When I read How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (HTLSiaSFU) about two years ago, after finding a proof for sale at Portland, OR’s Powell’s City of Books, I was utterly stunned. The unlikely amalgamation of pseudo-scientific and magical realism ideas Charles Yu explored in that multi-layered novel were intoxicating to my cognitive-science-and-linguistics-obsessed mind, musings on the nature of fiction deftly worked together in a loftily intelligent literary achievement.

While you can tell when reading Sorry Please Thanks You that its stories come from the same uniquely nerdy and heartrending approach to literature, especially in “Standard Loneliness Package” and “Open”, overall this collection doesn’t pack the kind of intellectual and emotional punches HTLSiaSFU did. Charles Yu again explores compelling, nerdy ideas in fresh ways, and while the worlds of these stories are unlike most you’ll find in today’s fiction, they often didn’t resonate with me as cerebrally as I hoped they would.