by TED CHIANG
For anyone who has played with companions as a gamer and wondered about cross-pollination of the virtual and the real. Chiang raises many questions: aesthetic, emotional, romantic, ethical. The questions transcend AI issues and are always there just underneath our conscious level of self-awareness.
At 150 pages, Chiang's longest work to date. I, for one, would like to see something even longer. Would have loved to have seen his characters fleshed out with the psychological depth possible in another 150 pages.
