Eclipse 2: New Science Fiction and Fantasy by Jonathan Strahan

Eclipse 2: New Science Fiction and Fantasy Reviews

• 
  Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽

  Review for the Hugo award-winning “Exhalation” by Ted Chiang, first posted on
  Fantasy Literature:
  
  An alien scientist describes the life of its people, who are robots that depend on regular refills of the gas argon for their brains to function. They swap out “lungs,” aluminum cylinders filled with this gas, at filling stations, which are community centers for their race. At a filling station, the scientist hears rumors that clocks in several different districts are running too fast, although horologists cannot find any defect in the clocks. The scientist, a student of anatomy, theorizes that it is in fact the brains of this race of people that are running slower, rather than the clocks running faster. The scientist embarks on a daring, risky experiment on its own brain to determine whether its hypothesis is correct.
  
  The results of this experiment, and the knowledge it brings to the scientist and others, bring bitterness and a sense of futility to many, but the scientist also has hope. Its reflections on the marvelous variety of life, and how other races in the universe might discover the scientist’s people and their fate in some distant future, imbue this story with a sense of wonder and make the ideas and concerns of this mechanical being, who is a thinking, feeling person, both universal and personal to us as readers and human beings.
  
  This 2008 short story is free to read online at
  Lightspeed Magazine.
• 
  Joshua Nomen-Mutatio

  Inventive, cerebral piece about the mechanics of Being. A philosophical-sci-fi-lit-fic mash-up. Art and science collide in a rough and tender embrace, and change each others disposal sets of lungs out with a sense of communal connection. Chiang faces the impending void of the universe with a skip in his step and in his heartbeat, wresting awe and meaning from it all before the great collapse.
  
• 
  Alina

  This review is only for Exhalation by TED CHIANG.
  
  An exquisite meditation and rejoicing upon existence itself. It came perfectly after recently I've done exactly that!
  
  For a second there, it made me think of
  Smoking Ears and Screaming Teeth: A Celebration of Scientific Eccentricity and Self-Experimentation:
  "I could not ask anyone else to risk themselves for the sake of anatomical inquiry, and because I wished to conduct the dissection myself, I would not be satisfied by merely being the passive subject of such an operation. Auto-dissection was the only option."
• 
  Claudia

  Exhalation
  by TED CHIANG
  
  An exquisite philosophical introspection of the surrounding universe, meaning of life and what makes us who we are. High-class tech sci-fi; if you loved
  Stories of Your Life and Others, you'll love this one too.
  
  Can be read here:
  http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...
• 
  Jamie

  Exhalation by Ted Chiang. Such a strange tale, told from what I think is the perspective of some type of robotic scientist in another universe searching to uncover the mysteries of what makes his kind tick, and in doing so probing into the mysteries of the birth and death of the universe and the beauty and purpose of life. Short and highly recommended! Free audio available on
  Escape Pod.
• 
  Stephen

  4.5 stars. Excellent short story. Beautifully written and original, this story shows the power and importance of the Science Ficiton short story. Winner: Hugo Award for Best Short Story (2009).
• 
  Aloke

  Not sure how this ended up in my read list, I don't recall reading it BUT it does have a great story by Ted Chiang in it which can also be read online at:
  
  http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic...
• 
  Fangfang

  When breath becomes air...
• 
  Tim Pendry

  
  A remarkable story although it requires a willingness to think rather than feel. it postulates an entire alternate universe where the inhabitants show the same curiosity as we do about our universe and come to their own bleak existential view about its ultimate meaning.
  
  It is, in short, a parable about the human condition and the pursuit of science. The alien scientist is presented as no different from us in that pursuit even if he is very different from us in his own physical make-up. A highly intellectual piece that makes no concessions to the reader.
• 
  Avi Singh

  4.5 stars
• 
  Peter Tillman

  As with all anthologies, I liked some stories more than others. The best were really good.
  Highlights:
  
  * The Big Hit: “Exhalation” • short story by Ted Chiang. Winner: 2009 Hugo, 2008 BSFA. Intricate story of self-exploration by a sentient robot(?). Not reread this time, not one of my favorites of his. 3.5 stars. Here’s a free reprint:
  
  http://www.nightshadebooks.com/Downlo...
  
