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4.21 AVERAGE
4.21 AVERAGE
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
A mixed bag of short stories. I love the titular one, where a woman attempts to speak with an alien race and in learning their language, can better interpret the full horizon of her daughter's life. My other favorite was the last story "Liking What You See", which examined people's preoccupation with beauty through the debate around "calli", a brain implant that helps ignore that impulse. I also liked the first story "The Tower of Babylon" and "Hell is the Absence of God", stories about human desperation with spiritual underpinnings. I strongly disliked "Understand", about super-human intelligence, and "Division by Zero", which was very mathematical. "Evolution of Human Science" was too short to make an impact. While "Seventy-Two Letters" had an interesting premise around using animating language to solve human reproductive issues, the story arc was odd with an abrupt ending.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Book of intense short stories, gripping but not light reading
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Incredible read. Cutting-edge science fiction short stories that were all deeply imagined and fully realized. There was some exceptionally prescient commentary about AI in there; Ted Chiang is truly a visionary. One of the stories in here is the inspiration for the movie Arrival as well, and I'm a total sucker for alien linguistics.