Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Stories of Your Life and Others

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Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

14 reviews

kylieqrada's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

😱 I'm not usually an anthology girly, but this absolutely slapped. Almost all of the stories were highly rated, but Story of Your Life will definitely stick with me. I need to read Exhalation, like, now.

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greenrequiem's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

3.5

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loujanae's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective

Every time I finished a story, I would look at my cat and say "well that was weird."

Three stand out stories:
Tower of Babylon
Story of Your Life
Hell is the Absence of God

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ryyy27's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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mariebrunelm's review against another edition

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challenging reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I've wanted to read this short story collection since 2016 when I fell in love with the movie "Arrival", by Denis Villeneuve. It's inspired by "Story of your Life", which features here. I really loved it. In regards to the narrator's daughter, it's less dramatic than the movie version, which I really enjoyed. In the movie, I've always felt that part was a bit too much (even though it did make me cry). However, I think the movie format was maybe better suited to the whirlwind of emotions that builds up as you understand what's happening for the narrator, linguist Louise Banks. In that perspective, the short story was a little more factual.

As for the rest of the stories, I don't have anything negative to say. They're all built on a strong idea, and efficiently executed. I have to admit that a couple of them went way beyond my ability to understand what was going on because of the blend of science & philosophy. And the ending of the first story "Tower of Babylon", was a slight disappointment because I'd read a similar thing elsewhere. But on the whole it's book I'd really recommend.

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stargirlmolly's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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leftandleaving_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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lauraglovestoread's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I just assume that any book by Ted Chiang is going to receive a five-star rating from me, and Stories of Your Life and Others unsurprisingly met that expectation. I'd read some of the stories in this collection before and I've taught the film Arrival, based on one of them, in a university Cultural Studies class. What Ted Chiang does remarkably well, in my mind, is take what might seem like a simple premise -- for example, what if a technology existed to disrupt the ability to respond to beauty (or lack thereof) in human faces, thereby eliminating lookism? -- and explore it from multiple angles in a remarkably brief number of pages. His writing ranges from exhilarating to tragic to hilarious but is always, always thought-provoking in the best possible way. Highly, highly recommend.

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rileyeffective's review against another edition

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inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.5

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annabend's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

"You can watch the night travel up the tower from the ground up to the sky..."

At the base of the immense pillar, tiny Babylon was in shadow. Then the darkness climbed the tower, like a canopy unfurling forward. It moved slowly enough that Hillalum felt he could count the moments passing, but then it grew faster as it approached, until it raced past them faster than he could blink, and they were in twilight...

For the first time, he knew night for what it was: the shadow of the earth itself, cast against the sky.

How beautiful is that quote? And there's plenty more to love about Ted Chiang's stories. Although I definitely didn't enjoy all of them, I still think Chiang's writing is great. Each story is the type of science fiction that inspires the imagination. Each leaves some food for thought as you can see Chiang play out a different what-if scenario. I loved the addition of author notes at the end of this edition — it added a lot of interesting context about how the author thinks.

My favourite story is predictably the one that inspired <i>Arrival</i>, "Story of Your Life." I liked the process of thinking about which storytelling choices were made in the movie versus the short story. For example, there's a lot more physics and scientific method in the story, and a greater sense of inevitability, and why is that? I also love linguistics, especially when it's paired up with speculative fiction, so the story was easy to love.

A close second was "Tower of Babylon." The Biblical story of the tower has always intrigued me precisely for its applicability to fantasy. Ted Chiang creates a whole culture for the people working on the tower at different levels and it's very cool to see. The ending is a bit surreal and dream-like, which is somehow more satisfying than an obvious conclusion.

"Understand," "Seventy-Two Letters" and "Liking What You See: A Documentary" were interesting stories too, which were a little more like puzzle pieces that I didn't connect with as much. Still, intriguing enough, with some topics I haven't seen explored in most sci-fi.

"Division by Zero" went right over my head. There is a lot of complicated math concepts that just didn't work as vessels for literary concepts in my brain. Any metaphors were completely lost on me.

"The Evolution of Human Science" is definitely the weakest. It's so short, there's barely anything to remember about it. Chiang's work in this collection is really most impactful when it's long, complicated and intricate.

"Hell Is the Absence of God" is way too theological for my tastes. Although many of the stories mention or deal with religion, I think this one requires the reader to have a greater emotional/spiritual connection to religion than I do. The tone just wasn't for me, even though angels causing natural disasters and bodily injuries when they visit the Earth is an intriguing concept.

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