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76th out of 439 books
—
514 voters
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate
by
Ted Chiang
In medieval Baghdad, a penniless man is brought before the most powerful man in the world, the caliph himself, to tell his story. It begins with a walk in the bazaar, but soon grows into a tale unlike any other told in the caliph's empire. It's a story that includes not just buried treasure and a band of thieves, but also men haunted by their past and others trapped by the...more
Hardcover, 60 pages
Published
July 23rd 2007
by Subterranean Press
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Let's try this again, Goodreads. Bad gateway. Hmmph.
Though I suppose a bad gateway is apropos for this book, as it is about a gateway through time, and depending on your actions in the past/future, the outcome might be bad. Oh server error, I see what you did there. Next time, though, try not to DELETE MY REVIEW to make a point*.
Anyway.
I wanted to read this very slim book for threefold reasons:
1) It's very short, but if I tag it with "2011," it gets added to my read total just like any other boo...more
Though I suppose a bad gateway is apropos for this book, as it is about a gateway through time, and depending on your actions in the past/future, the outcome might be bad. Oh server error, I see what you did there. Next time, though, try not to DELETE MY REVIEW to make a point*.
Anyway.
I wanted to read this very slim book for threefold reasons:
1) It's very short, but if I tag it with "2011," it gets added to my read total just like any other boo...more
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Excellent! I liked this best (so far; I haven't read everything else of his) of what I've read of his work. And not just because Kip Thorne's wormhole work is some of my favorite theoretical physics.
Unlike some of Chiang's other stories, the science here is handled with a very light touch; it is peripheral to the story, not central. (And putting modern theoretical physics in the language of the medieval was very well done.) The characters, especially the two main characters, are better realized...more
Unlike some of Chiang's other stories, the science here is handled with a very light touch; it is peripheral to the story, not central. (And putting modern theoretical physics in the language of the medieval was very well done.) The characters, especially the two main characters, are better realized...more
I have finally read Ted Chiang, whose name kept popping up next to those of other writers that I respect. This story is proof positive that Chiang's reputation is well-deserved. I was impressed by how much emotional resonance he achieves in a short span of pages; since finishing the story, it has stuck with me, and I feel like I can visit the feelings that it inspired by returning to any remembered detail from the story. I also liked Chiang's writing, and the voice that he gives the narrator. Bu...more
This 60 page short story is so up my alley. A story of time travel, set in medievalBaghdad, what could be better? If it were written in a lyrical stylereminiscentof the Arabian nights! This is a gold and gem encrusted little dagger of a story.Mimickingprose style AND story telling conventions of its chosen era. It manages to demonstrate its time travel device and constraints in a manner so clear even an Abbasid merchant could understand.
It won both the Hugo and Nebula Novellette awards. Good sho...more
It won both the Hugo and Nebula Novellette awards. Good sho...more
A novelette set in ancient Baghdad and Cairo, as a merchant tells us – and the Caliph – nested tales of time travel.
Okay, the reason I love Ted Chiang is that he consistently has gotten me simultaneously in the geeky intellectual sweet spot of shinykeen science, and the unreasoned emotional response. And here he did neither, particularly.
It's a pretty story, with a perfect tempo and all the charm and style you'd expect from framing time travel in a 1001 Nights homage, with extra ancient Islam fo...more
Okay, the reason I love Ted Chiang is that he consistently has gotten me simultaneously in the geeky intellectual sweet spot of shinykeen science, and the unreasoned emotional response. And here he did neither, particularly.
It's a pretty story, with a perfect tempo and all the charm and style you'd expect from framing time travel in a 1001 Nights homage, with extra ancient Islam fo...more
Though sold as a book, this is really a long short-story of about 60 plus pages. A medieval tale about a man who travels back in time and ultimately learns that neither the past nor the future can be changed but only more fully understood, The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate offers some interesting ideas about fate/destiny.
Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this as much as his collection of short stories, Stories of Your Life and Others, so if you've heard about Chiang and are interested in readin...more
Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this as much as his collection of short stories, Stories of Your Life and Others, so if you've heard about Chiang and are interested in readin...more
I kept noticing this book in my recommendations, and I finally decided to read it. Turns out that I really loved this story.
This book is a science-fiction novella of around 60 pages. The setting is Baghdad, the protagonist is a merchant, and the time is the Middle Ages. The book deals in an original way with a familiar theme: the puzzle of time travel, and the circular cause-and-effect paradox.
But the real story is about regret, the unchangeable past, and our incomplete knowledge of our own li...more
This book is a science-fiction novella of around 60 pages. The setting is Baghdad, the protagonist is a merchant, and the time is the Middle Ages. The book deals in an original way with a familiar theme: the puzzle of time travel, and the circular cause-and-effect paradox.
