Exhalation

Several great short stories, though the longest one in the book is not as successful. Chiang keeps the spirit of his previous book 'Stories of your life', with short narratives that investigate deep philosophical questions in a creative and engaging way, without being artificial. I found the earlier book to be brilliant cover-to-cover, while this one is more uneven.

Every story is a thought experiment—like the best episodes of Twilight Zone. I was completely absorbed. I still talk about stories in this collection. "The Great Silence," the story from the perspective of a (critically endangered) Puerto Rican parrot, left me choked up. "Omphalos," a pseudo-epistolary story from a timeline where creationism is real and science and religion are closely intertwined. I'm still telling people about those about 4 months after reading them.

I don't usually read short stories but this one was recommended to me. Maybe I had too high expectations? Anyway, I enjoyed the first stories "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate", "Exhalation" and the "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" and "Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny". But I had a hard time engaging with all the other stories. I didn't find the ideas that interesting and for the most part, I didn't care at all about the characters/narrator of the story. Most of the stories were disturbingly weird to me. I was a little bit disappointed overall.

Many of the stories are glaringly built around a fixed idea so that the notes at the end are redundant—or are more interesting than the stories themselves. The surrounding texts are more filler than breathing worlds. "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate", "The Lifecycle of Software Objects", and "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom" are the most organic.

I kind of inhaled this, so I think that requires 5 stars. I’m trying to be more generous with 5 stars.

A lot of these stories really got me thinking. I enjoyed them, and will probably check out more stuff by Chiang.

Some really solid speculative fiction. The good stories are really good (Omphalos, Exhalation, Software Objects, Anxiety), and the collection as a whole was great.

Some really solid speculative fiction. The good stories are really good (Omphalos, Exhalation, Software Objects, Anxiety), and the collection as a whole was great.

My kind of sci-fi. Chiang transcends the engineering approach to life typical of much science fiction. He creates believable cultures that aren't superficial tweaks but shows a deep understanding of what life is about.

Confession time: I am in love with Ted Chiang. Deeply. I fell hard in 2003 with his story “Liking What You See: A Documentary.” Today, having finished “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” and “Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom,” I’m head over heels. What a beautiful mind. The stories in this collection all dance around the nature of consciousness; of personality, decisionmaking, determinism. Communication, empathy, freedom, culture, storytelling, adapting to change. Everything we think about what makes us human, he takes in interesting directions. All told with grace, empathy, humility, compassion and gentle humor. All of them, every one, making me stop reading afterward to reflect.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, read these. You’ll grow.

You be good. I love you.

The author is a well-known short-fiction and technical writer with an unusually simple and lucid style at the sentence level. In that regard, he reminds me of Kazuo Ishiguro. This book is a collection of 10 good to excellent short stories that do not have strong plot development or dramatic conclusions but have clever and insightful themes with unusually deep intellectual rumination. Chiang is concerned about the intersection of technology and humanity, the costs of progress, linguistics, and the nature of human and animal cognition.

Some of these stories are very good.