Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ishouldreadthat 's review for:
Exhalation
by Ted Chiang
Originally posted to I Should Read That
I’ve been wanting to read Ted Chiang’s short science fiction works ever since his much acclaimed Stories of Your Life and Others. His work gets loads of praise from literary types who don’t usually look twice at genre fiction, so I was definitely curious and picked up a copy. When two of the works in the book were nominated for Hugo awards, I finally picked up Exhalation and read it. I was absolutely blown away by his incredible writing and thought-provoking plots.
This will be a fairly short review, as I don’t want to dive into each individual work. I was very surprised by how much I absolutely loved this collection for a few reasons:
1) I don’t typically like short fiction or collections very often, however this is one of the few times I’ve read a collection from a single author rather than an anthology of various authors.
2) I’m always a little suspicious when literary fiction types praise genre fiction writing. I know it’s a little silly, but I often feel like that praise comes from people who know nothing (or almost nothing) about the genre they’re discussing.
With nine stories of varying lengths, Exhalation contains a variety of stories, varying from the fantastical to the realistic, that will capture any speculative fiction lover’s imagination. Although I had favourites, there wasn’t a single work that I didn’t like in the book -- something that really took me by surprise. Favourites of mine include:
- Omphalos: a story about a scientist in an alternate world in which the existence of God is not only widely accepted as fact, it is provable by science. However, she makes a discover that could change her world forever.
- The Lifecycle of Software Objects: the longest story in the book, which watches a software invention from initiation, through the fad-like popularity, and into obsoletion. That software happens to be an artificial intelligence that can learn and grow in the form of adorable digital pets.
-Exhalation: a scientist from an robotic alien species dissects his own brain in an attempt to discover how memory is stored. In the process, he makes a startling discover about the universe.
Chiang’s stories are wonderful and thought-provoking, perfect for any lover of science or literary fiction. He went from essentially an unknown author to me, to a new favourite. I absolutely cannot wait to read more from him and eagerly await a new collection of stories.
I’ve been wanting to read Ted Chiang’s short science fiction works ever since his much acclaimed Stories of Your Life and Others. His work gets loads of praise from literary types who don’t usually look twice at genre fiction, so I was definitely curious and picked up a copy. When two of the works in the book were nominated for Hugo awards, I finally picked up Exhalation and read it. I was absolutely blown away by his incredible writing and thought-provoking plots.
This will be a fairly short review, as I don’t want to dive into each individual work. I was very surprised by how much I absolutely loved this collection for a few reasons:
1) I don’t typically like short fiction or collections very often, however this is one of the few times I’ve read a collection from a single author rather than an anthology of various authors.
2) I’m always a little suspicious when literary fiction types praise genre fiction writing. I know it’s a little silly, but I often feel like that praise comes from people who know nothing (or almost nothing) about the genre they’re discussing.
With nine stories of varying lengths, Exhalation contains a variety of stories, varying from the fantastical to the realistic, that will capture any speculative fiction lover’s imagination. Although I had favourites, there wasn’t a single work that I didn’t like in the book -- something that really took me by surprise. Favourites of mine include:
- Omphalos: a story about a scientist in an alternate world in which the existence of God is not only widely accepted as fact, it is provable by science. However, she makes a discover that could change her world forever.
- The Lifecycle of Software Objects: the longest story in the book, which watches a software invention from initiation, through the fad-like popularity, and into obsoletion. That software happens to be an artificial intelligence that can learn and grow in the form of adorable digital pets.
-Exhalation: a scientist from an robotic alien species dissects his own brain in an attempt to discover how memory is stored. In the process, he makes a startling discover about the universe.
Chiang’s stories are wonderful and thought-provoking, perfect for any lover of science or literary fiction. He went from essentially an unknown author to me, to a new favourite. I absolutely cannot wait to read more from him and eagerly await a new collection of stories.