Exhalation

From the Author of "Arrival"...

It’s always a particular treat when Chiang releases a volume of short stories (because he’s that good and it’s not very often) and this collection is no different. While I’d read “Lifecycle of Software Objects” and “Dacey’s Patent Automatic Nanny” and loved both, the rest of the stories in the collection were new to me. But from the start with the moving time travel story “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” I was pulled in. The recurring theme is the question of free will and I found his various takes on it fascinating (and occasionally scary). I also enjoyed “The Great Silence,” told from the point of view of a Puerto Rican Parrot living in the rain forests near the Arecibo Observatory and the title story “Exhalation.” But there are no wrong steps here. Chiang does a beautiful job of changing viewpoints, contrasting ideas, and not quite going where the reader thinks they’re being led—leading to profound and canny works.