threemonkeys (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
threemonkeys) wrote2005-09-11 05:23 pm
threemonkeys) wrote2005-09-11 05:23 pm
Small but perfectly formed
Another excellent sunny spring day. Lots of excellent natural light for reading so I read Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. My understanding is that Chiang is one of those authors who is not at all prolific. This collection contains seven stories spanning eleven years output. They are all very well crafted - they have the look of work that has been gone over and polished until everything is in its place.
But it is ideas not polish that ultimately determine how short fiction is rated. On that score, Chiang does really rather well. One genuinely new idea (new to me anyway) and a bunch of other good reworking and twisting of unusual ideas. He has not fallen into the trap of trying to rework things that have been done to death.
All in all, a very strong collection. The best single author collection I have read for quite a long time. I do look forward to reading more, although I may have to be patient.
But it is ideas not polish that ultimately determine how short fiction is rated. On that score, Chiang does really rather well. One genuinely new idea (new to me anyway) and a bunch of other good reworking and twisting of unusual ideas. He has not fallen into the trap of trying to rework things that have been done to death.
All in all, a very strong collection. The best single author collection I have read for quite a long time. I do look forward to reading more, although I may have to be patient.