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    Stories of Your Life and Others
    Stories of Your Life and Others
    Stories of Your Life and Others
    Audiobook10 hours

    Stories of Your Life and Others

    Written by Ted Chiang

    Narrated by Todd McLaren and Abby Craden

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    This new edition of Ted Chiang's masterful first collection, Stories of Your Life and Others, includes his first eight published stories. Combining the precision and scientific curiosity of Kim Stanley Robinson with Lorrie Moore's cool, clear love of language and narrative intricacy, this award-winning collection offers listeners the dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar.

    Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change-the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens-while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy. In the amazing and much-lauded title story (the basis for the 2016 movie Arrival), a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her knowledge of alien languages and non-linear memory recollection. A clever pastiche of news reports and interviews chronicles a college's initiative to "turn off" the human ability to recognize beauty in "Liking What You See: A Documentary." With sharp intelligence and humor, Chiang examines what it means to be alive in a world marked by uncertainty and constant change, and also by beauty and wonder.

    Editor's Note

    The story behind ‘Arrival’…

    Chiang is a sci-fi master capable of making the alien feel entirely human — his characters and worlds read like fantasy but feel like truth. Each story in this collection begs a momentary meditation on the meaning of life before going on.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 10, 2014
    ISBN9781452688824
    Stories of Your Life and Others
    Author

    Ted Chiang

    Ted Chiang was born in Port Jefferson, New York, and currently lives outside Seattle, Washington. In 1990 he won the Nebula Award for his first published story, 'Tower of Babylon'. Following this triumph, his stories have won him numerous other awards, making him one of the most honoured writers in contemporary SF. The title story from his first collection of short stories, Stories of Your Life and Others, was the basis for the Academy Award nominated film Arrival.

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    Reviews for Stories of Your Life and Others

