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A review by ailurolily
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Interesting book, for sure, but I do struggle to see where all the hype lies for it. I'm not used to reading short stories, so most of my criticisms may may be due to the different medium.
One example is that the characters all felt very same-y story to story, but character focus wasn't necessarily the aim (and is difficult to manage in shorter stories due to the minimized length). Since I tend to enjoy very character-focused books, I think this was one of the reasons it didn't really click for me.
The prose also felt somewhat... dry to me? It felt like I was reading a non-fiction article or paper. Like the author was explaining something to me, rather than the story take a natural approach. And this would have been fine for a few of them, if it was about an old scientist writing in his diary, marking his discoveries, or a person recounting their past. But a majority of the stories were not like that. It just made each of them feel duller than they could have.
I can be really picky when it comes to prose, though, so take what you will from my review.
The main goal of this book was to give readers philosophies, moral questions, and ideas for us to ponder and I would say it successfully did that. While I wasn't blown away by any of thr stories, I know st least a few of them will stick in my mind for some time. Despite the low review, it's still worth a read for sure.
One example is that the characters all felt very same-y story to story, but character focus wasn't necessarily the aim (and is difficult to manage in shorter stories due to the minimized length). Since I tend to enjoy very character-focused books, I think this was one of the reasons it didn't really click for me.
The prose also felt somewhat... dry to me? It felt like I was reading a non-fiction article or paper. Like the author was explaining something to me, rather than the story take a natural approach. And this would have been fine for a few of them, if it was about an old scientist writing in his diary, marking his discoveries, or a person recounting their past. But a majority of the stories were not like that. It just made each of them feel duller than they could have.
I can be really picky when it comes to prose, though, so take what you will from my review.
The main goal of this book was to give readers philosophies, moral questions, and ideas for us to ponder and I would say it successfully did that. While I wasn't blown away by any of thr stories, I know st least a few of them will stick in my mind for some time. Despite the low review, it's still worth a read for sure.