But the real story is about regret, the unchangeable past, and our incomplete knowledge of our own li...more
In the lyrical style of Arabian Nights, this moralistic time-travel tale set in medieval Baghdad raises questions about fate and leaves much for the reader to interpret. The merchant Fuwaad ibn Abbas addresses the Caliphate in Baghdad, telling his story, in the process relating three other stories told to him. Fuwaad comes upon the shop of an alchemist, Bashaarat, who claims to have a magic door which would permit Fuwaad to visit Baghdad twenty years in the future. Bashaarat first shares his cau...more
As I've said elsewhere, I'm not a big fan of short form fiction, but the setting of this story appealed to me and as a "novella" I thought it might have enough meat on its bones to be satisfying. The storys within a story format here precludes the drawing of deeper characters that I was hoping the novella length might allow, but it was still an enjoyable diversion for an hour or so. The writing itself was quite good. That said it did still leave me with the sort of "what's the point" feeling tha...more
A time travel story in an unusual setting-- ancient Cairo and Baghdad. Very interesting!
Despite only being 60 pages, including a handful of illustrations, there are four great tales contained within this novella's narrative. The story is told by a merchant in medieval Baghdad, and all of the stories he tells including his own involve time travel, both into the future and the past, through an alchemist's gate. It's got an interesting take on time travel with things being essentially fated to happen based on a person and what they're like. People know things because they were told by...more
Ted Chiang's story caught my eye some time ago in the "Feeling Very Strange" anthology and he doesn't disappoint here, either. Stylistically beautiful and both emotionally and intellectually touching. Explores the questions of regret, responsibility and forgiveness in several interconnected mini-stories (in a 1001 Night style) by time travelling in an iron-cast deterministic universe.
Highly recommended! And I really hope he is working on a novel!
Listen here:
http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2008....more
Highly recommended! And I really hope he is working on a novel!
Listen here:
http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2008....more
I really enjoyed this noodly time-travel causality story. If it had been written with a more sci-fi setting, it still would have been good, but less fantastical. As it is, the middle-eastern, arabian-nights style setting adds an extra layer of interest.
The future has always been altered.
Read if: You like noodly paradox stories.
Skip if: You have an allergy to the exoticization of the near East.
Also read: Among Others for a similar feeling about time and cause.
The future has always been altered.
Read if: You like noodly paradox stories.
Skip if: You have an allergy to the exoticization of the near East.
Also read: Among Others for a similar feeling about time and cause.
El único reproche que le tengo a Ted Chiang ahora que terminé todo su repertorio es que no escribe mucho. Ni siquiera puedo reprocharle que sus historias sean cortas porque mucho de su talento yace en contar historias tan buenas en tan poco espacio.
En esta historia trata el viaje en el tiempo, como siempre de forma distinta a lo que está uno acostumbrado y con un interesante equilibrio entre la parte técnica/científica del asunto, los aspectos culturales del mund que nos presenta y la parte emoc...more
En esta historia trata el viaje en el tiempo, como siempre de forma distinta a lo que está uno acostumbrado y con un interesante equilibrio entre la parte técnica/científica del asunto, los aspectos culturales del mund que nos presenta y la parte emoc...more
A beautiful short novella (novelette?). Well-told as all of his stories, and with a wonderful moral lesson. The story is short enough that if I say much about it, it might get too spoilerish, but if you try to imagine Scheherazade meets Heinleinesque time travel, then you've got the gist of it.
The most amazing part to me is how deeply I feel I know some of the characters despite there being just a few pages devoted to the tales. That's Ted Chiang's magic in action, and why he's always among my...more
The most amazing part to me is how deeply I feel I know some of the characters despite there being just a few pages devoted to the tales. That's Ted Chiang's magic in action, and why he's always among my...more
I actually heard this story on the StarShipSofa podcast, and I LOVED it. I think that this is my favorite short story (although I guess it's technically a novella) ever.
The time travel is intricate and very well done, but the best thing about the story are the atmosphere (it feels very much like a modern 1001 Arabian Nights) and the characters.
It is powerfully written throughout every second of the story, and the ending actually brought tears to my eyes. I recommend this story as highly as I pos...more
The time travel is intricate and very well done, but the best thing about the story are the atmosphere (it feels very much like a modern 1001 Arabian Nights) and the characters.
It is powerfully written throughout every second of the story, and the ending actually brought tears to my eyes. I recommend this story as highly as I pos...more
This is actually a short novella from Ted Chiang and the first of his work I ever experienced when JJ Campanella read it (brilliantly) for StarShipSofa podcast.
I recently received a signed (!) copy from a friend who was clearing out his bookshelves and took the chance this weekend to reread it.
It is told in what I'd call Scheherazade-style, of a story within a story within a story. This story folds in and around an alchemist who has opened a shop in medieval Baghdad. He has the secret of gates w...more
I recently received a signed (!) copy from a friend who was clearing out his bookshelves and took the chance this weekend to reread it.
