Stories of Your Life and Others

Rating:
Summary: talented but glum
Review: (WARNING! I am a science-fiction writer in economic competition with Mr. Chiang. All my gripes must be taken with a grain of salt.)
Eight well-crafted stories with engaging and interesting ideas are marred by weak endings. Each story ends with tepid pessimism.

MILD SPOILERS AHEAD.
First, the "Tower of Babylon" tale engages the reader with solid characterization and a thought-provoking description of what the mighty engineering feat of "building a tower to heaven" would have been like, had the world been flat. It is filled with amusing and authentic touches, like the Egyptian stone-masons brought in to chip through the hard surface of the sky-dome, or the description of how mid-levels of the tower rendered inhospitable by the too-near approach of the fiery sun. But the ending is weak, and the immense tower turns out to have been built in vain.

In "Understand" the super intelligent man is obsessed with finding a perfect expression of linguistic philosophy that will express the universe. The depiction of a mind smarter than any mind of man is wonderfully well-done, and the story is worth reading just for this alone. The super-mind discovers a second super intelligent man. One man wants nothing but to be left alone while he pursues his research, while the other wishes to use his powers to benefit mankind peacefully. Neither one is threatening or interfering with the goals of the other. For no apparent reason, and without any plot-purpose, these two "superior intelligences" both mutually agree that there is no possible way they both can exist, they duel, and one murders the other. What a waste. Maybe they were not so bright after all.

In "Story of your Life" a mother, through the study of an alien language, learns how to see the universe from a timeless point of view. She knows her daughter is going to die in a pointless accident even before the night the daughter is conceived. The mother does nothing, and can do nothing, to prevent the accident, since only those things that are fated to be will be. Precognition is vain.

In "Divide by Zero" all mathematics turns out to be vain.

"Liking What You See: A Documentary" once again, starts with a very interesting science fiction premise: what would the world be like if we could turn off our perception of human beauty? And, once again, the story soon disappoints. A college is debating whether to impose beauty-blindness on all its students. Both sides of the issue are debated. A girl who tries to make herself look nice to win the affection of a boy she loves is rebuffed when the boy turns off his beauty-seeing abilities. The girl realizes it is "unfair" to look better than other people. So her attempts are futile. In the end, an evil conspiracy of (I am not making this up) Big Lipstick Companies successfully prevents widespread implementation of the beauty-blindness plan by (you guessed it) having a particularly attractive spokeswoman sway the debate. So the entire debate was futile. This same egalitarian theme appears in a famous short story by Kurt Vonnegut, one where pretty folk were burned with acid, and smart individuals were lobotimized, so that everyone was "equal" and nothing would rouse the spite and envy of the herd. There, Vonnegut's tale cheers for the individual; here, Chiang's tale cheers for the herd.

"The Evolution of Human Science" has all scientific inquiry prove futile once super artificial intelligences take over the field.

The satire "Hell is the Absence of God" reads like it was written by someone who never met a Christian, or read anything written by a Christian. In this tale, those who see the light of heaven are grotesquely disfigured (their eyes and eye sockets are removed) and loose free will, and become perfect in faith, so that they are automatically assured of entrance into paradise. The main character, mourning after the death of his wife, seeks to find a spot where an angel is leaving or entering the world, so that he can, if only for a moment, glimpse the light of heaven, so that he can loose his eyes and his free will, but be assured of meeting his wife again in heaven. All goes as planned, but God capriciously sends the man to Hell in any case. Hell is not a place of torment, but a bland area much like earth, merely separate from God, peopled by Fallen Angels who sin was not rebellion, but free-thinking. Hence, out of all created beings, only the main character is actually suffering in Hell, since he is the only one who longs not to be there, and, thanks to his free will being destroyed, is the only one who loves God wholeheartedly. Again, all efforts of the main character to rejoin his wife are futile. There are secondary characters whose lives are also ruined and for no particular reason.

I myself am an unrepentant atheist, but I would never pen such trite antichristian propaganda. If an author is going to set a story in an alternate universe where the Christian myths happen to be true, the author should become familiar with (or, at least, hide his contempt for) the source material. Read Thomas Aquinas or John Milton. Christians may be wrong, but they are not stupid.

