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jethro_jeebro 's review for:

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
4.5
challenging hopeful reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
Arrival has been one of my favorite movies ever since its release in 2016, so I’m thrilled that I finally got my hands on a copy of this! This also marks my first time reading Ted Chiang, and I was completely blown away. My favorite stories from this were as follows:

  1. “The Evolution of Human Science”: Very short and sweet. Its five pages packed a punch with their exploration of human obsolescence in an increasingly technological world.
  2. “Tower of Babylon”: Just a really cool sci-fi take on the Tower of Babel story. 
  3. “Story of Your Life”: Loved it just as much as its movie adaptation. Something I noticed the adaptation omitted was the story’s theme of loss and grief. Also, renaming the aliens Abbot and Costello was funny, but Flapper and Raspberry are OBJECTIVELY funnier names. 
  4. “Seventy-Two Letters”: I adore anything that goes at Victorian society. Really cool story based on Jewish folklore—The Golem: How He Came into the World has just shot up my watch list. 
  5. “Understand”: Fun take on human super-intelligence. Obsessed with the idea of a language that is coexpressive with mathematics. 

All the stories were great, but the three remaining ones just didn’t resonate with me the same way. I think I really would’ve enjoyed “Division by Zero” more if I wasn’t triggered by the whole suicidality from a loss of reality thing haha.
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