by Ted Chiang
Many of the stories are glaringly built around a fixed idea so that the notes at the end are redundant—or are more interesting than the stories themselves. The surrounding texts are more filler than breathing worlds. “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate”, “The Lifecycle of Software Objects”, and “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom” are the most organic.
Quibbles:
- a dog holocaust is a mistaken analogy
- ‘could have been pretty if she tried’
- a better person lets a bank keep hoarding their wealth?