Stories of Your Life and Others

by Ted Chiang

What if men built a tower from Earth to Heaven - and broke through to Heaven's other side? What if we discovered that the fundamentals of mathematics were inconsistent? What if there was a science of naming things which calls life into being from inanimate matter? What if exposure to an alien language forever changed our perception of time? What if all the beliefs of fundamentalist Christianity were literally true, and the sight of sinners being swallowed into Hell was a routine event on city streets? These are the kinds of outrageous questions posed by the stories of Ted Chiang. Collected here for the first time are eight of his extraordinary stories - including one specially written for this volume.

• ISBN10: 1405041021
• ISBN13: 9781405041027
• Publish Date: 20 February 2004 (first published 5 July 2002)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 17 September 2010
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Tor
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[pamela]

Hell is the Absence of God and Story of Your Life are possibly two of the best short stories I've ever read. Everything in this collection means something, and the language choices are very deliberate. These stories are not to be read while distracted. They take profound amounts of concentration. It's High-Concept, unique, diverse, and most of all, and exploratory collection about the human condition.

[remo]

Magnífica colección de historias de CF. Todas tienen un algo que te descoloca mentalmente, como cuando uno se acerca a Greg Egan. La historia en que se basa la peli de "la llegada" (que no he visto) es fantástica en la parte de la ciencia, pero la parte emocional fue la que menos me gustó del libro. La de la matemática que descubre un teorema que no querría descubrir es maravillosa. "Babel" es hipnótica. "Understand" te agarra y no te suelta. La de la caliagnosia es un desborde de fuerza del autor, que hace un documental con decenas de puntos de vista sobre un asunto que es ciencia ficción.
Salvo una o dos que me dejaron un poco meh, el resto son material de primerísima calidad. Absolutamente recomendable.

[arronkau]

A collection of wonderful short stories, full of startling ideas, beautifully explored. This sort of stuff is why I read Sci-Fi.