    4/5

    1,637 ratings111 reviews

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    • 5/5
      There’s a lot of buzz in science fiction about Ted Chiang, who publishes rarely but whose every story seems to be a winner. Stories of Your Life is a collection of his work. Chiang is a writer who puts the science and math back in science fiction. In his stories he explores concepts such as calliagnosia to preformation theory to the concept of hell.I liked every one of his stories. Chiang is a careful, engaging, but above all, intelligent writer. He takes concepts and explores them examining all possible angles. Chiang’s world is not black and white but full of colour. Lacking a background in science and technical knowledge, I don’t pretend to grasp all of his hypotheses. But I don’t feel I need to. What Chiang does is instill a sense of wonder, to make the scales fall from your eyes.Chiang exhibits an impressive variety too. He swings from advanced physics to Kabbalah with the ease of a monkey swinging from tree to tree. My favourite story is “Story of Your Life”, which blew me away with its ideas but also human touch. I loved how the strings and themes were brought together so that halfway through I sat up straight in bed and yelled, “Holy crap, I GET it!” I also liked “Hell is the Absence of God” and “Liking What You See.” But really, every story in this anthology is remarkable and worth your time.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      Angelic juggernauts visit Earth on a regular basis doling out miracles and damnation; attractive people get their comeuppance thanks to a chemical breakthrough; a gifted mathematician undermines everything with a single equation; and an alien language is so complex it transcends time and space. These are a few of the fascinating scenarios Chiang explores in this assortment of tall tales. Unfortunately big ideas don't always translate into compulsive reading and here they just knock about while the stories themselves spit and sputter to a sudden stop. As pedantic as a dissertation and almost as dry.
    • 5/5
      Modern allegory of the highest order. Like DeLillo and Borges these stories exist to investigate ideas, with characters that may be believable but are still primarily vehicles for the intellectual adventure. The writing is flat and unadorned as well. And yet I found each story deeply moving and often startling, due to the power of the premises, the subtlety of their exploration and the combination of imagination, clarity and rigor. Chiang touches on philosophy, theology, history, mathematics, computer science, genetics, psychology, linguistics, etc., but these explorations could only exist, and have the power they do have, as fiction, animated by the power and freedom of imagination.
    • 3/5
      I can see that these are clever stories with interesting concepts. But I didn’t enjoy reading a single one. They’re all dry and somehow dead, and a little pretentious.
    • 5/5
      Heartbreakingly beautiful and wondrous in its scope and creativity. Special favorites: “72 Letters” and “Hell Is the Absence of God.”
    • 5/5
      There wasn't a story I didn't love in this collection. Sure, sometimes the love came in retrospect, sometimes it came unexpectedly when someone else said a certain story was rubbish and I found myself defending it. I'm not going to offer a blow by blow review of each story - you'll find plenty of other offerings in the comments. Suffice to say, Ted Chiang is an intelligent and engaging science fiction writer, exploring moral dilemmas through technology (present, future and imaginary past). What is so good about these stories is not whether you like them, but whether they make you think. And each story does just that.
    • 5/5
      "By this construction Yaweh's work was indicated and Yahweh's work was concealed." -from "Tower of Babylon" the first story in this collection. Perhaps this quote is only affecting in its context within the story, but I found it a striking example of Chiang's excellent prose. It also points to a recurring metaphysical theme in many of his stories. "Tower of Babylon," "Seventy-Two Letters," "Hell is the Absence of God" and "Exhalation" (a phenomenal story, but not in this collection) all deal with intricately constructed alternate worlds with protagonists trying to understand some fundamental part of their world and its creator. I found those worlds interesting, original and exploring them gave me a thrilling sense of discovery. These are my favorite of Chiang's stories, though the sentimentality of "Division by Zero" and especially "Story of Your Life" is also beautiful and touching. Not every story here matches those heights, but I think the best of them is well worth the effort of finding the book, especially for fans of science-fiction.
    • 5/5
      Fascinating, idea-driven sci-fi/speculative fiction. This author deserves all the attention he has been getting.
    • 5/5
      I especially enjoyed how every story ended with the reader asking more questions than they have had answered
    • 4/5
      A great collection of short stories with just the right amount of science and character development.
    • 5/5
      Philosophical, social, scientific, a braid of genious . I need More Ted Chiang
    • 2/5
      I was really hoping I would love this, and I just didn't really like any of the stories. I think I didn't enjoy the writing style at all, and felt detached from every narrative. There were some really interesting topics explored, and I enjoyed the perspectives presented, but overall, this had no lasting effect on me. I just feel disappointed.
    • 5/5
      This is an excellent collection that weaves human stories with some impressive science along 'what if...?' lines. I came to this book after loving Arrival and wanting to read the story that it's based on. The Story Of Your Life is really thought-provoking, albeit along slightly different lines to the film.I loved the other stories, too, especially Tower Of Babylon and Seventy Two Letters, perhaps because I'm as interested in history as I am science fiction! Chiang has a wonderful imagination and writes really well, considering that some of the stories can get fairly technical. This is definitely worth a read for any science fiction fan.
    • 3/5
      I can’t remember why I selected this book of SF short stories from the library, I must’ve read a review or gotten a recommendation from someone. There’s a lot to admire about the writing, and there are a lot of intriguing science and philosophy ideas explored. But I didn’t really think it was great writing,or at least it’s not the sort of writing I really like. I used to love science fiction as a teenager. I never dropped it intentionally, I just gradually found that I didn’t seem to enjoy the writing anymore. (I think I still like Ray Bradbury though).

      I was pleased that one of the stories was the basis for a Amy Adams film I enjoyed a few years ago called Arrival, although of course the film was quite a bit different.
    • 5/5
      All of the short stories are at a minimum good but stories of your life is phenomenal.
    • 2/5
      2,0 stars

      This collection has the questionable honor of being my lowest rated read of 2019 so far. It didn't even have the decency to infuriate me, it just bored me to tears.

      The nicest thing I can say about this is that the topics of the stories were mildly interesting. That's it. Maybe Ted Chiang's other work is better, but it's unlikely I'll even find out. The only story I remember with any accuracy (or recollection of enjoyment) is the title story, and even that's probably influenced by my enjoyment of the film Arrival which was based on the story. It was better.

      What I especially didn't like:
      - The writing. No, seriously. Ted Chiang is a technical writer as per his bio here on Goodreads, and it fricking shows. This is by far the dryest shit I've forced myself to finish reading in a long long time.
      - The characters were 2-dimensional and uninteresting.
      - Each and every story had a dissatisfying ending.
      - The whole collection read like a mediocre writer's struggle to come up with a publishable story for a moderately interesting concept he'd come up with.
      - Anything at all.

