Paperback, 288 pages
English language
Published Jan. 21, 2005 by Tor.
Ted Chiang's first published story, "Tower of Babylon," won the Nebula Award in 1990. Subsequent stories have won the Asimov's SF Magazine reader poll, a second Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternate history. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992. Story for story, he is the most honored young writer in modern SF.
Now, collected here for the first time are all seven of this extraordinary writer's stories so far--plus an eighth story written especially for this volume.
What if men built a tower from Earth to Heaven--and broke through to Heaven's other side? What if we discovered that the fundamentals of mathematics were arbitrary and inconsistent? What if there were a science of naming things that calls life into being from inanimate matter? What if exposure to an alien language forever changed our perception of time? …
Ted Chiang's first published story, "Tower of Babylon," won the Nebula Award in 1990. Subsequent stories have won the Asimov's SF Magazine reader poll, a second Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternate history. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992. Story for story, he is the most honored young writer in modern SF.
Now, collected here for the first time are all seven of this extraordinary writer's stories so far--plus an eighth story written especially for this volume.
What if men built a tower from Earth to Heaven--and broke through to Heaven's other side? What if we discovered that the fundamentals of mathematics were arbitrary and inconsistent? What if there were a science of naming things that calls life into being from inanimate matter? What if exposure to an alien language forever changed our perception of time? What if all the beliefs of fundamentalist Christianity were literally true, and the sight of sinners being swallowed into fiery pits were a routine event on city streets? These are the kinds of outrageous questions posed by the stories of Ted Chiang. Stories of your life . . . and others.
I found that I enjoyed some of these short stories and I disliked some others. Some of the ones I liked really outstayed their welcome: a good idea, but the story itself dragged. That said, there's some fun stuff in there.
Ted Chiang is the best, and I think he needs no explanation. The best-known story in here is "Story of Your Life" (better know as the film Arrival). But, I think the best story in here is "Hell is the Absence of God." All of the stories left me thinking a bit after, and I'm continuing to do so now. The last set of stories in my version were also in Exhalation, so I skipped over them.
Ted Chiang: Stories of Your Life and Others (Hardcover, 2002, Tor) 4 stars
Arrival is one of my favorite movies so I wanted to check out the source material and I'll say I was not disappointed. I think the movie did the text justice. Lots of fun, short speculative fiction ideas played with in this collection. If you're a sci-fi/fantasy to hard sci-fi person and you haven't read this already, I'd recommend it.
The two stories of 'Stories of Your Life' (the inspiration of the movie Arrival) and 'Tower of Babylon' are very readable. The others are still great, but get technical. Chaing really is a great short story writer if you like the media.
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Not my type of sci-fi at the end of the day, a little too pop science focused. Loved tower of Babylon, story of your life (the more metaphysical and less pop-sci ones). Rest were ok.
Even if you find yourself less interested in one of the short stories, most will probably be very engaging. The short story "Story of your life", on which the movie "Arrival" is based on, is worth it. The story goes into much more depth than the movie.
This is one of those science fiction books that really manage to blow your mind with the possibilities that the writer proposes. As a short story collection, you're always left out wanting more of the stories. But they are as long as they have to be.
"Hell Is the Absence of God" has stuck with me since I first read it in a collection almost 20 years ago, and Arrival was an instant favourite film when it came out, but somehow it has taken me until the past few years to read more of Chiang's work. I'm glad that I did. Exhalation was brilliant, but I think this collection tops it—the combination of religious/mythical thinking and the methodical, engineering mindset gives each story a unique blend of rigor and depth. He makes worlds where impossible things happen but feel entirely believable, and tells stories that are laden with metaphor and commentary that don't feel didactic. They're magical and often beautiful, but never fanciful—which I mean as high praise.
At this point, I'll read anything from Ted Chiang after having read several short story collections and articles. If you only want to read one collection, I think Exhalation had more stories that will stick with me for a long time than the ones from this earlier collection, but I really enjoyed so many bits of this one too.
This is a remarkable collection of stories. I found them all interesting for many different reasons.
Pretty uneven set of stories, but the good ones are very very good. I particularly liked Tower of Babylon, Stories of your life, Hell is the Absence of God and Liking What You See: A Documentary.
All of these give a definite impression of starting with a "what if.... X?" and running with it - sometimes at the cost of feeling like "concepts" rather than "stories with a plot and characters". Which is not necessarily a bad thing, mind you! some of the explored concepts are indeed very intriguing and/or fun!
A collection of beautiful short stories, each mulling over one existential problem or another. They're worth it just to let your mind soak and contemplate the big questions you spend most of your time ignoring.
This is my favorite format of science fiction : short but thought provoking stories. Surprisingly, the story that gave the name to this book is far from being the best in my opinion. If you want mind-bending novels that are both fun and at the same time disturbing, this book is a must-read.
