That book was exceptional, and, as it turns out with Exhalation, it may well also be the exception. ‘Story of Your Life’ may well be about first contact with aliens, but it is about parenthood and the fears and anxieties that go along with it, it is about language and how we perceive ourselves and others through the way we speak. At the time, China Mieville said of the stories, “it is the rationalism of the characters – and the writer – that makes them emotional and human.” That was the crux of what made Stories of Your Life work so well, that ability to mine extremely high concept science-fiction with deeply resonant human stories. Chiang’s first short fiction collection, Stories of Your Life and Others was a marvel of science-fiction, garnering awards and leading to the adaptation of the titular ‘Story of Your Life’ into the brilliant film Arrival. But there is a kernel of truth of that notion at the heart of Exhalation, the second collection of stories by Ted Chiang. There are plenty of second novels and collections that prove better than someone’s debut. The difficult second book is something of a cliché in writing, and mostly untrue.
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