Over all, Mr. Chiang is an excellent writer, who writes wonderfully about big ideas, but weds them to a theme of dispirited nihilism. He is capable of subtle and penetrating characterization, except when he trots out a tired leftwing cliché, whereupon suddenly everything becomes flat and predictable (see, for example, his treatment of the CIA, Big Business, the Military, and the Victorian Age).

I can only reccommend the first half of each story.

Rating:
Summary: Stories of Your Life and Others.
Review: --Tower of Babylon, 1990. Nebula.
--Understand, 1991.
--Division by Zero, 1991.
--Story of Your Life, 1998. Nebula, Sturgeon.
--Seventy-Two Letters, 2000. Sidewise.
--The Evolution of Human Science, 2000.
--Hell Is the Absence of God, 2001. Nebula, Hugo, Locus.
--Liking What You See: A Documentary, 2002.

'Liking What You See' is original to this collection.
Ted Chiang won also the Campbell New Writer Award in 1992.
As you can see, this writer wins a lot of awards.
Anyway, check out this collection if you want to read some fine stories. Chiang is at his best in the longer short story {novelette and novella regions}. This contains all fiction he wrote over the years.
Happy reading.

Rating:
Summary: Imaginative, surreal, and technical
Review:

I really enjoyed this book. Chiang's writing style is a bit off the wall, which I find appealing, and he isn't afraid to include hard science.

-- Tower of Babylon. One of my favorites, about the building of the Tower of Babel.

-- Understand. A new drug creates a super-human. Shades of 'Flowers for Algernon', but better.

-- Division by Zero. A mathematician proves that math is not consistent. Best explanation of Gödel's theorem I've seen.

-- Story of Your Life. Contact with aliens provokes a new mode of causality.

-- Seventy-Two Letters. Story takes place in a world where automata are powered by Jewish letters.

-- The Evolution of Human Science. Short piece on how scientific research is affected by the advent of meta-humans.

-- Hell is the Absence of God. A different version of the trials of Job. Takes place in a bizarre universe where God is much more active.

-- Liking What You See: A Documentary. What life is like when we can disable the part of the brain that interprets human beauty.

Rating:
Summary: greatness does not mean bland optimism
Review: As I get older, it is less and less often that I find a book that really grabs my attention, that is pure joy to read from cover to cover.
Ted Chiang wrote such a book, and for that I am very grateful to him.
Buy it. Read it. Chances are you won't regret it.
To the few people who complained that this book is too gloomy I can only say "Read/watch Barney - its bland cheerfulness may soothe your sensitive souls..."

Rating:
Summary: Chiang's rep is well-deserved, but many stories I didn't dig
Review: For years I've been hearing wonderful things about this fantastic writer named Ted Chiang. Ted, the wunderkind whose first published story won a Nebula (accepted before he went to Clarion, even!) who keeps winning awards and is known by all and has the audacity to not write very many stories and not one novel. So, it was with some sense of anticipation that I picked up his first short story collection. I had heard of many of the stories in it--Tower of Babylon, Hell is the Absence of God, Story of Your Life--and was determined to like them.

Oddly, my reaction was mixed.

Part of this collection pleased me to no end; part of it elicited no more than a 'meh'. Why the mix? I'm not sure. The first three selections did not thrill me. I think that I felt as though the stories were high on the idea axis, but low on the other axes. In fact, when I finished reading Babylon I felt kind of cheated, as it seemed to me a long set-up for a punchline-type ending.

But then I read Story of Your Life and everything changed. Oh, how I loved that story. This is where I felt Chiang really got it right. The idea and the characters and the plot and the everything in perfect harmony. I also felt this way about Hell is the Absence of God and Liking What You See: A Documentary (even though this is, apparently, not one of Ted's favorite stories). With these three I saw all the marks of really great talent and storytelling.

Seventy-Two Letters and The Evolution of Science didn't hold any big fascination for me, but didn't produce the same disappointment as the first three I read did.

Chiang's reputation is well-deserved. These are fine stories, and good examples of what they are. Even the ones that I didn't like still had an energy to them that I can't help but admire. And they all had a quality of intelligence that is missing from so much fiction I read. Not talking down to an audience, but instead bringing them up a level or two.

