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malaikawrites's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
This was absolutely wonderful! Every story held its own, nut all together? All together it was dynamic, thought provoking and world-view shifting. It was a holistically powerful collection and I'm so glad I decided to pick it up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Death and Suicide
Minor: Racial slurs and Sexism
kylieqrada's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
😱 I'm not usually an anthology girly, but this absolutely slapped. Almost all of the stories were highly rated, but Story of Your Life will definitely stick with me. I need to read Exhalation, like, now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness
Moderate: Death, Child death, and Suicide
Minor: Racism, Sexism, and Bullying
bomenvernietiger's review
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
All the points for blowing me away completely. Minus a little for not always understanding women and autism.
This would be fully timeless, except that the author felt the need to include such a sexist trope as a father coming to terms with his daughter developing breasts. This holds the particular story back decades.
This would be fully timeless, except that the author felt the need to include such a sexist trope as a father coming to terms with his daughter developing breasts. This holds the particular story back decades.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, and Death
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexism, Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, and Blood
laurareads87's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I just assume that any book by Ted Chiang is going to receive a five-star rating from me, and Stories of Your Life and Others unsurprisingly met that expectation. I'd read some of the stories in this collection before and I've taught the film Arrival, based on one of them, in a university Cultural Studies class. What Ted Chiang does remarkably well, in my mind, is take what might seem like a simple premise -- for example, what if a technology existed to disrupt the ability to respond to beauty (or lack thereof) in human faces, thereby eliminating lookism? -- and explore it from multiple angles in a remarkably brief number of pages. His writing ranges from exhilarating to tragic to hilarious but is always, always thought-provoking in the best possible way. Highly, highly recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Bullying, Sexism, and Racism
bwwilhelm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Ableism, Death, and Medical content
Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia, Child death, Infertility, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, and Xenophobia
booksthatburn's review against another edition
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
These stories play with math, language, and science, situating their more technical aspects within various strange and internally consistent rule-sets which stretch into the fantastic while wearing the clothes of the scientific, all to tell deeply moving stories about people in strange worlds which are almost like our own. From a literal interpretation of the Tower of Babel wherein they reach to the heavens, to a mathematical formalism so destabilizing that it drives the theorist to despair, to a contemplation on beauty and appearance which refuses to ever quite take a side on its central question. One of the strengths of this collection is the worldbuilding, the way the details vary from story to story but they're all extremely immersive, exploring the strange corners of each premise while still feeling complete and focused. My favorites were "Tower of Babylon" and "Understand", closely followed by "Story of Your Life" (upon which the 2016 film, "Arrival" is based). Several of them were uncomfortable in a good way, but that experience will obviously vary widely.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Minor: Ableism, Bullying, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, and Torture
Tower of Babylon: CW for death. Understand: CW for anxiety, PTSD, panic attacks, major character death (not depicted), death (not depicted). Division by Zero: CW for mental illness, attempted suicide. Story of Your Life: CW for death (not depicted). Seventy-Two Letters: CW for sexism, racism, eugenics, violence, torture (not depicted), death (not depicted). The Evolution of Human Science: No major CWs. Hell is the Absence of God: CW for bullying (not depicted), ableism, discussion of suicide, major character death, death. “Liking What You see: A Documentary”: CW for sexism (minor), ableism (minor).
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