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Book Review: Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang

Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang

Alfred A. Knopf, 2019

ISBN 978-1-101-94788-3

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition

 

The answers to some of the most intriguing questions about human thought and behavior are so complex that they have remained central to storytelling for hundreds of years. Ted Chiang’s Exhalation is a fascinating collection of science fiction short stories that raises many ideas related to these questions through thought-plots, reporter-narrators, and both ancient and modern elements of storytelling.

 

Chiang’s ability to spark the imagination and engage the reader in deep thought leads to entertainment of the highest order. The opening story, “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” is reminiscent of the Arabian Nights and tells overlapping tales of time travel that show the interconnectedness of people’s stories with a surprising twist on the definition of alchemy. The title story “Exhalation” and “Dacey’s Patent Automatic Nanny” focus on the human elements of robots and machines and what they share with their human creators. Readers are introduced to a robot society about to be extinguished as the narrator ponders the end of time and to the creator of a mechanical nanny who hopes to raise rational children by eliminating the emotional aspects of child rearing. “The Lifecycle of Software Objects,” the longest story, engages the reader in the lives of digital entities and their owners, including discussions about setting emotional boundaries for these “digients,” parental strategies for the owners, and determining digients’ maturity and readiness for certain experiences.

 

Two other stories show characters reflecting on the serious developments in life that have come about through technological innovation. “The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling” considers the negative effects of assistive technology on people who have access to videos of their entire life. In a parallel plot line in the same story, a character from Tivland is being taught to write for the first time and struggles with the contrast between the culture’s prized oral tradition and their doubts about the quality and truth of written stories. “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom” takes a look at paraselves who can be contacted for a limited time through prisms and suggests the fallout that might occur if we see our lives lived out in other versions that might not conform to our picture of ourselves. The examination of truth in storytelling continues in “Omphalos” in which an archaeologist who examines the first creations of God, trees without rings and mummies without bellybuttons, defines science as a search for truth and purpose but develops doubts that lead to a crisis of faith. Finally, in “The Great Silence,” the narrator reflects on the divine as it manifests in sound or the loss of sound that is the extinction of a species. Interestingly, it is a parrot that points out the human process leading to greatness as a creative force originating in myths, imagination, and aspirations.

 

This collection of stories is so effective because it taps into what is familiar and applies it to what is unfamiliar, thus revealing the layers of thought which are at work in any human endeavor but particularly in those involving science and what Chiang calls the “technology of writing.” The stories are a goldmine of allusions to scientific, literary, and religious thought such that the more a reader can bring to them, the richer the experience of reading. By bringing the craftsmanship and truth that he writes about to his own storytelling, Ted Chiang creates a collection that deserves to be read more than once. Highly recommended

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

Editor’s note:  Exhalation: Stories was nominated to the final ballot of the 2019 Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection.

Posted on March 23, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: All Hallow’s Eve by Jennifer Hughes, illustrated by Agus Prajogo

All Hallow’s Eve by Jennifer Hughes, illustrated by Agus Prajogo

Mascot Books, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1684011643

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition

 

October is THE month for storytelling and reading aloud, especially with kids, who see it as THEIR holiday. A majority of picture books for this time of year, however, are either series tie-ins (quality may vary) or standards that have survived the test of time (I will never not read The Hallo-Wiener or The Tailypo if I can get someone to listen)  All Hallow’s Eve is new this year: it’s a tale of trick-or-treating gone creepy. Hughes originally wrote the story in 2000 as a poem for her nieces, who demanded it be read to them over and over again, but set it aside until recently. The sing-songy rhythm and the words hanging on the structure of the familiar poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” make it a fun and easy read-aloud. The cartoony, colorful illustrations of four little witches off to trick-or-treat are adorable, and the last house on the street is spooky. Readers expecting a predictable ending might find themselves at least a little surprised– and kids will probably giggle– at how the story wraps up. Not terribly scary but very Halloween-y, All Hallow’s Eve is a nice find for the upcoming holiday.

Posted on October 18, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: The Scary Stories Treasury: Three Books to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz, illustrated by Stephen Gammell

In honor of Banned Books Week, a review of Alvin Schwartz’s The Scary Stories Treasury, which had a place on the American Library Association’s Top 10 Banned and Challenged Books list from 2000-2009. This review was written about the hardcover edition of the original compilation, with illustrations by Stephen Gammell: it doesn’t appear to be available in hardcover at this time.

 

Scary Stories Treasury; Three Books to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz, illustrated by Stephen Gammell

HarperCollins Publishers, 2013

ISBN-13: 978-0060263416

Available: New and Used paperback

 

The Scary Stories Treasury contains three popular volumes of “scary stories”, collected from folklore and urban legends by Alvin Schwartz: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones. Any librarian who isn’t familiar with the books collected in this volume really needs to check them out. Not only are these titles in high demand for older children and teens, but they are an incredible storytelling resource. In fact, in the introduction to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Schwartz writes that scary stories are “meant to be told”.

