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18 lines
1.9 KiB
18 lines
1.9 KiB
6 years ago
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title = "Arrival - Ted Chiang"
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date = 2017-02-28
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category = "review"
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[taxonomies]
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tags = ["books", "en-au", "ted chiang"]
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{{ stars(stars=5) }}
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I'll be honest (again) and admit that I bought the book because of the movie (again -- the same thing happened with [book:All You Need Is Kill|6255949]/Edge of Tomorrow). This time, though, I haven't seen the movie yet, so I basically "read the movie" before watching it.
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Thing is, this is *not* just about Arrival. It's a collection of stories by Ted Chiang -- one of them is "The Story of Your Life", which is the base for the movie. You have "Tower of Babylon", which is kinda like a fantasy story if said tower actually reached the heavens; "Understand", which takes a stab in a "Limitless" kinda-way; "Division By Zero", which talks about mathematics but it is actually about people (Pro-tip: if you read, keep an eye on the "chapter" numbers; it will explain the story); "Story of Your Life", which, again, is the base for the Arrival movie; "Seventy-Two Letters", about a world where golems and controlling stuff with written stuff actually exists; "The Evolution About Human Science", a short story about a future when humans can't keep up with their own science; "Hell is the Absence of God", about angels (although the author explains it in the end, it felt much more like "this is hell" than anything else); and "Liking What You See: A Documentary", which feels like a huge discussion about beauty and propaganda.
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In general, all stories are pretty easy and interesting to read -- reading the whole book in two days may be a testament of this. The whole style reminded me of Asimov's writing, although I could skip half paragraphs without missing anything in the story, while that wouldn't be an option in Asimov stories.
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The endings are also kinda loose, but because there are hidden clues about the story itself in other parts -- like in "Division By Zero" -- I guess I just didn't *get* them yet.
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