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What Members Thought
I love short stories, collections of them, anthologies, you name it, but I always have a hard time giving a total rating to the whole collection and often I end up right in the middle.
And by the way, I love the title of this book, how it incorporates one of the titles of the short stories and explains exactly what this collection is at the same time. Brilliant.
Speaking of brilliant, as with many collections, this one has some brilliant stories and some stories I found myself less than enthused ...more
And by the way, I love the title of this book, how it incorporates one of the titles of the short stories and explains exactly what this collection is at the same time. Brilliant.
Speaking of brilliant, as with many collections, this one has some brilliant stories and some stories I found myself less than enthused ...more
I'm not a writer, but as a reader I can say that writing short stories would be hard work. You have to build a universe, develop characters and set up a plot all within a few short pages (I think around 50 pages was the longest story in this book). Ted Chiang does that and more in all of these stories.
I simply enjoyed each one. Granted, I guess I had a favorite ( I don't want to make the other stories jealous, so I'm not telling). I appreciate the direct and unapologetic manner in which themes ...more
I simply enjoyed each one. Granted, I guess I had a favorite ( I don't want to make the other stories jealous, so I'm not telling). I appreciate the direct and unapologetic manner in which themes ...more
As with all short story collections, you're bound to enjoy some more than others. My favorites, which I consider to be 5(+) star reads, are Tower of Babylon, Story of Your Life, Seventy-Two Letters, and Hell is the Absence of God.
I did find one of the main character's reaction in Divide by Zero to be annoying enough to detract from what was otherwise a fascinating concept.
Even though, these are all excellent examples of why I love science fiction so much. Not only is there a lot of imagination, ...more
I did find one of the main character's reaction in Divide by Zero to be annoying enough to detract from what was otherwise a fascinating concept.
Even though, these are all excellent examples of why I love science fiction so much. Not only is there a lot of imagination, ...more
3.5
3.5*
"Tower of Babylon" ✭✭✭✩✩
Not my kind of story, and while I liked the ending, I felt like the pacing was all over the place throughout.
"Understand" ✭✭✩✩✩
This had an interesting concept going for it, but I absolutely hated the voice, and felt very little for the main character. I don't think he was meant to be likeable, but still. I also thought the story was going in a very different direction, and I was more interested in that direction than the one the story chose. It feels unfair to rate so ...more
"Tower of Babylon" ✭✭✭✩✩
Not my kind of story, and while I liked the ending, I felt like the pacing was all over the place throughout.
"Understand" ✭✭✩✩✩
This had an interesting concept going for it, but I absolutely hated the voice, and felt very little for the main character. I don't think he was meant to be likeable, but still. I also thought the story was going in a very different direction, and I was more interested in that direction than the one the story chose. It feels unfair to rate so ...more
Holy crap. This might be one of the best short story collections that I've ever read. Not one of the stories in here is inessential. Ted Chiang's writing is absolutely fascinating - he combines a lot of hard science, linguistics, philosophy, an mathematics into his writing. This is science fiction that leans heavily towards the "science" part of that phrase, and it's wondrous. Chiang's stories are full of "what if" scenarios that are almost plausible in their execution. By filling his prose with
...more
I'd already read "Story of Your Life" in an anthology (long before Arrival was made) and really liked it. This book has been on my to-read list for ages, and I finally got around to it. I was totally blown away by a couple of the stories in this collection. All of them are well written, inventive, and thoughtful, but "Tower of Babylon" and "Seventy-two Letters" are my favorites. They're the kind of stories that you dread finishing. I can't wait to read more of Chiang's work!
...more
Brilliant stories that make you think. I consider him one of the best writers of our age.
One of the best short story collections I've read in a very long time.
A mixture of solid 5 star stories and none less than 4 stars; I'm in a generous mood at the moment so giving the overall collection 5 stars.
If you tend towards the more scientific or mathamatical, but also like messing around with the purely fantastical then I highly reccomend giving this collection a try. ...more
A mixture of solid 5 star stories and none less than 4 stars; I'm in a generous mood at the moment so giving the overall collection 5 stars.
If you tend towards the more scientific or mathamatical, but also like messing around with the purely fantastical then I highly reccomend giving this collection a try. ...more
Dec 19, 2010
Patrick
marked it as other
Dec 11, 2011
Amanda
marked it as to-read
Jul 29, 2017
Mike
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction,
2017
Nov 26, 2017
Stephen
marked it as to-read
