not have the same protections. A few of these new drivers try to impact a driver of an old car. In the end, the drivers of hte new cars are destroyed when they get in a high speed crash. This results in a new regulation for 70 MPH safety.

The other stories range in quality, style and song connection. (Subdivision is fairy close to the points of the song. Tom Sawyer barely touches the song.)

Contents

Introduction: "Imaginations on Fire"

On the Fringes of the Fractal. -- [GREG VAN EEKHOUT] Inspired by "Subdivisions"

A Patch of Blue. -- [RON COLUNS] Inspired by "Natural Science"

The Burning Times v2.0. -- [BRIAN HODGE] Inspired by "Witch Hunt"

The Digital Kid. -- [MICHAEL Z. WILUAMSON] Inspired by "The Analog Kid" and "Digital Man"

A Nice Morning Drive. -- [RICHARD S. FOSTER] Inspired "Red Barchetta"

Players. -- [DAVID FARLAND] Inspired by "Tom Sawyer"

Some Are Born to Save the World. -- [MARK LESLIE] Inspired by "Losing It"

Random Access Memory. -- [JOHN MCFETRIDGE] Inspired by "Lakeside Park"

Race Human. -- [LARRY DIXON] Inspired by "Marathon"

Hollywood Dreams of Death. -- [TIM IASIUTA] Inspired by "I Think I'm Going Bald"

A Prayer for "0443." -- [DAVID NIALL WILSON] Inspired by "The Trees"

Gonna Roll the Bones. -- [FRITZ LEIBER] Inspired "Roll the Bones"

Spirits with Visions. -- [BRAD R. TORGERSEN] Inspired by "Mission"

Into the Night. -- [MERCEDES LACKEY] Inspired by "Freeze"

Day to Day. -- [DAYTON WARD] Inspired by "Red Sector A"

Our Possible Pasts. -- [DAVID MACK] Inspired by "Show Don't Tell"

Last Light. -- [STEVEN SAVILE] Inspired by "The Spirit of Radio"

2113. -- [KEVIN J. ANDERSON] Inspired by "2112"

The Dispatcher

The Dispatcher by John Scalzi

In a futuristic world, 99.9% of people that are intentionally killed reappear alive at home. This has lead to the position of "dispatcher". These licensed professionals will "dispatch" people that are about to die via surgery or other situations. However, there are some quirks. People can still die of natural causes. To murder somebody, you would need to slowly kill them (such as via starvation) so they cannot be dispatched. People dispatched also come back at a place that they think of as "home". However, this may not be their actual home if they no longer love that. This story deals with a case involving some of those situations. It is something interesting to explore. However, the original "murder" premise is a bit bizarre.

Randomize: Forward collection

Randomize: Forward collection by Andy Weir

Quantum computing has made casino's random numbers predictable. The only solution is to install a quantum computer. However, the wife of the installation tech has entangled the long term storage, allowing her to know the values the casino uses. She plans to make off with a fortune. Alas, the casino checks her background and plans to arrest her. She tries to talk her way out of it by offering to partner to sell tech to other casinos. It ends with her getting escorted to her room. Was she really set free? Or is there more to come. Quantum computing can really cause issues with the security we currently rely on.

The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov

The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov by Vladimir Nabokov

The short stories in this collection were written between the 1920s and 1950s. They range in various lengths and styles. One story is about a duel. They protagonist goes through all the steps to fight a duel. Then at the last minute, the opposing party drops out, giving the protagonist a victory without the consequences of actually fighting.

The collection could use some editing. There are a lot of stories here. Some were translated. Others originally in English. Many are totally forgettable. There is a small section at the end about the stories. Some have interesting tidbits, while others are just dates. I would rather have had a better curated selection of stories.

Convergence Problems

Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi

The "smooth voice" of the narrator for this audiobook made it difficult to follow. While I was lost on the longer stories, some of the shorter ones were quite intriguing. There are a number of explorations of artificial intelligence and convergence into human thought. In one story, computers start to create "art" in their way. This may result in things such as stock markets going briefly wild. In another story, work is done to control human thought through complex understanding and manipulation of stimuli. In another story, somebody signs up to be a guinea pig for various painful experiments. Then there were some other stories that just lost me.

