Book Name : Stories Of Your Life And Others
Author : Ted Chiang
What is it about : The story of The Tower Of Babylon kicked off this series of science-based fiction; the ancient Babylonians built the tower to reach religious and physical heights, but what were the practical concerns ? The engineers had to wheel up the materials such as bricks and cement to great distance and the distance became longer the further they built the Tower ! And how about "Lookisome" ? - the human brain's ability or in-built prejudice in judging people by their looks. This story told of a future world whereby this ability could be switched off by undergoing an easy DIY brain procedure which could block off the necessary neural circuitry, thus enabling humans to judge people by merit. Another story described the journey and end of a patient who was in a vegetative state after an accident, recovering from memory loss and general lack of physical abilities by undergoing a special hormone therapy and ended up being a super-human (think X-Men), only to meet his own demise when he encountered another patient having gone through the same hormone treatments.
Some thoughts after having read the book : Being a scientist and engineer by training and working, I very much appreciated Chiang's science-based angle of attack to his stories. The stories read more plausible, probable and much like the film Men In Black, events might even be happening right now. Chiang's ability to command different writing styles, made his stories pleasurable, realistic and hitting the title theme very much on target. Take for instance, Tower Of Babylon, the author imagined a tower so tall, it would take months to reach the top, so the tower "residents" grew their own vegetables and lived their lives like us on the ground; a colorful picture combining an old fable and more down-to-earth practical engineering concerns.
Would I recommend this book to you : I read this book when I went on vacation, the book was a great companion as the stories were kept concise and the science aspects of the tales made interesting diversions from the all-too-relaxing, jump-in-out-of-pool relaxation. Go read !
