I'm thrilled to have finally gotten around to the story that one of my favorite movies was based on. Story of Your Life made me appreciate the movie Arrival even more, while enjoying additional story elements from the source material here. I'm not very familiar with the world of sci-fi, but ever since Black Mirror went on hiatus I've had an unmet hankering for some good dystopian speculation that leaves you with that warm and fuzzy existential dread.

Chiang is my first exposure to short sci-fi. His stories are heavy on the math and science, and are so well done that I sometimes had trouble discerning where the fiction elements began. The other side of the coin here is that the stories often do focus more on the ideas than the characters or plot. But the ideas were so interesting that I didn't care.

Chiang's ability to write for so many different perspectives on a novel topic was consistently impressive. For example: how does the world, and the various tribes and organizations within, react to random angelic visits that are akin to a natural disaster? This ability was most impressive in the final story, where seeing physical attractiveness is optional. I was blown away by this collection and am stoked for Exhalation. And don't skip the Story Notes at the end. They briefly cover Chiang's inspiration for each piece.