One of my favorite parts of science fiction story collections is the "about these stories" that the author provides at the end. This one does not disappoint. The author discusses the stories and provides some of his background. He is a Nigerian engineer who writes science fiction. His background and experience tie in to some of the works that he creates.

North Woods

North Woods: A Novel by Daniel Mason

This novel consists of a number of stories related to a certain place in New England. The area existed first as native occupation. The house served as a functional apple orchard for time. Later, there were many attempts to use it for modern purposes, like a hotel or events venue. The problem the more modern approaches entailed was that it was haunted. When people died in the area, they tended to stay and "haunt" the place. In the novel, the border between "living" and "ghost" is ambiguous. People will die, but just continue on with their activities. There were two sisters that ran an apple orchard. One decided to cut the trees after they were used for cider. The other would not have it. Did she kill her sister? Was there a murder or did one die of natural causes. Eventually, they both were in the cellar. Did they go there as ghosts or actually as the living? These women would end up haunting future inhabitants. A fugitive slave hunter would freak out when discovering them. There was later a mother and her son with mental illness and a potential murderer. An artist later tried to live there as well as entrepreneurs. A true crime expert and an amature historian also stop by. Finally a diabetic academic has an accident in the area. She gets a ride and discovers that she is no longer in the living. This helps us discover how things really are. The book is narrated by a variety of voices - with a different one for each section. There are bits of poetry interspersed with the tales. It gives an interesting view of "place" over time.

Exhalation

Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang

Exhalation explores a number of philosophical topics in Science Fiction short stories. Each story also provides a short "why I wrote it" section. (This can be one of the best part.) The first story was an "Arabian nights" type setting that explores a door that lets you go see time in the future. People can explore the future, but can't really make any changes in their life. (As an example, one man goes to see his future self and discovers that he is a frugal miser with huge amounts of hidden wealth. He feels it would be better to spend money and takes all of that money. Alas, his life of wealth is short lived and leads to him hoarding money due to getting robbed and accused of not "earning" it.

A few stories look at different approaches of freewill. One person analyzes their own brain. In another story, people can "fork" their lives in alternate ways. 

One story looks at "virtual people". These AI beings are allowed to grow on their own and are held somewhat like pets and live in virtual worlds. They want additional freedoms and rights, but are they mature enough?

There is one story that looks at communication. It combines a thread of adding written language to an oral communications tribe with a technology that allows people to replay at will any previous event. Is the "real truth" better than the way that we remember things? We may remember a great experience from childhood. However, if we replayed it, we may see that other participants were reluctantly participating. Does this make it worse? Do we really want the "real truth"?

The stories include:

"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" 

"Exhalation" 

"What's Expected of Us" 

"The Lifecycle of Software Objects" 

"Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny" 

"The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling"

"The Great Silence" 

"Omphalos"

"Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom" 

Inheritors

Inheritors by Asako Serizawa

How where the Japanese impacted by World War II? This book contains a gorup of tightly-coupled stories of a family that span the time before and after World War II. There were family members that had a strong loyalty to the emperor and country and wanted to serve. There was also a discovery that there was Korean ancestry in the family. Family members had been involved in secret biological weapons work, including research on involuntary human subjects. The book continues to modern times and alternate-reality worlds that end up becoming intermeshed with the real world. There are family "secrets" that only become disclosed after many years - often limiting the chance for people to know their relatives until their death.

The family spanned both America and Japan. This left them somewhat isolated and not really part of the culture of either. The mind of the traditional Japanese is difficult for Americans (even of Japanese origin) to understand.

Raised in Captivity: Fictional Nonfiction

Raised in Captivity: Fictional Nonfiction by Chuck Klosterman

These are random stories that almost appear true, but are not quite. There is a puma in a first class bathroom. There is a coach that has no experience in football, yet takes over a team. They have one play they run on offense. They get totally beat down in their first game. Things get a little better with each following game until they are totally beating other teams. The players go on to greatness. Somebody struggles when their significant other is diagnosed as "fake woke". Somebody tries to hire a hitman to take out their spouse. The hitman proposes a 4 year plan that would drive him to suicide. There are a number of other stories with a bit of a macabre twist or a "wait is this real?" plausibility? 

The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories

The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories by Ernest Hemingway

This collection has a few of Hemingway's short stories. I had trouble keeping focus. It was mostly set in century-ago time. There is bits about hunting,travel and the War experience.