Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Introduction
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang is an eight-story short story collection. The story called Story of Your Life was adapted into a movie called Arrival. The title of the newest edition is Arrival and the book cover depicts the movie poster. I read the 2002 edition of this book and include that picture in this review. These stories were all published in anthologies or magazines over a span of twenty-two years. Story of your Life might be the best story in this collection, but the other stories all interesting and well worth reading.
Summary
Notes about the eight stories follow in the order that they were published in the collection.
The Tower of Babylon follows Hillalum on his journey up a fantasy version of the Tower of Babel. What he finds at the top will change his view of the world.
In Understand, Leon Greco gets an experimental treatment using hormone K, which increases his intelligence exponentially. The story is a variation of Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Leon tries to comprehend the implications of his expanded mind.
Renee is a mathematics professor who must come to terms with the ramifications of a successful proof of Division by Zero.
In the Story of Your Life, Louise Banks is a linguist who is attempting to decipher an extraterrestrial language. Discovering the heptapod’s language will have a major impact on Louise’s future.
Robert learns the Seventy-Two Letters that will bring a golem to life. What he does with that knowledge will impact the future of the human race.
The Evolution of Human Science is a very short story about the role of humans after super-intelligent metahumans have taken the lead in all new research in science.
Neil Fisk finds out that Hell is the Absence of God after he experiences trials like the biblical Job when angels come to earth and randomly bestow miracles and catastrophes. The story explores the true nature of devotion.
The last story is called Liking What You See: A Documentary. It explores the unexpected problems developed when it becomes possible to have a procedure called calliagnosia, where the patient can no longer judge people by the way that they look.
Recommendation
Clearly the star in this collection is Story of Your Life. I can understand why it was turned into a movie. The visual medium brought an extra layer of depth to the audience by them being able to see the alien language and follow Louise’s dilemma. The other story that stands out to me is the Tower of Babylon. I liked how Chiang mixed the biblical story, a historical story, and a fantasy story together. I am glad that I read this collection, because each story raised an intriguing point to ponder.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28503870-stories-of-your-life-and-others
My review of Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. Red Mars is an SF novel about the struggle early explorers have in colonizing Mars. It is a hard SF novel like Stories of Your Life.