Synopses & Reviews
"Shining, haunting, mind-blowing tales...Ted Chiang is so exhilarating so original so stylish he just leaves you speechless. I always suggest a person read at least 52 books a year for proper mental functioning but if you only have time for one, be at peace: you found it." Junot Díaz
Stories of Your Life and Others delivers dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar, often presenting characters who must confront sudden change—the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens—with some sense of normalcy. With sharp intelligence and humor, Chiang examines what it means to be alive in a world marked by uncertainty, but also by beauty and wonder. An award-winning collection from one of today’s most lauded writers, Stories of Your Life and Others is a contemporary classic.
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"Chiang writes seldom, but his almost unfathomably wonderful stories tick away with the precision of a Swiss watch—and explode in your awareness with shocking, devastating force." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
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"Chiang derides lazy thinking, weasels it out of its hiding place, and leaves it cowering." Washington Post
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"Confirms that blending science and fine art at this length can produce touching works, tales as intimate as our own blood cells, with the structural strength of just-discovered industrial alloys." Seattle Times
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"United by a humane intelligence that speaks very directly to the reader, and makes us experience each story with immediacy and Chiang’s calm passion." China Mieville, The Guardian
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"Ted Chiang is one of the best and smartest writers working today. If you don’t know his name, let’s fix that. Now." Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
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"Meticulously pieced together, utterly thought through, Chiang’s stories emerge slowly...but with the perfection of slow-growing crystal." Lev Grossman, Best of the Decade: Science Fiction and Fantasy, Techland.com
About the Author
Ted Chiang was born in Port Jefferson, New York, and holds a degree in computer science. In 1989 he attended the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Workshop. His fiction has won four Hugo, four Nebula, and four Locus awards, and he is the recipient of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. Stories of Your Life and Others has been translated into ten languages. He lives near Seattle, Washington.