From the author of Exhalation, an award-winning short story collection that blends “absorbing storytelling with meditations on the universe, being, time and space … raises questions about the nature of reality and what it is to be human” (The New York Times).Stories of Your Life and Others delivers dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar, often presenting … heartbreakingly familiar, often presenting characters who must confront sudden change—the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens—with some sense of normalcy. With sharp intelligence and humor, Chiang examines what it means to be alive in a world marked by uncertainty, but also by beauty and wonder. An award-winning collection from one of today’s most lauded writers, Stories of Your Life and Others is a contemporary classic.
Includes “Story of Your Life”—the basis for the major motion picture Arrival
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I didn’t know about Ted Chiang before watching Arrival. The movie turned out to be pretty amazing so I told myself I should read Story of Your Life. Then I found out about the collection of short stories and opted to buy it instead.
I have no words to describe how good Ted’s writing feels. Story of Your Life was a treat, and so were the other short stories. He writes with so much depth and emotion.
Only the second book I’ve not been able to finish. I can’t stay awake. It’s a textbook disguised as a collection of stories. No humour. No character development. No heart.
Interesting ideas written by someone that fails to capture my imagination.
I enjoyed Babylon, but everything else felt pretentious.
Sorry. Highly rated, but for reasons I don’t understand.
Interesting stories — some more than others.
The Stories of Your Life was a strong short story in this book. The movie Arrival tells the story in a more compelling way. The other stories in this book were interesting.
Ted Chiang asks brilliant questions, of this there is no doubt.
What if someone developed an undeniable proof that demonstrated that mathematics is unreliable? That everything we thought about geometry and physics was built on an inconsistent structure? What would that do to a brilliant, mathematical mind?
What if science developed the ability to create ‘beauty blindness’? What if society were given the ability to turn on and off the ability to perceive physical attractiveness in others?
What if the Tower of Babylon was real? What would it be like to make the ascent? And what would mankind find when they reached the vault of heaven?
What if a pharmaceutical treatment expanded intelligence to the maximum limit of the brain? What if it allowed full self-awareness, true enlightenment?
What if evidence of Heaven and angels were regularly physically manifested on Earth? What if the existence of God was undeniable?
I find this review maddening. Once again, I’m find myself up against the inadequacy of my own ability to control my expectations. This collection of short stories is full of Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. Reviews on the cover and inside of the book include phrases such as, “most anticipated short story collection of it’s generation”, “best and smartest writers working today”, and “explode into your awareness with shocking, devastating force.” So, forgive me if I went into this one with the highest of expectations. In some ways, the collection succeeds, but overall, I couldn’t help but be disappointed.
Again, Chiang’s ability to ask massive, thought provoking questions is clear-cut. His intelligence shines through his story, despite his unpretentious, straightforward prose. He discusses mathematics, linguistics, and physics with an ease that only one with a robust grasp can achieve. I adored some of the stories. “Liking What You See: A Documentary” is a fascinating exploration of human’s bias of beauty. The documentary format allows Chiang to explore it from every angle, like examining an idea through the many facets of a diamond. “Story of Your Life” is a brilliant tale of a language expert attempting to understand and translate alien communication. The aliens have an astonishingly different perception of reality that impacts the main character in profound ways. The story is also interspersed with a very tender and human backstory (sort of) of the main character. So, without my absurd expectations, these two stories alone might have carried the collection. However, the rest of the stories honestly disappointed me.
While I believe a great writer asks more questions than they answer, I think it’s not enough to ask the big questions. I want an exceptional story to also provide some insights, whether they are explicit or implicit. “Tower of Babylon”” and “Hell is the Absence of God” dances around the implication of a verifiable God, but never really reach a conclusion. I found the ending of “Hell is the Absence of God” to be cold and disappointing (maybe that’s the point?). With “Seventy-Two Letters,” I kept waiting for a punchline that never came. “The Evolution of Human Sciences” read more to me like the author’s notes of a story, waiting to be written. “Understand” was smartly written, but I felt the ending was telegraphed and anti-climactic.
In summary, an excellent collection of short speculative fiction stories that I found to be intriguing but in total did not live up to my (somewhat irrational) expectations of the perfect collection.
I bought this collection of short stories because I loved the movie “Arrival,” and I found out it was based on a short story by Ted Chiang.
I really do like science fiction, but generally I watch movies or tv shows more than read in the genre. A linguist myself (I know Spanish & Russian), the movie “Arrival” was one of my favorite sci fi movies of all time. I loved the way they revealed the language and what it did to the main character once she became proficient. The short story is not quite the same story…at least, not to me.
