The first story here, "Tower of Babylon," is outstanding. I was completely enthralled. Slightly unfortunately, it's also the best of the collection for me, so the rest of the book doesn't quite live up to it. Which is not to say that some of the stories aren't excellent. They are - I particularly enjoyed "Seventy-Two Letters" and "Hell Is the Absence of God."

I think what struck me most is the strength of concept behind each story. Each has a very clear idea, ruthlessly researched and intelligently explored. I could only bask in the sheer cleverness of what's going on here, but I have to admit sometimes it lost me. Not in the concepts, but in the execution. Some of the stories, as admirable as they are, can be a little dry in their presentation. ("Understand" felt interminable for this very reason.) This became particularly clear in the titular "Stories of Your Life", in which a mother's relationship with her daughter was contrasted with her linguistic work with an alien species. The former was much more appealing to read than the latter, and all the astonishing results of that linguistic work didn't stop me from wanting the narrator to dwell a little less on it and get back to the emotional core of the story. I really enjoy concept driven works, but ideally I would like to feel an emotional connection as well. This collection is one of those works that I really admire but - with the exception of that first story, the mother/daughter relationship described above, and the end of "Hell" - I didn't actually feel.