 

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is the best known of the three books, and is the one I’ve used the most. It both starts and ends with “jump” stories, and these are fun to tell to a group. “The Viper” and “The Ghost with Bloody Fingers” are stories I’ve frequently told. Also included are the poem “A Man Who Lived in Leeds”, the song “Old Woman All Skin and Bone”, “The Hearse Song” and the Halloween game “The Dead Man’s Brains”. Other stories in the book include variants on familiar tales, such as “The Guests”, in which a young couple looking for a place to stay the night learn after the fact that their hosts were ghosts, and urban legends like “The Hook”, in which news that a murderer with a hook for a hand is on the loose spoils a date. Finally, there are some truly creepy and scary tales about ghosts, witches, shapeshifters, and the supernatural. While most of these come from folklore, and can’t be mistaken for anything happening today, they can still give readers, and listeners, the shivers.

 

More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark has longer stories. Some are set in a specific historical period, such as “The Weird Blue Light”, which takes place during the Civil War. Many of them have sudden endings. In “Something Was Wrong”, we follow a bewildered and frightened John Sullivan around, learning only in the last few words that he is dead. Some folktales have clearly been adapted for a modern audience, such as “The Drum” an ominous contemporary variant of the folktale “The New Mother”. Schwartz doesn’t hold back or moralize when he retells a story. “Wonderful Sausage” is a clever and horrifying tale about a butcher who adds a special ingredient to his sausage. This volume also has a few more contemporary tales, ranging from frightening to tragic, and a description of the creepy sleepover game “A Ghost in the Mirror”. While the stories in this volume are more satisfying in many ways, I’d say these tales are aimed at a slightly older audience.

 

Scary Stories 3 continues with more detailed and sometimes complicated stories. In “Just Delicious”, a twist on the folktale “The Golden Arm”, a terrified wife feeds her husband a dead woman’s liver without his knowledge… and the woman wants it back. “Harold” is a chilling story of a vengeful doll. “The Wolf Girl”, set in a specific time and place, has its basis in the lives of real people, as does “The Trouble”, a story about poltergeist activity in the Lombardo household. “Maybe You Will Remember”, a baffling story about a girl whose sick mother disappears from her hotel, becomes truly horrifying when the reader turns to the notes at the back of the book to solve the puzzle. The volume wraps up with a couple of mildly funny stories. Of the three books, I’d say this is my least favorite, possibly because it is so grounded in detail, as details often distract listeners, making it harder to get them engaged in the story.

 

All three books have detailed notes and bibliographies provided by the author. While you don’t have to read the notes to enjoy the stories (with the exception of “Maybe You Will Remember”) they are easy to understand and interesting. All three books also have incredible illustrations by gifted children’s book illustrator Stephen Gammell, done in just black and white ink. It’s his illustrations that make the books so magnetic to kids… and so terrifying. The illustration for “Wonderful Sausage”, as an example,  brings a whole new grotesque dimension to the story. With just a few strokes and some shading, Gammell ups the scare level considerably. Tormented, skeletal faces, ragged clothes, distorted and indistinct figures, glowing eyes and teeth, empty chairs, empty baskets, empty clothes… it’s enough to cause nightmares, and makes much more impact than if we had only Schwartz’s words. Many collections of scary stories from American folklore don’t include illustrations, or at least not effective ones, and that is probably one of the reasons why more of them aren’t well known. The Scary Stories books, however, are notorious, to the point that the series was seventh on the American Library Association’s list of the most frequently challenged books for 2000-2009, and the illustrations are surely a good part of the reason why these books in particular are noticed.

 

The main benefit of owning The Scary Stories Treasury is that you’ll have all three books in one volume. Each book appears to have been faithfully reproduced, with Gammell’s original illustrations. However, there’s no new or additional material here. Readers who don’t have the books and want them might want to consider this volume, but for those who already own them, there’s no reason to purchase it. I highly recommend that libraries of all kinds have at least one copy of each of the books included in The Scary Stories Treasury, and the Treasury itself might make a nice reference volume, and you’ll find that the Scary Stories books are rarely on the shelves. The Scary Stories Treasury is highly recommended to libraries and readers who do not already own copies of the Scary Stories books, and recommended as a reference volume for school and public libraries. Appropriate, based on maturity of the reader, for grades 4 and up.

 

Contains: Violence, gore, cannibalism, deception, the occult, witchcraft, murder.

Review by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on September 27, 2019 by , 1 comment
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