Ted Chiang: Seventy-two Letters

Title: 72 Letters
Author: Ted Chiang
Original Publication Date: 2000

From a review in Fantasy and Science Fiction:

As he did in his Nebula-winning first published story, "Tower of Babylon," Chiang gives us a world in which the erroneous scientific notions of a past era are instead correct, and he develops the implications in delightfully convincing detail. In "Seventy-Two Letters," cabbalistic magic – the stuff that brought the Golem of Prague to life – combines with medieval biological theory to create an alternate Industrial Revolution and a weird shadow of genetics. Chiang conjures some wonderful images – factories powered by tireless ceramic statues, children playing with mini-golems like wind-up toys – but it's the rigor with which he has worked out the rules of this other science that amazes and amuses most. Next time you hear someone complain that there are no new ideas in SF anymore, hand 'em "Seventy-Two Letters" and a plate of crow.

Chaing won the Sidewise prize for alternative history in 2000 with this story.

Read the story: Seventy-two Letters

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