      Just no.
    • 5/5
      I hate the phrase "instant classic" but if I was to write a two-word review of this book I could not find a better one. This collection of short stories is reminiscent of works of such writers as Asimov, Lem, or Sturgeon, yet completely original and unique.While the level is not even and some stories were more of a miss than a hit for me, I highly appreciate their variety. If you had told me that these are pieces from 8 different authors, I'd believe it without a shadow of a doubt! Ted Chiang not only never uses the same setting or character archetype twice but also changes the structure, narration, style, and explores themes and questions that I'd consider very distant from each other. I respect the effort of stretching oneself so broadly, even when the end result is not always mind-blowing.What I enjoyed the most is that almost every story is grounded in the personal drama of the main character. Even when larger-than-life events shake up the reality all around, we perceive it through the focused lens of a person trying to keep their life straight or trying to fulfill their dream/duty/needs. This makes each story very humane, easy to follow, and does not overwhelm the reader with a heavy sci-fi concept. And those concepts are indeed thought-provoking, intriguing, and sometimes really majestic, sometimes subtle but never boring.I think this is one of the best things that modern sci-fi has to offer. This anthology received all the major awards that sci-fi short stories can get and I'm sure we still haven't seen the best of Ted Chiang. He rejected the nomination for the Hugo Award for the last story of this book, claiming it was rushed and released prematurely. I hope that with the recognition that he got after this book and movie based on its titular piece, he won't ever need to publish before he finds his work done. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to reading his second anthology soon!
    • 5/5
      A collection of though provoking science fiction/fantasy short stories, with some cross over into religion and mysticism.

      In the very best tradition of science fiction, it illuminates who we are as humans.
    • 5/5
      Probably the best book I've read this year. Stories take an idea and run with it in strange and though-provoking ways
    • 5/5
      You should read it
    • 3/5
      This is too clever for me sci-fi. Chiang obvs loves maths and language but I was often lost. The best story for me was the final one about "removing beauty prejudice" - a lot of things to ponder from that.
    • 4/5
      This was really good. I've been reading more short stories lately and this is a really good collection.

      Like with any short story collection, there are some stories I find more than others. My top three stories were 1. Liking What You See: a Documentary, 2. Story of Your Life, and 3. Hell is the Absence of God. These stories are all in the later half of the book, which I definitely enjoyed more than the first half. The earlier stories were fine but weren't really about topics that interested me particularly and seemed a bit more technical in ways I didn't completely follow.

      To rate each story individually...
      Tower of Babylon - this was interesting but not a topic I know a lot about because I didn't grow up religious and not something that really intrigues me either. 3.5/5
      Understand - This is a story about what it would be like to unlock more of your brains potential and you could understand how you mind works. This was good but did remind me of that bad Scarlett Johansson movie about a similar idea from a few years ago. 3.5/5
      Division by Zero - Even now, I really don't remember much about this story. I think this one lost me a bit but the later half of the story was interesting. 3/5
      Story of Your Life - the titular story and the inspiration of the movie Arrival and it loved up to all that. I really enjoyed this and was the first story of this collection that really drew me in and had me thinking after I finished reading. 5/5
      Seventy-Two Letters - The first part of this story was very technical and a bit confusing and it moved in a direction that was expected for me but the second half of the story became very interesting for me. 4/5
      The Evolution of Human Science - This is super short so I don't have much to say and no rating but definitely a curious glimpse of a possible future.
      Hell is the Absence of God- unlike the other story about religion, this story was very interesting to me. I think this was because this is about the ramifications of God if we take the Bible as reality and contains really interesting content about the way people interact with each other about religion. 4.5/5
      Liking What You See: A Documentary - This was such an amazing story exploring a really interesting idea. I felt myself trying to figure out where I stood on this issue being discussed. This was the one that had my mind spinning the most in a way that I really enjoyed. I'm glad this was the story to close the collection. 5/5

      I'll definitely try to pick up Chiang's other collection. The writing was consistently very good and I really enjoyed most of these stories.
    • 5/5
      I am completely blown away by Chiang's genius. The stories were brilliant, making me look at the world in various ways. He crafts worlds with precision, building on the foundation of science and fantasy to create fantastical realities that are infused with enough charm and cynicism so as to feel both real and unreal.

