"Stories of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang

Publisher: Vintage Books

Copyright: 2002

ISBN: 9781101972120

My primary reason for picking up this book of short stories was after seeing the 2017 movie "Arrival" by director Denis Villeneuve, which was based on the short story "Story of Your Life", and which follows the plot fairly well. Yes, I realize I am totally destroying my record of slamming Hollywood, but in this case they did a good job. Prior to this I hadn't read anything by Mr. Chiang at all, much to my dismay.

This book is a collection of eight short stories: the Tower of Babylon, Understand, Division by Zero, Story of Your Life, Seventy-two Letters, The Evolution of Human Science, Hell is the Absence of God, and finally Liking What You See: A Documentary".

All of the stories are very well written and quite thought-provoking. Of the eight stories though the first four are definitely my favorites. I'm not sure if I can say why they are my favourites, but I think it's possibly due to the fact that the characters and the storyline are very well developed and quite interesting.

Mr. Chiang has written the second book entitled "Exhalation", which I'll definitely be looking to get my hands on to read in the near future.

Definitely recommend it.

"The Green Hills of Earth" by Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988)

Publisher: Signet
Copyright: 1950

The Green Hills of Earth Is Robett Heinlein's third collection of short stories that form the backbone of his Future History. This volume includes the classics "Delilah and the Space-Rigger", "Space Jockey", "The Long Watch", "Gentlemen, Bd Seated", "The Black Pits of Luna", "It's Great to be Back", "-We Also Walk Dogs", "Ordeal in Space", "The Green Hills of Earth", and "Logic of Empire".

As in the other two volumes readers will meet relatively important characters that appear in Heinlein's later works primarily his novels. It is my opinion though, that at least one of the stories in this book should have been included in the first volume, and that is "Logic of Empire" which mentions the character Nehemiah Scudder, who later becomes the First Prophet. The actual story of Scudder was never written by Mr. Heinlein, because (as he explained in the second book) he began to hate the character so much that he decided to never write it. In any case the story of Scudder is what leads to stories such as "Revolt in 2100", "Coventry" and a few others.

Being a dedicated fan of Mr. Heinlein I highly recommend these books, as they do form the basis of his universe and you will understand where he's coming from (and where you are headed) a lot better if you have read them.

"The Man Who Sold the Moon" by Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988)

Publisher: Signet
Copyright: 1950

The man who sold the moon is the first of the three volume collection of short stories by Robert Heinlein that begins his future history series (I reviewed the second "Revolt in 2100" a couple of weeks ago). This volume includes the stories "Let There Be Light", "The Roads Must Roll", "The Man Who Sold the Moon", "Requiem ", "Life-line ", and "Blowups Happen".

All of these stories are set in what is now our recent past, but as they were written in the early 1950s a possible future as far as the author was concerned.

The stories themselves deal with topics such as power generation / renewable energy, the first spaceship to the moon, the dangers of nuclear energy, and mortality - quite a mix.

It is interesting to note that "Life-line" was the first story Robert A. Heinlein sold, and which was published in the August1939 edition of Astounding, which was then edited by John W. Campbell Jr. who is responsible for discovering many of what are now considered to be the classic science fiction authors.