Book Review: STORIES OF YOUR LIFE AND OTHERS by Ted Chiang

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I feel like I have arrived late to the Ted Chiang bandwagon. But what a glorious place to be in!

(Incidentally, ARRIVAL - the movie starring Amy Adams - was my first introduction to his work, although I didn't realize it until I saw the cover of the book which advertised the fact that he had written the short story the film was based on.)

Eight short stories are in this volume, his first collection... each one a masterful gem. No sentence is out of place, these are brilliantly concise and well-constructed. AND TO THINK THIS IS HIS FIRST BOOK!!!! How dare you, Sir. How. Dare. You. Be. This. Good.

So I tried summarizing them in one sentence each:

"Tower of Babylon" brings us to ancient times where men dared to build a tower that would pierce the vault of heaven itself.  

"Understand" tells of a miracle drug user who uses his newfound superhuman intelligence to literally undo another person... with just one word.

"Division by Zero" is the story of a mathematician who makes a discovery that disproves most of mathematics, and struggles to live with that knowledge.

"Story of Your Life" is the one that ARRIVAL was based on. On the surface, it's about a linguist's attempt to understand an alien race's language. But it's actually about free will and determinism, and asks: "If you knew what would happen, would you do it anyway?"

"Seventy-Two Letters" brings us to an alternative Victorian England where secret societies work with golems and kabbalists in a morbid struggle to contain and defeat man's impending doom (this would make a WONDERFUL movie!!!!!).

"The Evolution of Human Science" is a horror story writ in three pages, masquerading as a science journal editorial piece.

In "Hell is the Absence of God," angelic visitations are as commonplace as natural disasters, and sometimes the earth becomes transparent and people can see who is in Hell, and who ascends to Heaven.  

"Liking What You See: A Documentary" reads like the transcript of a documentary about a future world that can turn off a person's reaction to physical beauty. All sides of the debate on "lookism" are mentioned, plus a story of young love embedded therein.

Ted Chiang manages to condense incredibly complicated scientific and mathematical terms in almost accessible language. Haha! There's effort on the part of the reader, to be sure, because they require reflection and at times feel like one is studying for an exam (especially with SOYL). But he also manages to change his tone for the changing settings, which is not easy to do!

Hard to pick a favorite, but I think I liked the first story best for its optimism and simply told absolute truths.

"We live on the road to heaven; all the work that we do is to extend it further."

This book, then, is a celebration of the power of language. Of how words shape thought and destiny. And this is as good as books come.

From now on, Ted Chiang is a must-buy!!! I shall be reflecting on his stories for many weeks to come.



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Book Review: LAVONDYSS (Ryhope Wood Cycle # 2) by Robert Holdstock

Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


"...For all things in this world were born from the minds of men and since all men were mad, they were mad creatures, madly running."
"We are voyagers in our own living madness. What we have that these wretched creatures around us do not is freedom. The freedom to choose."

I type this with a pounding head, an aching heart, a mind still immersed in the strange and terrible world of Lavondyss. And the wonderful music of Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Tallis Fantasia" playing in my inner ear.

Lavondyss is a book that deserves ten stars out of the highest possible five star rating on Goodreads. I lack superlatives for a work of this genius, suffice it to say that if previous books left me teary-eyed, this one had me veritably WEEPING at 1:30 in the morning. I'm talking sobs muffled behind a pillow, a stream of waterworks, and a monster cold the following morning. *drinks from a steaming mug of hot calamansi juice*

This is one book whose back cover blurb does not even come close to the experience of it. Just as "Ghost-born-man-walking-on-water-telling-stories-dead-on-tree" does not even begin to tell one about Christ (a direct quote from the book!), so too does "Thirteen-year-old-girl-goes-into-a-parallel-universe-to-find-her-love-and-long-lost-brother" barely scratch the surface of what Lavondyss is.

Like its predecessor, it is about the power of myths and stories in shaping a country's story. But Lavondyss is so much grander and more epic, and more painful. Holdstock was a scientist before he wrote full time, and he brings that logic and clear-eyed vision to tell a story that seems so familiar...  reminding one of Jungian archetypes and Joseph Campbell's monomyth. Lavondyss is "a place of the birth of a belief in the journey of the soul."

Holdstock's unique writing style may be off-putting for some readers, especially if one is used to a certain lyricism and romanticism in fantasy works.

There is nothing romantic about this book, despite the plot. And it is definitely for mature readers only.

