Stories of Your Life and Others

by Ted Chiang

Completed: December 30, 2020

• Science fiction
• 281 pages
• ISBN: 9780330426640
• Goodreads page

★★★★

It is true that we work with the purest of aims, but that doesn’t mean we have worked wisely. Did men truly choose the correct path when they opted to live their lives away from the soil from which they were shaped? Never has Yahweh said that the choice was proper. Now we stand ready to break open heaven, even when we know that water lies above us. If we are misguided, how can we be sure Yahweh will protect us from our own errors?

I perhaps found it more hit or miss than his later short story collection, Exhalation, in that the best stories in this collection are fantastic but some are relative duds (for my taste!). Story of Your Life is great, and would be familiar to anyone who’s watched the movie Arrival (which is based on this story). Liking What You See is quite interesting as well. Here too I was tempted to rate it between 3 and 4 stars, and went with 4 - just being generous to Ted Chiang!

All book cover images are from Goodreads unless specified otherwise.