A review by laurareads87
Exhalation by Ted Chiang

5.0

Wonderful -- five stars no question. Exhalation is a collection of short stories and novellas -- the lengths range quite a bit -- most previously published elsewhere but a few new. Inevitably some stories resonated with me more than others but all of them were good; this is one of few short fiction collections I read where truly none of the stories felt like filler. I enjoyed Chiang's notes on the stories at the end of the book as well, giving little insights into his inspirations and thought process. The overarching theme, to me, seemed to be new technologies' impacts -- technologies here ranging from writing to AI to communication across alternate timelines -- on how humans think about themselves, their lives, & each other; many were very much self-reflexive, with characters' thought processes of where particular technologies might lead. I'm looking forward to picking up Chiang's other short story collection.