The movie focused more on the characters–the relationships and the timeline idea. Yes, there was an explanation of language, but the main focus in the end was the perception of time and what is meaningful in life, no matter the sad or bad things that happen during that life.
The short story, by comparison, focused heavily on the language aspect and in a very high-brow, esoteric way. I have to say, I felt a little dumb reading the short story, as the explanations went over my head or were so heavy-handed that I skimmed. I wanted the characters and the relationships…and that was absent (at least for my taste). Maybe this is why I don’t read a lot of science fiction?
However, after reading that one short story, I wanted to read more. Who buys a book and only reads ONE short story, right?
Some stories were more approachable and readable than others. My two favorites were:
*Tower of Babylon
*Understand
“Tower of Babylon” won the Nebula Award. This was a most unusual science fiction tale, as it seemed very biblical in nature. It took the story of the Tower of Babel and turned it into a tale about those who built the tower. It was a very good read and had some fantastical elements I loved as the builders tried to reach ‘the vault of heaven.’ Great ending too.
“Understand” reminded me of the movie ‘Limitless’ where Bradley Cooper takes a drug that makes him super smart. The same is true here…a man who almost dies from drowning and has severe brain damage is given a miracle drug that heals him with unexpected consequences. At times, the intellectual battles going on were a bit hard to understand, but overall a satisfying read.
Some of the other short stories, I will admit, went way over my head. Ted Chiang is a very intelligent, educated man with a background in Computer Science…and it shows. Many of his stories revolve around math concepts and things that go well beyond my high school math experience (I was an English major and avoided math like the Dickens in college), so I was struggling many times to comprehend what he was trying to get across.
I gave this four stars because I do believe for someone who is a lover of science fiction that is very ‘science’ and math heavy it would be an enjoyable read. I think everyone who liked the movie “Arrival” should at least try reading that one story (The Story of Your Life) and get an understanding of how brilliant was the scriptwriter who turned that into a film. Worth your time.
But for me, I was left feeling quite dumb when some of the details were beyond my life knowledge. I knew there was more being said here, but couldn’t stay focused to take it in…a lot of my brain was used in just trying to get through each story! LOL.
I think I’m a pretty intelligent person, but these stories are for a different kind of intelligence than mine. Bravo to Ted Chiang for not talking down to his audience. Guess I should probably stick to more character-drive science fiction!
Smart smart stories. Clear and purposeful prose.
It simply doesn’t get much better than this.
Each story pulls at you in a different way. You’ll be emotionally engaged and driven to turn the page.
Each story is unique and amazing.
A very original collection of sci-fi short stories, including the title story on which the movie Arrival is based.
The short stories are excellently executed, and the mystical bits were well researched. Probably the best collection of short stories that I’ve read since Asimov
Extremely intelligent deeply philosophical mind enriching and definitely top page turner – real talent!
This book touches on everything: faith and religion, politics, modern society, and, my favorite, language. As a translator, I’m a bit too obsessed with how language shapes the way we experience the world, which is exactly what Ted shows in the short that titled this book. Add to that a discussion of the way we experience time and I have probably my favorite story of all time! Which is now also my favorite movie of all time (Arrival) and the reason why I wanted to pick up this book in the first place.
Wow! I was going to kick off this review by musing, ‘So this is what today’s science-fiction looks like…?’ Except that I see the stories were all first published between 1990 and 2001! Still, they felt new, and somewhat different from the SF I read in my teens, while still being recognisable. (I wonder if it is telling that I enjoyed the earlier stories more than the later ones…? But that may not mean anything.)
Anyway! I found my way here because I loved the film ‘Arrival’, and wanted to read the story on which it was based.
These stories are very precise, and cleanly written, which I appreciated. Even when there is good strong emotion, as with ‘Story of Your Life’ (which became ‘Arrival’), it is told calmly. A lucid look into real depths. I loved that.
All the stories have a central ‘What if?’ notion on which Chiang speculates in detail. I thought the second story, ‘Understand’, was the most compelling – and it would make a great film, too, if only all the action didn’t take place internally!
While I didn’t enjoy ‘Seventy-Two Letters’ so much, I really did love the setting – which was kind of Victorian-era steampunk, except that instead of an explicit or implied Christian culture, the dominant religious and cultural references were Jewish. And one of the two ‘weird sciences’ was nomenclature, or the Word that gives life to a thing. A brilliant setting and scenario! Which must be known as golempunk.
A fascinating read indeed!