The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate (2007) by Ted Chiang

Ted Chiang 睽違四年多重出江湖的 novelette 級作品，貴死人不償命的 Subterranean Press 拿來出單行本。

這是一個時光旅行的故事，透過商人之口向哈里發報告某煉金術士時空門的神奇。在時光旅行的部分並沒有過於特出的新觀念，以下的引言可以貫串全篇所包含的四個故事：

...... past and future are the same, and we cannot change either, only know them more fully. My journey to the past had changed nothing, but what I had learned had changed everything, and I understood that it could not have been otherwise. If our lives are tales that Allah tells, then we are the audience as well as the players, and it is by living these tales that we receive their lessons. (pp. 58-59)

因此：

Nothing erases the past. There is repentance. There is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough. (p. 60)

整個故事讀起來更像是道德劇。而遞迴式的轉述則令人想起《一千零一夜》，是本篇的主要賣點。

故事不算差，甚至叫好也不為過。不過以 Ted Chiang 以往的水準而言，只能算差強人意。不想花大＄的讀者可以弄一本 F&SF 的 2007 年九月號 來看。


閱讀版本：
Ted Chiang, The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate (Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2007)

網上評論：
http://www.sfsite.com/08b/ma254.htm by Steven H. Silver
http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2007/07/the_merchant_an.shtml by William Mingin