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"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" (Amazon: UK, USA; free eBook)
by Ted Chiang (Wikipedia)
Format: Hardcover, 62 pages
Publisher: Subterranean Press
-by Ted Chiang (Wikipedia)
Format: Hardcover, 62 pages
Publisher: Subterranean Press
I’ve never been much of a fan of short literary forms -- I’ve always favored big sprawling epics -- but this changed in the last couple of months. As the latest trend, novels tend to be overblown, lacking in focus and good editing; but the lesser the page count (novellas, novelettes and especially short stories) the greater the focus, the more profound the idea and the more well-versed the writing has to be to make an impact on the reader. Ted Chiang is a well renowned writer – he won three Nebulas, one Hugo and countless nominations for best short story or novelette of the year, prior to writing The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate (TMatAG) which won him another Nebula Award for Best Novelette (2007) and a Hugo nomination (the recipients of the award will be proclaimed at Worldcon late in the summer). It is beyond question that Ted Chiang writes quality fiction and that TMatAG is another fine effort on his part, but did the novelette suit my peculiar tastes? In short and without exaggeration – yes, it was quite a savory dish.
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Plot Summary (Wikipedia)
---All the while I thought on the truth of Bashaarat's words: past and future are the same, and we cannot change either, only know them more fully. My journey to the past had changed nothing, but what I had learned had changed everything, and I understood that it could not have been otherwise. If our lives are tales that Allah tells, then we are the audience as well as the players, and it is by living these tales that we receive their lessons.
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The story takes place in the milieu of the Near East and this helps tremendously with the creation of sense of wonder and fantastical, since this setting is not nearly as (ab)used, demythologized and banalized as the medieval European setting. The method of storytelling is 'borrowed' from the fabled "One Thousand and One Nights", where a fictional narrator tells individual stories that are interconnected by a frame narrative of the wider setting (where, why, how and to whom is the narrator telling the story). Ted Chiang does this with much skill so that the frame narrative both contextualizes and enriches the individual tales told by the Merchant as well as the Alchemist. The stories themselves caution, explain and teach prudence to those who would pass through the Alchemist’s Gate and go forwards or backwards in time to with intention to intervene.
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Chiang’s writing is clear and lucid - almost to the point of being pedagogic, but I rather think that the words in TMatAG are only meant to advise caution, wisdom and (self)reflection.
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The book is obviously not focused on characterization, but on plot - the story meanders towards the conclusion of the protagonist’s own story and to his final words of what he has learned (or at least thought he did). And while there are no hardboiled action scenes the story still turns out eventful and rich with ethos of the world it is set in. I admit that I was a bit unhappy with the Merchant’s own story (it somehow felt lackluster compared to the stories told by the Alchemist), but the last few paragraphs that caption his experience in a candid and heartfelt manner manage to dispel the drag of the last few pages.
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(3,5 out of five Evil Fruitcakes...for the uninitiated)
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Some of the other reviews are available at Strange Horizons, SF Site, Neth Space and Adventure's in Reading.
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~ Thrinidir ~
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-Plot Summary (Wikipedia)
---All the while I thought on the truth of Bashaarat's words: past and future are the same, and we cannot change either, only know them more fully. My journey to the past had changed nothing, but what I had learned had changed everything, and I understood that it could not have been otherwise. If our lives are tales that Allah tells, then we are the audience as well as the players, and it is by living these tales that we receive their lessons.
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~~~
-The story takes place in the milieu of the Near East and this helps tremendously with the creation of sense of wonder and fantastical, since this setting is not nearly as (ab)used, demythologized and banalized as the medieval European setting. The method of storytelling is 'borrowed' from the fabled "One Thousand and One Nights", where a fictional narrator tells individual stories that are interconnected by a frame narrative of the wider setting (where, why, how and to whom is the narrator telling the story). Ted Chiang does this with much skill so that the frame narrative both contextualizes and enriches the individual tales told by the Merchant as well as the Alchemist. The stories themselves caution, explain and teach prudence to those who would pass through the Alchemist’s Gate and go forwards or backwards in time to with intention to intervene.
-
Chiang’s writing is clear and lucid - almost to the point of being pedagogic, but I rather think that the words in TMatAG are only meant to advise caution, wisdom and (self)reflection.
-
The book is obviously not focused on characterization, but on plot - the story meanders towards the conclusion of the protagonist’s own story and to his final words of what he has learned (or at least thought he did). And while there are no hardboiled action scenes the story still turns out eventful and rich with ethos of the world it is set in. I admit that I was a bit unhappy with the Merchant’s own story (it somehow felt lackluster compared to the stories told by the Alchemist), but the last few paragraphs that caption his experience in a candid and heartfelt manner manage to dispel the drag of the last few pages.
---"All the while I thought on the truth of Bashaarat's words: past and future are the same, and we cannot change either, only know them more fully. My journey to the past had changed nothing, but what I had learned had changed everything, and I understood that it could not have been otherwise. If our lives are tales that Allah tells, then we are the audience as well as the players, and it is by living these tales that we receive their lessons."---(pg.62)The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate is available (also) for free at Free Speculative Fiction Online with some of his other works. This is a truly evoking and virtuous story that I would gladly read to my children, if I had any.
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(3,5 out of five Evil Fruitcakes...for the uninitiated)
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Some of the other reviews are available at Strange Horizons, SF Site, Neth Space and Adventure's in Reading.
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~ Thrinidir ~
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