This is a collection of short stories. Some of them really stuck with me, some of them dragged on far too long and I wouldn’t have kept listening had I not been on an airplane. I enjoyed the author commentary after each story.
Two stories really stuck with me. The first, Exhalation, is about some robots who begin to learn who exactly they are and how their universe was created, due to the fact that time seems to be slowing for them, and they can’t figure out why. It brought up ideas of existentialism, the search for meaning, and the watchmakers theory for creation rather than evolution. This was a relatively short story, and it was told from a robot physician’s point of view.
The second one, Omphalos, is about an Earth that was actually created about 8500 years ago by “The Lord,” and an archaeologist who has to grapple with her own existential threat brought about by an astronomical observation that shakes religion to the core. While I don’t give any credence to the theory that the world was created 8500 years ago, this story is really interesting in describing what it would be like if it had been. Tree ring dating has been used to age the world, and 8500 years ago, the trees have solid cores, with no interior growth rings–these were the trees created by god. Similarly, mummies from South America have been found with no navels. it is an interesting thought experiment taken to completion.
Several other stories were good in this collection but these were the two that resonated the most with me. Since some stories were 5 star and some were 2-3 star, I’m giving this collection 4 stars.
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