# The Short Stories of Ted Chiang **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [December 5, 2022, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039 "2022-12-05T02:58:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2022, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/21 "2022-12-16T14:31:16Z")
So you guys have intrigued me - if I want to read Ted Chiang’s stuff, where should I start? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2022, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/22 "2022-12-16T14:34:37Z")
Probably the “[Stories of Your Life And Others](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stories_of_Your_Life_and_Others)” collection. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2022, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/23 "2022-12-16T14:41:37Z")
His more recent works have been collected in “[Exhalation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhalation:_Stories)” Used to be that you really couldn’t read some of his stories because they were no longer accessible or in print but more or less his entire output has now been collected between those two books. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2022, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/24 "2022-12-16T16:08:58Z")
I gave “Exhalation” to my sister, a fanatic reader, and she is, so far, utterly blown away. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2022, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/25 "2022-12-16T20:36:21Z")
If you’re looking to pick up some of Chiang’s books, keep an eye out. The collection _Stories of Your Life And Others_ has also been published under the title _Arrival_ (when the movie based on that story was released). They’re the same book. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2022, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/26 "2022-12-17T00:06:30Z")
It’s a common but confusing practice to rename a collection after the story in it that has just been made into a movie (as happened with “The Best of Henry Kuttner” - republished as “The Last Mimzy” and a collection of PKD stories republished as “The Minority Report”) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2022, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/27 "2022-12-17T00:31:50Z")
I can’t remember which author it was (maybe Dick) that had a short story collection released under three different names. The original anthology name, a renaming after a story that was made into a movie, and then a third renaming a few years alter when a different story in the collection was made into a movie. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2022, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/28 "2022-12-17T01:47:05Z")
Given how many PK Dick stories have neen made into movies, it’s probably one of his. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2022, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/29 "2022-12-17T01:57:42Z")
Based on reccos here, I bought this collection. I can see where it may be interesting to people who work in certain fields, but as a layman it was the most boring crap I’ve read in a very long time. Finally gave up about 3/4 through. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2022, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/30 "2022-12-26T22:12:15Z")
FWIW I also read the first collection based on the love fest here and am also underwhelmed. I do admire the premises, which are thought provoking, and the quick set ups of alternate fantasy worlds. None though seem very well explored. More like preliminary sketches and barely that. Pitches for stories more than stories. I think someone commented about the characters being distant. Maybe that’s it. No personality to them, more vehicles to give clunky exposition. Still I admire many of the core ideas. They’d be fun discussions. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2022, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/31 "2022-12-26T22:54:59Z")
He is definitely an “ideas” sci Fi writer, not a character writer. Honestly, most of the good idea-based sci Fi has mediocre characters. Or embarrassingly bad characters. I love a lot of authors whose characters are meh. I read other genres for characters. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/32 "2022-12-27T05:20:31Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > > [@puzzlegal](#): > > > > I haven’t seen it. Maybe i shouldn’t. > > I VEHEMENTLY disagree. It is a outstanding movie, made by one of the greatest filmmakers alive. The acting is stellar, the script tight, the cinematography magnificent. > > It is significantly altered from the novella, but it’s totally worth a watch as its own work of art. I think “Arrival” was an outstanding movie, so much so that I saw it again within just a few days of first seeing it. I’ve seen it at least 4 times to date. I just read the short story it was based on, “The Story of your Life” and was actually disappointed because it didn’t contain even 25% of what was in the movie. Many things were significantly changed in the movie, and the movie added many major plot elements to flesh out the story. For example, (this really isn’t a spoiler) the short story gives no real reason for the alien contact, but the movie gives a very compelling reason for it. I was very impressed with the job the screenwriters did. They took a short story which provided only an incomplete outline and created a coherent (after watching it enough times), compelling, emotional story. “Arrival” is, IMO, one of the best movies of the last decade. J. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/33 "2022-12-27T07:38:27Z")
Interesting discussion - I found ‘The story of your life’, and a fair proportion of the other short stories he did perfectly satisfactory. Chiang had a central idea and wrote around that, but it was to create a short story, not a miniaturised novel. Finding a short story to be deficient because they are not a novel is, to me, like rejecting individual singles because they lack the arc and diversity and gatefold sleeve of a double album. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/34 "2022-12-27T14:17:09Z")
> [@jharvey963](#): > > the short story gives no real reason for the alien contact, but the movie gives a very compelling reason for it. I think that story is one of the better ones and the movie is fine. But the reason given in the movie somewhat undercuts the central idea of the story. The idea is the thought of comprehending time in a different way and therefore doing knowing what will be has to be. Causation is just one way of perception. The motivation to save themselves in the future takes away from it. She does what she knows will lead to a future of her daughter dying, remembering it before it occurs. Not in order to make it happen. The future is as much as the past and present are. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2022, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/35 "2022-12-27T15:40:59Z")
> [@](#): > > ‘How—how _does_ the Universe end?’ said Billy. > ‘We blow it up, experimenting with new fuels for our flying saucers. A > Tralfamadorian test pilot presses a starter button, and the whole Universe disappears.’ So it goes. > > ‘If you know this,’ said Billy, ‘isn’t there some way you can prevent it? Can’t you keep the pilot from _pressing_ the button?’ > ‘He has _always_ pressed it, and he always _will_. We _always_ let him and we always _will_ let him. The moment is structured that way.’ ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2022, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/36 "2022-12-28T00:13:39Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > Chiang had a central idea and wrote around that, but it was to create a short story, not a miniaturised novel. That was my take. A movie and a short story are different forms of art. A Western movie will usually have a certain structure, usually expressed in three acts, and the aliens needed something of a reason to come to Earth to make it work. A short story isn’t the same thing, and the short story didn’t require the aliens have a reason (that the Earthlings know of) to come to Earth. It would have simply been a distraction from the point of the story. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2023, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039/37 "2023-01-02T00:19:28Z")
So I bought and read the _Exhalation_ collection over the holidays. Pretty good, but not as good as the first collection. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-short-stories-of-ted-chiang/976039.md?page=1)