Lisa Eckstein > Recent Status Updates

This story is big, and strange, and fascinating, and I have no idea what to expect, but I'm really enjoying it!

Fascinating so far: The first chapter is narrated by a British explorer who's one of the first white settlers in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and his story is entertainingly full of historical details and prejudices. Now we're on to another generation to follow the thread of repercussions from an incident in the explorer's life.

"When she started to cry, the upside was as it always was: the shower cry takes the logistics out of it. Crying has to be dealt with--it makes a mess, it swells up your face, it creates a little pile of tissues that are a tell. But the shower cry is the superspy's cry, Evvie had always thought. It was between you and the tile walls, and everything that hurt turned into water, and the water went away."

"We went to the movies, to that thing with the French guy who was in the other one, the one with Jessica Chastain that you didn't like."
"Right, yes. It was Bryce Dallas Howard and the guy is Canadian, but yes."

Love these characters and their developing friendship!

Another common theme among these stories is the notion of Us vs Them. "Gliders Though They Be" and "My General" are both fascinating examples.

"See No Evil, Feel No Joy" is a great, disturbing story about a woman in a strict religious sect who begins to disobey.

Cool to see certain ideas recur in these stories. Emshwiller is definitely interested in people who lurk unnoticed -- in "Coo People" there's a whole species of them -- and pointless perpetual wars, seen again in "The Assassin or Being the Loved One".

Loving the turns of phrase like "He smiled, about a third of the way. It was a pretty good third of a smile."

"It had been almost a year since Tim died, and she still couldn't do anything at all sometimes, because she was so consumed by not missing him. She could fill up whole rooms with how it felt to be the only person who knew that she barely loved him when she'd listened to him snoring lightly on the last night he was alive." This is a great, tough premise, and I can't wait to see how it plays out!

These stories are definitely original and not interested in conforming to any particular genre or expectation. "The Doctor" is a weird, creepy story about a man who hoards stuff and cats in his house until things become horrific and probably supernatural. The narrator of "Bountiful City" just wants to be in love, so she randomly picks a target of her love and pursues him before they've ever spoken.

The secrets at the core of this book are unfolding somewhat clumsily, with a huge, convoluted infodump in the middle, but I'm curious to get to all the revelations.

Some unevenness, but generally interesting, and I'm curious to see where the story and the math are going.

I enjoyed "Boys", the story of a colonel in a perpetual war and the women who rise up against him.

Excited about getting to know the mathematician narrator and the intriguing events she's started to hint at.

I picked up this book at FOGcon after learning about Emshwiller at a panel commemorating her life and work. The collection's title comes from the second story, "I Live With You and You Don't Know It", a compellingly unsettling account of a woman who insinuates herself into another woman's home and life.

Great mix of romance and politics and character development.

Partway through the final long story in the collection, "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom". It's set in a world with devices that can split off parallel timelines and allow limited communication between them, and is exploring a variety of implications, especially the psychological effects of learning about other possible versions of one's life.

"Leaving your clandestine hookup directions to a Parisian cheese shop. Alex has to admit: Henry really has a solid handle on his personal brand."

Loving how all the situations and obstacles in this story are emotionally complex and plausible.

This is just delightful.

Has already won me over with snappy dialogue that's actually amusing and an awesome brother-sister relationship!

"Omphalos", like a few stories from Chiang's last collection, takes certain religious beliefs as scientific fact and spins out the world that results. I enjoy this subgenre, and this story is another clever, intriguing entry.

This is an odd book. There is much I like, but there is also so much of the protagonist simply musing.

This story is ostensibly about the main character going to visit her friends, as established in the prologue and the title, but at 30% she hasn't left yet, though she's making plans. The writing is strong, and there have been some interesting vignettes, but I'm surprised by the slowness.

Enjoying getting to know our narrator as she prepares for a sort of adventure.

"The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" nicely contrasts the effects of technology on record-keeping, memory, and relationships in two different time periods, one in the past and one in the future.
(Also noting that I really liked how "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" turned out.)

I was skeptical at encountering a long novella in the middle of a collection of stories, but I am loving "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" and so curious about where it's going to end up.

From the start of the title story: "For most of history, the proposition that we draw life from air was so obvious that there was no need to assert it. Every day we consume two lungs heavy with air; every day we remove the empty ones from our chest and replace them with full ones." From the hint of this strange premise, Chiang spins out a fascinating world and a suspenseful exploration of its science and philosophy.

Exciting to have a new collection of stories from the mind of Ted Chiang! "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" starts the book off strong. It's a page-turning story with a whole set of clever stories inside it, exploring how a variety of people cope with the opportunity to learn their own future.