The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate by Ted Chiang

, ISBN-13 I couldnt help but wonder whether women in medieval Baghdad could really move around so freely without a chaperone, but enjoyed the tale within a tale within a tale structure. Now, he stands in attendance before the caliph without a single dirham in my purse, but with a strange and winding story to tell. Our narrator, Fuwaad ibn Abbas, informs us that he was born here in Baghdad, City of Peace, and that he has spent his life as a purveyor of fine fabricssilk from Damascus and linen from Egypt and scarves from Morocco that are embroidered with gold. The Merchant and the Alchemists Gate, the first story in Ted Chiangs luminous new collection Exhalation, opens with a benediction: O mighty caliph and commander of the faithful, I am humbled to be in the splendor of your presence. A Baghdad merchant discovers an alchemical device that can send a traveler back in time 20 years. The story that he recounts to the Caliph begins with a walk through the market, where he notices that one of the largest shops in the market had been taken over by a new merchant. Each page of Exhalation bursts with color, with heart, with probing curiosity about faith, parenthood, free will, and their place in the universe. Episode 89: The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate - YouTube 'Grief burns but does not consume.' A grieving merchant stumbles into the shop of an Alchemist, who shows him a device that. An additional star for the enriching discussions Another excellent story by Ted Chiang actually, it's three stories, set in a framing device. My thanks to Kevin Ansbro for the enlightening, delightful find! The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate by Ted Chiang, July 23, 2007, Subterranean Press edition, Hardcover in English. fact that he comes across as a good person. Renews MaEventually, interconnections between the four storiessurface, and they boggle the mind, more so, perhaps, than anyof the tales of similareffect in Chiang's dazzling Stories of Your Life and Others (2002). It's very difficult to examine complex abstractions and, Hugo- and Nebula-winner Chiangs standout second collection (after 2002s Stories of Your Life and Others) explores the effects that technology and knowledge have on consciousness, free.