A collection to revisit

It's almost inevitable that a collection will miss a five star rating because some part of it doesn't appeal and that's the case here. These are stories with the nature of parables - and so slightly moralistic at times - but that, wherever they're set, have a science/speculative fiction slant. The title story, Exhalation, is superb and The Lifecycle of Software Objects is a dissection of difference, AI, and what constitutes sentience in virtual world entities. Sentience comes up again in The Great Silence, this time in a tale spanning Arecibo, the Fermi Paradox, and parrots, while Omphalos gently and carefully challenges one person's profound faith in a deity. Humanity with its strengths and failings is the driving force for all of these stories; how we think and feel and relate to others and what happens when technology becomes a part of the picture. It isn't dystopian, it doesn't preach, and nor does it labour its message of who and what we are; but it does make us think.

The stories vary considerably in length (I listened on Audible where they ranged from around six minutes to over three hours) and the style is often an account delivered from a particular and singular perspective. It's one of the books I will return to because there's likely to be much that I've missed.

I'll just add that the Author's notes, which pop up at the end of each story and are delivered by the author and give a little bit of the background theoretical context, are slightly jarring in audio but will be much less so in text. I will re-visit these too.

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16 people found this helpful

A completely new genre!

stories about ethics and philosophies but not in any family drama nor on any back drop of war, but through scientific questions. a perfect book for people who understand how science works. this book has touched many bruncges of scientific knoedge and brought story from them in what if scenerioes, proves how well the writer knows about it.
and the narration, wow. and explanation after each story, again is a new genre of writing.

one of the best books i've ever experienced. hats off.

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Floored me

Those are the two words I choose to use to describe my memory of Exhalation

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Absolutely fantastic

This was a really good! I'd had so many people recommend this book to me, and now I understand why.

Stories were very engaging. Themes were extremely clever. And the mechanism of using fiction as a way to explore the philosophical aspects of AI, parallel universes, pre-destination, etc. was flawless.

Highly recommended.

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1 person found this helpful

Fantastic stories

I really enjoyed this anthology. Amy Landon's reading was overly robotic for me however.

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1 person found this helpful

The story

The voices are appealing, the story is well structured and flowing.
A good listening experience before going to sleep.

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Wonderfully thought provoking.

Exhalation really was a revelation. A set of short stories with the author's notes and inspiration for the story tagged on at the end.

From the first story I was gripped, the imagery and atmosphere emerged so quickly and vividly and the characters were so genuinely endearing (and repulsive when required) that you almost forgot these were short stories. Ted Chiang is a master craftsman.

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excellent stories, poor narration.

Stories were really outstanding, but they were partly spoiled by the narrator. Feels like a lot of wasted potential. Nevertheless, I don't regret the purchase.

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1 person found this helpful

speculative fiction~☆

an enjoyable production with a diverse range of voices and stories.
especially enjoyed the author's commentary at the end of each story.

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Mixed bag

This collection had some ideas, some better executed than others. On the one about the computer based characters I was bored long before the end. The “big brother” style of the narrators part was tiresome and the story dragged out too long.
The parrot story was great but left me questioning that if parrots were so smart couldn’t they have figured out a way to communicate?
The “filling lungs” story was interesting but had me saying “he’s described entropy” long before the end.

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