Stories of Your Life and Others in The Sword and Laser

Aug 17, 2016 Silvana rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, reading-with-friends, anthology, audiobooks

Overall review:
I only liked four of the eight stories here.
Could not understand Division by Zero and the Evolution of Human Science.
I stopped reading Seventy-Two Letters halfway and skimmed through Hell is the Absence of God.
They are just way too confusing and the subjects are not interesting for me. That is why it takes four months for me to finish this book.

I like the other four a lot. Tower of Babylon is fascinating, Understand is downright fun and Liking What You See: A Documentary is geniu ...more

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Apr 08, 2018 Jon added it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, laser-challenge-2018, read-in-my-50s, award-winners, hugo-nominee, anthologies, nebula-winner, audiobooks, liked-it, lcl-adult-book-club

One of my three real-world book groups will read this selection for discussion in early May. When I setup the schedule for 2018, I must have subliminally thought I wouldn't have enough to read during this time of year. I was mistaken.

I just began my annual Hugo Award finalist reading season and there's twice as much to read. At least this anthology, Stories of Your Life and Others, fits easily among the other Hugo finalists, having been a finalist and a winner of many other awards, including th ...more

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Jan 03, 2017 Melani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, short-story

Stories of Your Life and Others is a collection of short stories by Ted Chiang, including the one (Stories of Your Life) upon which the movie Arrival was based. I picked this collection up because I saw the movie and fell in love and decided to read the short story, it’s an amazing collection. A lot of these stories have won various awards, including the Hugo and Nebula and I’m very glad they’ve been collected here. I’m torn between rating this collection four or five stars, because while I thin Stories of Your Life and Others is a collection of short stories by Ted Chiang, including the one (Stories of Your Life) upon which the movie Arrival was based. I picked this collection up because I saw the movie and fell in love and decided to read the short story, it’s an amazing collection. A lot of these stories have won various awards, including the Hugo and Nebula and I’m very glad they’ve been collected here. I’m torn between rating this collection four or five stars, because while I think they’re all amazing stories they don’t call to my soul with the siren’s pull which is something I require from five star reads. Despite my crazy requirements, it’s easily four and a half stars so I’m gonna round up.

If I had to pick an overarching theme to these stories it’s about the search for the meeting point of two seemingly opposing ideas, for example faith vs. science, and what happens to an individual when those two ideas meet. A few years ago I attended a panel that was titled “Does God have a place in modern science fiction” I’d say Ted Chiang struggles with this question over and over in these stories. Whether he decides yay or nay I think will depend on the reader, a seeming contradiction that is perfectly in line with his stories.

I have a few favorites from the collection, though it’s hard to really pick. Division by Zero in which a mathematician discovers a theorem which can prove that all numbers equal each other thus making all mathematics theoretical and how this completely shakes her world. Tower of Babylon is a story which uses Mesopotamian myths to tell a story about finding the divine on earth.

I can’t review this collection without mentioning Arrival and Stories of Your life; except that I think Abigail Nussbaum has me covered for the most part. I’m not sure I fully agree with her, but her analysis of the movie and short story is really good. Unlike most people I’ve seen who’ve reviewed both the movie and story, I honestly can’t pick which I prefer. As Nussbaum lays out, they’re very different and I like them both. ...more

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Jun 03, 2017 Tom Britz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Ted Chiang writes sf that makes the reader think. I tend to like a bit more movement and action, which is why I gave it four stars rather than five. Most of these stories have a theological bent, which was another reason. Story of your life, is a story that had my imagination engaged and that is something I, as a writer, do enjoy. I did like most of the stories, they just weren't what I tend to read. Ted Chiang is also somewhat of a scientist and he uses a scientist nomenclature. I had to put th ...more

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Oct 19, 2017 mina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It's amazing how Ted Chiang can write diverse themes: medicine, mathematics, linguistics, physics, magic, religion, a reteling of a myth, you name it. Some are harder to understand (blame it on my lack of knowledge), but I like the way he assumes that the readers are able to sufficiently comprehend it, without going on and on explaining things. I particularly like the one titled "Liking what you see: a documentary" because of its documentary style and inventiveness.

Would love to read more of his ...more

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Sep 05, 2016 Tiffany rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016

An amazing collection of thought-provoking short stories. Nearly every single one of these short stories left me with something to mull over in my mind afterwards.

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May 16, 2018 Jen rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2018-laser

Did. Not. Like.

I was going to give it two stars bc I was interested at least in the story the movie Arrival was based on (even though I don’t complete understand the story).

But the ending for the story Hell is the Absence of God?

Fuck. That.

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