This book is definitely recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Chiang's rep is well-deserved, but many stories I didn't dig
Review: For years I've been hearing wonderful things about this fantastic writer named Ted Chiang. Ted, the wunderkind whose first published story won a Nebula (accepted before he went to Clarion, even!) who keeps winning awards and is known by all and has the audacity to not write very many stories and not one novel. So, it was with some sense of anticipation that I picked up his first short story collection. I had heard of many of the stories in it--Tower of Babylon, Hell is the Absence of God, Story of Your Life--and was determined to like them.

Oddly, my reaction was mixed.

Part of this collection pleased me to no end; part of it elicited no more than a 'meh'. Why the mix? I'm not sure. The first three selections did not thrill me. I think that I felt as though the stories were high on the idea axis, but low on the other axes. In fact, when I finished reading Babylon I felt kind of cheated, as it seemed to me a long set-up for a punchline-type ending.

But then I read Story of Your Life and everything changed. Oh, how I loved that story. This is where I felt Chiang really got it right. The idea and the characters and the plot and the everything in perfect harmony. I also felt this way about Hell is the Absence of God and Liking What You See: A Documentary (even though this is, apparently, not one of Ted's favorite stories). With these three I saw all the marks of really great talent and storytelling.

Seventy-Two Letters and The Evolution of Science didn't hold any big fascination for me, but didn't produce the same disappointment as the first three I read did.

Chiang's reputation is well-deserved. These are fine stories, and good examples of what they are. Even the ones that I didn't like still had an energy to them that I can't help but admire. And they all had a quality of intelligence that is missing from so much fiction I read. Not talking down to an audience, but instead bringing them up a level or two.

This book is definitely recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Buy 2, give one to a friend
Review: From beginning to end this is one of the strongest collections of fiction you'll read. From "Understand" -- a perfect piece of extrapolation that runs faster and faster until you're almost out of breath when it ends -- to "Liking What You See," a new story where the ability to see "good looks" is a choice, Chiang doesn't waste a line, not a word, in the pursuit of the perfect story. Best of all is the title story, "Story of Your Life," which is indescribably brilliant. So, no, I won't try. Got a friend who reads technothrillers? Point them toward "Understand." Another who's a history buff? "Seventy-two Letters" or "Tower of Babylon." Don't miss out on one of the best books of the year.

Rating:
Summary: Do Believe The Hype!
Review: Have you ever bought a duff book based on an enthusiastic and eloquent back cover blub? Chances are the answer is yes. Well in this book's case the runaway skyhigh blurbhype is more than deserved. Ted Chaing's stories are a true pleasure to read in the most literal sense of the word(s). I smiled as I turned almost every page. I won't summarize, suffice to say that each tale combines wildy extrapolated ideas, some of them wonderfully fanciful (SEVENTY TWO LETTERS, a Victoriana-Kabala mind feast), with deeply felt tours of the human heart. STORIES OF YOUR LIFE is a rare treat indeed, the kind of book that will compel you to spread the word about this exceptionally talented writer.

Rating:
Summary: More lives, please.
Review: I always forget how much I love reading SF. I've read it all my life, but I've started veering towards the softer stuff, fantasy, and urban fantasy as I've gotten older. And then I'll pick up a book like this and remember all over again how wonderful SF can be. The stories range from a tower of Babel to an alien first encounter, to pretty much everywhere in between. They're amazing. Most of them won awards, and it's quite apparent why. "Hell is the Absence of God" just won a Hugo, for example. I think only two stories in the book haven't been at least nominated for anything, and one of those was written for the collection. I am slowly converting the rest of my friends to the Cult of Chiang. I gave it to my mom to read and she raved over it for 15 minutes when I called to ask her how she liked it.

Rating:
Summary: It doesn't get any better
Review: I am an obsessive reader of speculative fiction, and consider myself a fair judge. Chiang is arguably the best author of short fiction in this genre alive today. Every one of these stories is an absolute gem. Of course, there's no money in short fiction--buy this book in hardcover and support this stunning young talent!