Chiang's stories walk a thin line between fiction and thought experiment. As prompters for speculation about free will, consciousness, the multiverse etc. they're excellent. I especially liked the title story, set in a pneumatically-powered universe where the equalization of air pressure is a metaphor for entropy in ours, and featuring an extended scene of self-conducted brain dissection. What this story has in common with Chiang's best is that it sticks the emotional landing: The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate, a time-traveling Arabian Nights-style frame story does this too, and is impossibly clever to boot.

I was less taken with the Hugo-winning novella The Lifecycle of Software Objects, which relates the ups and downs of a group of (mostly) VR-dwelling self-learning AI's, designed and marketed as virtual pets, and their human owners in loco parentis. Unfortunately the "digients" never get past toddler-speak, so the dialogue is somewhat infuriating, although it has its moments, like when they get upset because their owners won't legally incorporate them:

"People say being corporation great," says Marco. "Can do whatever want."
A number of human adolescents have complained that Voyl has more rights than they do; obviously the digients have seen their comments. "Well, you're not incorporated, and you definitely cannot do anything you want."
"We sorry," says Marco, suddenly appreciating the trouble he's in. "Just want be corporations."

A wry moment in a too-long tale. But I can't really fault Chiang for writing brain-twizzling conceptual science fiction tales; God knows the general direction of the genre seems to favour the waving of hands and the baring of souls. Three or four of these — shout-out to closer Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom — reach the empyrean heights of Story of Your Life, and you can't ask for more than that.

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Exhalation (2019)

Exhalation (2019)