Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

12 reviews

kylieqrada's review against another edition

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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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bomenvernietiger's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative inspiring fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

All the points for blowing me away completely. Minus a little for not always understanding women and autism.

This would be fully timeless, except that the author felt the need to include such a sexist trope as a father coming to terms with his daughter developing breasts. This holds the particular story back decades.
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tiredcreature's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • 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

• Tower of Babylon: Babylonian sci-fi (3.5/5)

• Understand: superpowered redditors do mind battle (2/5)

• Division by zero: mathematician discovers that mathematics is inconsistent; experiences a crisis (4/5)

• Stories of your life: linguist learns alien language, gains chronologically non-linear memory (5/5)

• Seventy-two letters: steampunk Hebrew true name magic ft. 19th-century-typical eugenics (5/5)

• The evolution of human science: what becomes of human science when we invent metahumans, who are more intelligent and capable than a human could ever become? (??/5 - feels incomplete)

• Hell is the absence of god: Christian horror; monstrous divinity (4/5)

• Liking what you see: fictional documentary transcript; discussion of neuromodification (4/5)
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loujanae's review

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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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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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megsimsdavies's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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lauraglovestoread's review

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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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snd1101's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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m_delaney's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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