姜峯楠

From the first time I saw the trailer for Arrival I wanted to see it. Something about that funky looking alien space ship appealed to me . . .

Maybe just because it was different, you know? You get tired of that same old shit. 

But I was so interested that I decided to see if the script was based on a science fiction novel, and a little Googling revealed that it was actually based on a short story entitled "Story of Your Life" by  姜峯楠 / Chiang Feng-nan / Ted Chiang.

ANYway, I just got his book, Stories of Your Life and Others (2002) from the library and will begin reading it as soon as my Fatherly Duties for the Day are concluded. A few surprising things before I get back to those FDftD, though:

1. I said "his book" because so far he only has one book. Which was published fourteen years ago. 

2. And he's been publishing stories for 26 years.

3. He's only published fifteen short stories. I think this puts him in a tie with J. D. Salinger for prolificity.

4. Eight of his stories . . . as in over half of his oeuvre . . . appear in his book. 

5. Ten of his stories are available online. (And there are links on his Wikipedia page if you want to check that out.) 

Here is the table of contents for Stories of Your Life and Others:

1. "Tower of Babylon"

2. "Division by Zero" 

3. "Understand" 

4. "Story of Your Life"

5. "The Evolution of Human Science" (a.k.a. "Catching Crumbs from the Table") 

6. "Seventy-Two Letters" 

7. "Hell Is the Absence of God"

8. "Liking What You See: A Documentary"

And here are the other seven stories         姜峯楠 has published to date:

9. "What's Expected of Us"

10. "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate"

11. "Exhalation"

12. "The Lifecycle of Software Objects"

13. "Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny" in The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities edited by Jeff VanderMeer and Ann VanderMeer

14. "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling"

15. "The Great Silence"

6. I actually own the book The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities. Bought it because it has an Alan Moore story in it.

7. Which means that between the library book, the internet posted stories, and my bookshelf, I have the complete works of  姜峯楠 in my possession.

More news as it happens.