Stories of Your Life and Others
2002
- american science fiction
- fiction, science fiction, short stories
- nyt:trade-fiction-paperback=2016-12-04
- life change events
- fiction
- change (psychology)
- automation
- human-alien encounters
- adaptability (psychology)
- fiction / science fiction / general
The story
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.
What it’s like
Cool, precise, and quietly luminous, this collection of short stories reads like late-evening lamplight on a clean desk: spare prose, measured sentences, and a steady intellectual calm that lets wonder build slowly. The sensory world is mostly interior and intimate, with ordinary rooms, notebooks, and worn scientific instruments rendered in close detail, and the occasional vast set piece, a tower climbing into the sky or a city of strange light, handled with the same restraint. Its vibe is contemplative and bittersweet, a blend of curiosity and grief. Pacing is unhurried, with each piece unfolding like a careful argument that turns toward emotion late. The people tend to be thoughtful, often isolated or stretched by change, slowly coming to terms with what their discoveries cost them. Intensity is low: there is some peril and occasional sorrow, but little gore or sexual content, and any violence is brief and rarely the focus. It suits a rainy Sunday, a slow read on a long flight, or a quiet night alone, and it is for readers who want big ideas carried by tender, human-scale feeling.
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