
Ted Chiang returns with another awe-inducing sci-fi collection - sohkamyung
https://aux.avclub.com/ted-chiang-the-mind-behind-arrival-returns-with-anoth-1834449060
======
Tepix
Here's a list of all 9 stories:

\- The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling

\- What's expected of us

\- The Merchant and the Alchemist's gate

\- Exhalation (found online at
[http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/exhalation/](http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/exhalation/)
)

\- The Lifecycle of software objects

\- The Great Silence ( available at
[http://supercommunity.e-flux.com/texts/the-great-
silence/](http://supercommunity.e-flux.com/texts/the-great-silence/) and
[https://electricliterature.com/the-great-silence-by-ted-
chia...](https://electricliterature.com/the-great-silence-by-ted-chiang/) )

\- Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny

\- Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom (new)

\- Omphalos (new)

Some of them (and some others) are also available as audiobooks at
[https://www.sffaudio.com/features/author-pages/ted-
chiang/](https://www.sffaudio.com/features/author-pages/ted-chiang/)

------
motohagiography
I've only read his re-released stories in the "Arrival," compilation, but to
me, to describe Chiang as a sci-fi writer is like saying Google is in the
computer business.

We inhabit a contemporary world with more technological and social change than
the ones which formed the collection of tropes that got authors grouped into
sci-fi or cyberpunk in the first place. I don't think devices like time
machines and other magic used to create the reflections of characters and
situations is sufficient for relegating authors to sci-fi anymore.

Arrival and "Story of your life's" treatment of language and time and
experience, and sympathy for the motivations of a super intelligence in
"Understand," were succinct descriptions of huge questions. When you compare
those to the stupid, 250 page harangues of living national treasures,
relegating Chiang to sci-fi puts me into a fit of pique.

~~~
YeGoblynQueenne
Why "relegating"? Is this about that old chestnut of sci-fi not being good
literature (so if something is good literature then it can't be sci-fi, by
definition)?

~~~
motohagiography
If you are interested in publishing, it's still an issue, even if readers
don't care.

~~~
jcantero
It depends on who your publisher and target audience is. See this recent
article:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19708789](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19708789)

------
bgrainger
_What's Expected of Us_ was originally published in 2005 and is available
here:
[https://www.nature.com/articles/436150a](https://www.nature.com/articles/436150a)

_The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling_ was originally published in 2013 and
is available here:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140222103103/http://subterrane...](https://web.archive.org/web/20140222103103/http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2013/the_truth_of_fact_the_truth_of_feeling_by_ted_chiang)

For more on the publication history of some of these novelettes, see
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Chiang#Works](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Chiang#Works).

~~~
theNJR
Wow thank you for this. What’s Expected of Us was incredible.

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StavrosK
Is this book new? I've read most of these stories, I think...

~~~
mcphage
It's a new book, but it's a collection of the short stories he published since
his last collection.

