'Hell is the absence of God' by Ted Chiang

::: spoiler Spoiler Well this story was a brain fuck. I really liked the setting of how the world would look if the existence of God wasn't baseless speculation, but undeniable fact. Suddenly, religious fanatics aren't cuckoos but just plain make sense.

And then, boom. Protagonist gets brainwashed and banished to a life of pain. And no real reason is given. The sheer arbitrariness of it brings to mind the nonsense strictures of existing religion, along with the willingness of its adherents to accept and explain away anything.

Just... Damn. :::

Exhalation by Ted Chiang

This was an interesting read.

::: spoiler Spoiler

Although in the first half I was expecting actual humans to show up at some point. The analogy to entropy is obvious, but the author manages to shrink the unimaginable timescales of our universe's heat death down into something that we can feel and empathise with. :::

Story can be found at: Family Business

Kicking this off with one of my favourite authors, Adrian Tchaikovsky. For all the hype about Sanderson's writing speed, not many people know Tchaikovsky is neck to neck with him in the output department.

I liked the worldbuilding in this one, lots of hints about the lore dropped left and right, while keeping a fast pace. Ironically considering my intro above, it reminds me a lot of Sanderson's Cosmere and the bunch of misfit vagrants travelling through it. I suppose it's a pretty common trope in epic fantasy. The ending does leave something to be desired, it reads more like a prologue than a standalone story.

(This was reposted because the first post didn't federate well due to new community issues)

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