  * The Hero • novelette by Karl Schroeder. Capital bugs! Reprint, Dozois #26, 2009, read there first (and second). Part of his “Virga” series. 4 stars
  
  * Turing's Apples • short story by Stephen Baxter. Messages from the alien Eaglets cause problems. A variant of the “Contact” scenario. Reprinted in Dozois #27, read there first. 3.5 stars
  
  * Invisible Empire of Ascending Light • (2008) • short story by Ken Scholes. A Galactic religious empire trembles on the edge of civil war. Huh. I liked it, mostly. 3.5 stars?
  
  The also-rans & the duds:
  
  * The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm • (2008) • novelette by Daryl Gregory. Read first in the Dozois #26. Giant slaybot, superhero wars. Eh, 2.5 stars
  
  * Elevator • (2008) • short story by Nancy Kress. 7 people stuck in a hospital elevator. Bounced off this one. Not for me!
  
  * Michael Laurits Is: DROWNING • (2008) • short story by Paul Cornell. Facebook-like stuff. Bounced.
  
  * Ex Cathedra • novelette by Tony Daniel. Liked the infinite desk! Otherwise, couldn’t make heads or tails of this one. Hell with it.
  
  * Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom • novelette by David Moles. Gaming story, goes on & on & on. Skimmed. Has moments, but not for me.
  
  Go-to reviews are by Lightreads and Hirondelle, nearby. As always with anthologies, your mileage will vary!
• 
  Ninja

  A little patchy at times, but some really good stuff. Heavily biased on the sci-fi side, but the 3 or so fantasy stories were all really strong. Best story was by Chiang.
• 
  Joseph Knecht

  This was the first story I read by Ted Chiang and I got shivers toward the end of the story. The narrative is simple and metaphorical. In an alternative universe there exist other beings which brains work based on air pressure. Like us, they are also curious and discover that the nature of their universe tends toward equilibrium and that their own existence tends to bring about that equilibrium. What mindset should those beings adopt? Should they be hopeful, afraid, grateful? Should some beings try to transcend their being through their art, poetry, and writings?
• 
  DebbieB

  Excellent. Each story contains an amazing thought experiment.
• 
  Lucas

  Read only Exhalation • (2008) • by Ted Chiang
• 
  Noah M.

  I've read about half of the stories in this anthology, so unless the other half are absolute shit I feel comfortable in rating it.
  
  Ted Chiang, Alastair Reynolds, and Stephen Baxter all have wonderful, interesting stories in there. Especially the Ted Chiang story "Exhalation." God that was amazing.
• 
  Hirondelle

  Of course I bought it for the Chiang story and read it first. And it´s sublime, as usual, just perfect. Though I am pretty sure I am missing theories about what universe it really describes (chromium sphere?).
  
  Of the rest I am trying to read by order:
  
  The Hero by Karl Schroeder - me shallow but did not get into at the first pages and quit.
  
  Turing´s Apples by Stephen Baxter - oh dear, the future it describes looks more like what the 20th century expected the 21st to look like. Pop singles being top of the charts, no, the world no longer goes like that much less 2020 something. It felt very Clarkian but without the hope.
  
  Invisible Empire of Ascending Light by Ken Scholes - I liked it so much, am going to look for his novels now. Sort of vaguely Gene Wolfe-like, this big sense of galactic empires and subtle politics.
  
  Michael Laurits is: Drowned by Paul Cornell - at least this feels like a future which fits out future, which I can see sort of happening.
  
  Night of the Firstlings by Margo Lanagan - ah clever and well written, *that* story then. Liked it, though was not awed by it.
  
  Elevator by Nancy Kress - a Twilight Zone-ish story of people stuck in a hospital elevator. Meh.
  
  The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm by Daryl Gregory - a take on superhero wars from the PoV of the populace in the supervillain country. Drama rather than humour, and very good.
  
  Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by David Moles - a virtual gaming social-political story. Interesting but my evaluation is biased, because the later-written (but which I personally read earlier)
  The Lifecycle of Software Objects reminds me of some of these ideas but is IMO much better written and more dramatic.
  
  The Rabbi's Hobby by Peter Beagle - charming, a jewish-american supernatural tale set in the 1950s with a touch of child detective genius. Beautifully written, I loved the characters, I will recommend the story, but I do see some might think it a bit pointless...
  
  The Seventh Expression of the Robot General by Jeffrey Ford - a satirical take on a sf-ish military robot. Very Sladek. Liked it.
  
  Skin Deep by Richard Parks - a fantasy one, a take on witches and free choice. I did not like it much.
  
  Ex Cathedra by Tony Daniel - a very ambitious story indeed. Ambitious on plot ( destiny of the universe, or at least humanity´s destiny) and technique which is rather non-linear telling. It worked for me and I liked it.
  
