Month: October 2008

I have just finished reading Stanislaw Lem’s “Memoirs Found in a Bathtub” and found it quite a story.  At first I thought I felt it had a certain connection with the insanity of Catch 22, amused by the humor and nonsense. However, as the story developed, I found that the insanity wasn’t insane after all, but rather that every detail in the story was very well crafted and connected to form its own inner logic within an insane world, and that what started off as simply amusing became deeply troubling and thoughtful.  I would say more, but perhaps best to simply read Lem’s thoughts as well as a fragment of the text on the official Lem site.

This was the first story I read by Lem, and I am certainly looking forward to reading more of his work!

A few weeks ago I was at the library and had realized that it had been a very long time since I had read any fiction.  I had been watching the original Star Trek series online though, and since I had been happening to stand in the new Science Fiction section, I picked up a book by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter entitled “Firstborn”.  I had gotten quite into it and took it with me to Utah, where the person I stayed with ended up being quite a Science Fiction fan.  He made some great recommendations and on one of the nights there I had read Ted Chiang‘s “The Story of Your Life” and was hooked. Just fantastic!

Well, after Utah I had finished reading “FirstBorn” (it was just alright in the end for me; I thought the story built up very well but when it came to the big action of the book I thought it was a bit rushed and could have been a little more dramatic; overall an okay read), I went to the library and picked up Ted Chiang’s “Stories of Your Life and Others“, a collection of short stories including “The Story of Your Life”.  Each story was excellent, and I appreciated the many different approaches to writing stories he had taken, as well as the many interesting thoughts and ideas he had explored in his work.  Thoroughly enjoyable and exceptional!

In looking for more information, I found more of Ted Chiang’s works on a free speculative fiction website that also included links to some of his stories that were in the book. 

I’m certainly enjoy reading Science Fiction and I think I will continue to read SF as my primary reading. I checked out a book my Stanislaw Lem from the library Saturday and am looking forward to diving into it next. I am looking forward to exploring Science Fiction further, discovering more stories and authors and enjoying the wonderfully interesting thoughts on life as we do and do not know it.