This is not to say that the elements that made these stories feel outside of our world weren't there. From the concept of beauty to mathematics and even procreation, Chiang gives a new light to all of these subjects with touches of science fiction and even a bit of fantasy.Īll the worlds presented are beautifully constructed at no point did I get the feeling that what was being presented made no sense in the respective universe, and this is extremely important to me.
However, more than just sudden change, I believe that the common thread that this collection has is preconceptions and destroying or debunking them. Goodreads describes the collection as multiple stories where the characters encounter sudden change. The fact that this time there were all written by the same person is really evident, even though the voice on each story changes quite a bit changing point of views and even presenting one as a documentary. While very different, the short stories flow nicely. The collection is fantastic, I wasn't even finished and I kept telling people they had to give it a try. Let me tell you, Stories of Your Life and Others might be the book that convinced me to try short stories more often. The only other collection of short stories I've read recently was METAtropolis (also in audio) and while I enjoyed it, it didn't amaze me.
Second, I went with the Audio version because my library didn't have it and I decided just to go with my Audible credit. First because I haven't read a lot of short stories so I wasn't sure this collection would grab me. I have to admit that I was reluctant at first to give this book a try.
This was the September pick for the Sword and Laser book club