This was a very interesting collection of concept-driven science fiction short stories. I found it strange--but somehow fitting--that most of the stories had some sort of indirect narrative structure. We had a man telling the story to a caliph, a woman praying her story to God, a scientific record, a warning to future generations, a catalogue entry for a museum exhibition, and a journalist's essay. The literary devices kept me a bit at a distance from the characters, but I really enjoyed them anyway.
Sometimes Ted Chiang's stories reminded me of Asimov's. And for me, that's high praise indeed.
Rating: 4.5 stars. Thought-provoking and unusual.
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