"Wizard. Warlock. Druid. Scientist. I'm known by many names over the centuries, but they all mean one thing: echo of a lost knowledge."

Holdstock's scientific powers of observation and reportage make for words that cut like a scalpel in their brutal honesty, making this reader cringe in horror and feel sick to one's stomach at certain scenes that depict pre-historic customs. Lavondyss is a dark place, a difficult book to get through, not just in terms of language but also in terms of plot. But at the end, ah.... One feels like one has lived many lifetimes, many times over, and is just overwhelmed at the reminder that humanity goes on, that we have overcome darkness in the past and that we shall overcome the darkness of the gathering storm today.

I am reminded of a discussion I witnessed between friends, they were talking about the real meaning of Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" and I was blown away by how it is actually about that single life-defining choice, and how it haunts you, and how we are the ones who create meaning out of our lives. (I am paraphrasing the wisdom of Tata and Elsie!)

So the question in this book is, "If you entered a parallel universe expecting to succeed in your mission after only a week or month at most, and you realize it might take decades or an entire lifetime, and that you might not even succeed... do you push on your quest or do you give up and merely wait for death?"

"The naming of the land is important. It conceals and contains great truths. Your own name has changed your life."

It is no coincidence that Holdstock named his heroine "Tallis." She is so aptly named! Read this wonderful essay: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2...). I particularly appreciated how Holdstock treated Tallis, how her language changed as she grew from girl to woman. I also recognize the great amount of research that went behind the writing of this award-winning novel.

"All of these things, simple evolutions of thought, began with the children, the new generation."

Below is a conversation between thirteen-year-old Tallis and the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, who shows up in the book (squeal of delight for fans of this composer!!!!!!!):

"A story, or a tune, comes as a piece of magic.. things change in life when you change them in stories."
"I assure you that they don't."
"I assure you that they do. Stories are fragile. Like people's lives. It only takes a word out of place to change them forever. If you hear a lovely tune, and then you change it, the new tune might be lovely too, but you've lost the first one."
"But if I stick to the first tune, then I've lost the second."
"But someone else might discover it. It's still there to be born."
"And the first tune isn't?"
"No, it has already come into your mind. It's lost forever."
"Nothing is lost forever. Everything I've known I still know, only sometimes I don't know that I know it. All things are known, but most things are forgotten. It takes a special magic to remember them."
"But you've lost your childhood. That can never come back."
"The child still lives in the man, even when you're as old as me."


This is a book that demands to be re-read! In another decade or so, I shall. What a treasure!!


View my review of Book 1
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Book Review: MUSE OF NIGHTMARES (Strange the Dreamer # 2) by Laini Taylor

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"Once upon a time there was a silence that dreamed of becoming a song, and then I found you, and now everything is music."

I'm so glad to have had the mental space and energy to finish a book, after a six week drought. I've nearly forgotten how therapeutic it can be, to be lost in one's own world, shared only by the author.

"We're not free! How can we be free if justice isn't done?"

I read this on the day we celebrate my Motherland's independence. And yet as I type this, I realize we are not truly free. The mere fact that we are so careful now of what we post is a testament to how unfree we are.

And this is where books come in. Their stories and truths paint the atrocities of this world ever brighter, reminding us of what ought to be, releasing us from any doubt or false illusions that social media and politicians paint on the blank canvas of non-readers.

Laini Taylor's second book in the series starts immediately after the terrible, heart-wrenching cliffhanger scene in Book 1, the one that I was shoving around in the faces of my book club friends because IT WAS THAT GOOD (see: http://teachergabi.blogspot.com/2020/...).

Taylor takes the old YA formula : two superhuman beings from warring worlds torn apart by cruel Fate, and adds a flair for story telling all her own. It's a strange mix (get it? Strange? haha) of scifi, fantasy, and myth, and it's one hell of a ride.

I loved that the bad guys were multidimensional and sympathetic characters, it made the tragic parts more soul-crushing. And this is something Taylor does particularly well... she highlights the redemptive power of choice, of choosing love over hate. Of transcending one's upbringing.

"You can't save everyone... you know that, don't you?"
"I know... but we can try. And... maybe that's how we save ourselves."

The fight continues. Thank goodness for books, for the small freedoms we still enjoy. May we derive strength from them to go on.

Because that's what stories do. They go on.

Here's to brighter chapters and more hopeful tomorrows!!



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