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A review by sarasey1
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
5.0
Stories i couldnt stop thinking about:
“The merchant and the alchemists gate”
“the truth of fact, the truth of feeling”
“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom”
another big win for short stories and people who used to be good at math and wished they were still good so they vicariously live through scifi!!!
edit: for when i re-read (lol every time i think ill do that), compare “what’s expected of us” and “omphalos”…
also it just hit me that Chiang is able to write stories in SO many different formats, like letters vs third person vs jumping between different first person perspectives, like….!
i love this author because every story feels like a playground for him to explore LITERALLY any idea. to me, his stories are the pinnacle of science fiction: a story that at first seems to about some kind of whacky concept/alternate reality but at it’s core is always, always, always about humanity. (i feel this way about arrival and interstellar)
also in an attempt to make my star ratings more objective:
5 stars - changed the way i understand writing, story-telling, myself, or life
4 stars - enjoyed (includes whatever large spectrum of emotion that means) AND would recommend
3 stars - enjoyed or could understand how one might enjoy it BUT would not recommend
2 stars - did not enjoy, would not recommend
1 star - couldn’t even finish it
“The merchant and the alchemists gate”
“the truth of fact, the truth of feeling”
“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom”
another big win for short stories and people who used to be good at math and wished they were still good so they vicariously live through scifi!!!
edit: for when i re-read (lol every time i think ill do that), compare “what’s expected of us” and “omphalos”…
also it just hit me that Chiang is able to write stories in SO many different formats, like letters vs third person vs jumping between different first person perspectives, like….!
i love this author because every story feels like a playground for him to explore LITERALLY any idea. to me, his stories are the pinnacle of science fiction: a story that at first seems to about some kind of whacky concept/alternate reality but at it’s core is always, always, always about humanity. (i feel this way about arrival and interstellar)
also in an attempt to make my star ratings more objective:
5 stars - changed the way i understand writing, story-telling, myself, or life
4 stars - enjoyed (includes whatever large spectrum of emotion that means) AND would recommend
3 stars - enjoyed or could understand how one might enjoy it BUT would not recommend
2 stars - did not enjoy, would not recommend
1 star - couldn’t even finish it