  Truth Window: A Tale of the Bedlam Rose by Terry Dowling - I don´t know if the author wrote more set in this universe but it felt to me this was a short story written in a much too complex universe and setting for a short story. Or at least with too much *stuff* as background. It even had an introduction. And I did not like it much.
  
  Fury by Alastair Reynolds - an asimovian short story with galactic emperors, a setting I was predisposed to enjoy. But the story feels rather empty, a lot of tell and little show, and very little human interest.
• 
  Liviu

  
  Just a great collection and all that Eclipse 1 promised but did not quite deliver for me - Eclipse 1 had good tales but they ran towards slipstream and fantasy and there it's hit or miss.
  
  Eclipse 2 is solidly sf and has brilliant masterpiece stories from Tony Daniel, Ted Chiang, superb stories from A. Reynolds and David Moles and great stories from S. Baxter, J. Ford, K. Scholes, T. Dowling and P. Cornell with the rest not that interesting for me, but the stories that connected did so big time (9 out 15 total, but with one unread since I do not follow the Virga universe and one unread since I bought the e-Webscription version and the Lanagan story is not included for rights reasons - in fact neither is the Chiang but that is availble free online)
• 
  Charles Loelius

  Until I read this I thought that Hell is the Absence of God was the greatest science fiction story not only by Chiang, but in general. As you might have guessed by now, I was very wrong.
  
  The only thing I can say about this story is that it is beautiful, elegant, sparse in just the right way. This is so far, in my mind, the pinnacle of all of Chiang's works, asking the big questions in just the right way. What the story is, a meditation on existance, an exploration of another world, one vast metaphor, I cannot say. It is all these things and more. The character, for there is only one, is perhaps his greatest yet, as much prop as person and yet so much more.
  
  This is a story that defies all catagories and surpasses all of them. It is my predicition that this will be this years Hugo winner.
• 
  kvon

  He starts with positing a mechanical life form, and ends up with entropy, death, and the joy of life. No backstory, only futurestory.
• 
  Lightreads

  Stories Jonathan Strahan likes round two: more scifi, fewer women. I picked through this over several months, so random impressions from stories actually interesting enough to remember:
  
  Ted Chiang, "Exhalation": The reason I picked up the collection, and totally worth it. Classic Chiang, if a bit didactic in that way he can pull off. I won't bother trying to describe it, because it's
  available here and you should all go read it.
  
  Stephen Baxter, "Turing's Apples." Classic Baxter: interesting Big Idea, terrible character work, that perpetual feeling that the sentence after next is going to really annoy me.
  
  Peter S. Beagle, "The Rabbi's Hobby." I think I'm missing the Beagle gene or something. I can look at this ghost story and think about all the good atmosphere and character work, and yet? Meh. Nothing happens.
  
  Paul Cornell, "Michael Lorits is: Drowning." Not really a story, about the future of social networking. Well-executed and entertaining.
  
  Tony Daniel, "Ex Cathedra." Swear to God, I can't tell if this story about the end of the universe is great or utter nonsense. I think it's great.
  
  Terry Dowling, "Truth Window: A Tale of the Bedlam Rose." Maybe this would have been interesting if I knew the surrounding universe? *shrug*
  
  Nancy Kress, "Elevator." People in a hospital locked in an elevator, with one of the worst and most idiotic disability clichés front and center. Yuck.
  
  Alastair Reynolds, "Fury." Strangely disappointing and obvious story about robot brothers and a galactic empire. I expect better from him.
  
  Ken Scholes, "Invisible Empire of Ascending Light." A premise that really grabbed me, and an execution that was almost there. Cool politics, cooler world-building that I won't spoil. It made me want to read his fantasy novels.
  
• 
  Chris March

  A story by a favorite sci-fi author of mine. I found the beginning slow, but I was glad I kept going, since he explores a unique perspective, and interesting concepts.
  Read it here:
  http://www.nightshadebooks.com/Downlo...
• 
  Shaun

  Shared here:
  http://1dl.us/9D
• 
  Titus L

  quirky and bit grotesque steampunk for i robot......
• 
  Suhrob

  Mechanical beings face an aerostatic version of the heat death of the Universe... can they find life transcending solace?
  
  Beautiful and intelligent...
  
  Read here:
  
  
  http://www.nightshadebooks.com/Downlo...
  
  Listen here:
  
  
  http://escapepod.org/2009/04/10/ep194...