      Yes, that sounds strange, but that's exactly how I felt about his stories.

      Of course, Story of Your Life is one of the best I've read. However, I loved Understand to bits, and Hell is the Absence of God is another masterpiece. All of the stories are amazing, to say the least.

      The only problem I have is with the dry writing style. It comes off as very technical and academic from time to time. However, given the content, I feel it merits the style, though I wish it had a bit more pizazz to it and didn't read like an academic essay.
    • 4/5
      Intriguing and well written

      A fascinating ans enjoyable short story collection. I was particularly gripped by the story of the man whose wife is killed by a random angelic manifestation, promptly sending her to Heaven. Her husband, who is not a Christian, must then learn to love God so that he can rejoin his wife in heaven when he dies. Unfortunately, he is angry at God for killing his wife, so that is a struggle. It is surreal, comedic, searing, and thoughtful, like most of the stories in this collection. There was one story I really did not enjoy though and it was excessively long, so that brought down my experience a bit.
    • 1/5
      The only reason I finished this book is that I don't like to give up. I will also cop to the fact that I'm probably not smart enough to get it, and miss the hype. These stories bored me. I find the whole God thing dumb. The narratives are weak. And mostly, it felt like the stories were divided between the religious stuff, and the science-du-jour type. And most of the stories fell flat in the end.
    • 5/5
      Excellent collection. Wonderful variety. In at least two different stories, Chiang really shows his talent in using separate vignettes to tell a story.
    • 3/5
      My rating would be 5 stars if all of the stories in this collection were as amazing as "Tower of Babylon" and "Story of Your Life" (the story the film "Arrival" is adapted from, which I haven't seen). But there are a couple clunkers and a few other good though not great stories. All of the stories, however, reveal an author who is incredibly smart and thoughtful. I think the stories I didn't like as much were a little slow for my taste, a bit of a slog. But almost all of the stories give you something interesting to think about after you've read them, which ain't nothin'.
    • 5/5
      The collection was a delight overall, full of thought experiments and clever riffs on the ever-changing (and always constant) human condition. Some of the quirkiest were riffs on alternate belief systems and cosmologies, "Tower of Babylon," "Seventy-Two Letters," and "Hell is the Absence of God" all take as their baseline a world that is quite different from our own and spin out a work of science fiction from those new assumptions, of these the Borgesian "Tower of Babylon" was a real delight, beautifully written. Two of my favorites from this collection, "Understand" and "Liking What You See: A Documentary" take a different tack, projecting neuroscience just a few years into the future and then laying out the unintended consequences of new technologies to both amusing and terrifying effect. "Liking What You See," which riffs on a near-future debate on "lookism" and a way we might combat it, seems destined to become a classic for college classrooms everywhere, I know that I would certainly assign it.

      Like many, I came by this collection by way of the film Arrival (2016), adapted from the book's (semi?) eponymous tale "Story of Your Life." That story, quite cerebral and focused on the fairly un-Hollywood subject of linguistics, must have been a tremendous challenge to adapt, but overall I felt that director Denis Villeneuve and screenwriter Eric Heisserer did a pretty exemplary job... Short stories seem like a great source material for a film, a great big "high concept" to hang the plot on but lacking the multitude of little details that make novels so immersive and which inevitably get left on the cutting room floor when the book makes its transition to the screen. A few of the other stories here seem ripe for adaptation, though all would present major challenges... Chiang is using his medium of the written word very cleverly and very carefully throughout this book. I'm looking forward to reading more by him.
    • 4/5
      Interesting collection

      The only thing these stories have in common is the author. They are very different in style and subject. And all good. I look forward to more of Chiang's work.
    • 4/5
      Most of these stories are about hidden languages, and that is normally a conceit I don't particularly like in a writer. But, these stories stick with me. I find myself thinking about the ideas and concepts in them long after I have finished them. This to me indicates a pretty good book, and even perhaps one worth re-reading.