It is told in what I'd call Scheherazade-style, of a story within a story within a story. This story folds in and around an alchemist who has opened a shop in medieval Baghdad. He has the secret of gates w...more
Review originally available at Realms of Speculative Fiction
I’ve never been much of a fan of short literary forms -- I’ve always favored big sprawling epics -- but this changed in the last couple of months. As the latest trend, novels tend to be overblown, lacking in focus and good editing; but the lesser the page count (novellas, novelettes and especially short stories) the greater the focus, the more profound the idea and the more well-versed the writing has to be to make an impact on the read...more
I’ve never been much of a fan of short literary forms -- I’ve always favored big sprawling epics -- but this changed in the last couple of months. As the latest trend, novels tend to be overblown, lacking in focus and good editing; but the lesser the page count (novellas, novelettes and especially short stories) the greater the focus, the more profound the idea and the more well-versed the writing has to be to make an impact on the read...more
I maybe resent this book a little for being a short story in disguise, since I foolishly brought it on a half hour train ride and ran out of book before I reached my destination. (I don't know why I didn't pay attention to how slim it was.)
It definitely wasn't what I would have expected from Ted Chiang, but not in a bad way -- it was charming! But for all I like time travel in stories, time paradoxes are ultimately kind of unsatisfying, like meringues.
It definitely wasn't what I would have expected from Ted Chiang, but not in a bad way -- it was charming! But for all I like time travel in stories, time paradoxes are ultimately kind of unsatisfying, like meringues.
Not quite a short story, but not really a novel either. An entertaining story that at the end will have you thinking about the course your life has taken in the past, and that it is taking into the future, and wondering what you might do if you could take a trip into the past or the future.
My favorite quote from the book: Four things do not come back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity.
My favorite quote from the book: Four things do not come back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity.
Read the review here on goodreads and one of the comments pointed to this online recording. http://www.starshipsofa.com/20080323/... A short story about time travel set in Baghdad at some unknown time. A set of stories within a story as in the tales of Scheherazade. The form and the language are perfect. A tiny jewel. I will look for more by this author.
Ted Chiang's The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate is a very good long-form short story. Mysteriously, it's published as a standalone book - it tops out at 60 pages with a generously large font. However, the formatting oddity aside, this is a great story, setting a classic sf topic as an authentic arab story. Chiang's experiment succeeds quite well, and this story is worth an afternoon.
This is a very short, very lovely book. The story is told by a merchant in the audience of a sultan, and the language used is just exquisite. Several short-short stories are included as examples of the power of the alchemist's gate and an explanation as to why the merchant wanted to use it. That explanatioin and the reason he is before the sultan in the first place are delightfully unexpected and sweetly sad. The whole book was like a really delicious, expensive chocolate--not nearly so large as...more
It boggles my mind a little bit that this is just a short story. Ted Chiang somehow planned out the story so perfectly that you get 4+ stories in one story, and each one is just as interesting as the last. If you can somehow get your hands on this short story, I highly recommend it, especially to other writers. I learned a lot from the story structure.
A very short book set in medieval Baghdad. A poor man is brought before the Caliph. It's revealed that his circumstances and journey are extraordinary. The format is probably inspired by Scheherazade, but Chiang cuts to the heart with 3 or 4 tales. Again, amazing, how thoughts of life and living are spread before the reader in such a feast of words.
Not as satisfying as Stories of Your Life and Others (due to its brevity) but still very engaging. Pretty stern philosophical stuff, draped in the silky fabric of an historical, Islamic, sci-fi fable. Nobody stirs genres quite like Ted Chiang, which is why he is so good. He hasn't written much, but what he has done is magical. All he requires is an increase in prolificity. He might try shining some green laser light on his Joyce Carol Oates gene or something.
How can this only 5 years old book already be out of print and rididulously expensive? Kindle edition fucking where? Urgh, legacy publishers, get it together!
EDIT: Though there apparently is a free audio version, seems legit :D.
EDIT: Though there apparently is a free audio version, seems legit :D.
Tatiana recommended this and I'm grateful she did.
Succinct and easy writing style with a couple of intertwined ideas that cement the central theme of linear time, chance and fate.
Sci-fi lite but fun nevertheless.
Succinct and easy writing style with a couple of intertwined ideas that cement the central theme of linear time, chance and fate.
Sci-fi lite but fun nevertheless.
A time travel novella set in the ancient Middle East. It starts out strong but gets a bit ho-hum after a while. Standard "time paradoxes" and such. But good prose, good voice--apart from the occasional anachronistic sentiment (no, the ancient world was not politically correct).
Sep 16, 2009
Heather
marked it as to-read
I'm not generally a sci-fi fan, but I recently read Ted Chiang's short story "Seventy-Two Letters," and thought it was brilliant (you can read it here: http://web.archive.org/web/2001080214...). I think I'll check this novelette out, too.
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Ted Chiang (born 1967) is an American speculative fiction writer. He was born in Port Jefferson, New York and graduated from Brown University with a Computer Science degree. He currently works as a technical writer in the software industry and resides in Bellevue, near Seattle, Washington. He is a graduate of the noted Clarion Writers Workshop (1989).
Although not a prolific author, having publishe...more
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“Nothing erases the past. There is repentance, there is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough.”
—
25 people liked it
“Past and future are the same, and we cannot change either, only know them more fully. My journey to the past had changed nothing, but what I had learned had changed everything, and I understood that it could not have been otherwise. If our lives are tales that Allah tells, then we are the audience as well as the players, and it is by living these tales that we receive their lessons.”
—
2 people liked it
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