Review: Stories of Your Life and Others (Spoiler-Free)

George Saunders meets Blake Crouch.

And if that isn't a good enough description for you, how's Andy Weir if he cared about prose (and politics)? I went into this collection mostly excited to read the story that birthed Arrival, and left quite excited to read further collections from Chiang. He tackles sci-fi concepts in depth without shying away from the math or theory, but also weaves that into the structure of his writing (unlike his aforementioned commercial counterparts). It's a unique combination. Saunders comes close, but doesn't have a scientific background, so his stories skirt more around the actual science and focus on playing with the intersection of prose and premise.

Tower of Babylon- 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one is actually fantasy, not sci-fi, which I was not expecting. Because of that, it took me a little longer to get into, but once I was immersed I highly enjoyed it.

Understand- 3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Definitely the most Blake Crouch feeling out of the whole collection. Slightly comical, slightly stupid, but ultimately engaging.

Division by Zero- 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Here's where we begin the streak of devastation, where we start leaning into the existential. Especially haunting for those of us with a love of math.

Story of Your Life- 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We all know this one. No notes besides that I was surprised about some large differences between this story and the film. Every change made for the movie actually made it better.

Seventy-Two Letters- 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a sudden departure from sci-fi to historical fantasy, which I found a bit jarring. I'm not particularly interested in folklore so I did not care very much about exploring the concept of the golem. I did appreciate the nods to AI, policy, and gene editing, but they don't come together cleanly enough to feel like the focus of the story.

The Evolution of Human Science- no rating

This one's just too short to rate. Feels like a cool concept for a story, but isn't one itself.

Hell Is the Absence of God- 4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When this started, I wasn't sure in which direction we were heading. I found it a bit opaque because I am not religious and not interested in becoming so. But as I continued reading, I realized Chiang is not either. I love how slowly the story reveals itself. How brutal it is, how unforgiving. Definitely my second favorite.

Liking What You See: A Documentary- 3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

While this is fun to ponder, it is a huge case of "tell not show." It's told in a documentary format which some might consider creative, but I honestly think is kind of lazy. This feels like an outline you would write in order to explore how different characters would react to the premise, not a story in itself. That being said, it's obviously still an interesting premise and explored pretty thoroughly through the characters. I actually think I found myself changing my mind on the calli by the end of it.

For context, in this world, something is invented called "calli" that can turn off people's ability to perceive beauty in faces. The whole thing is a debate on whether this should be mandated. And while I maintain that I wouldn't want something like this mandated (I don't want anything about our bodies mandated), I changed my mind on what I think about the concept of calli itself. At first, I was averse to it. I don't like the idea of altering one's mind. But then I considered how much I despise the impact that beauty standards have on our society.

I won't spoil the story, but the protagonist is raised with a calli, then decides to turn it off one day. And the realizations she comes to about how she's changed for the worse are eye-opening to how entrenched I am in this culture without even being entirely conscious of it.

I've been thinking recently about how much I do for the perception of others that I actively don't want to be doing as an individual. Shaving my body hair. Putting on makeup. Painting my nails. Getting blisters from nice shoes.

So, I've started to try to only do those things when I actually want to (even though it's still ultimately rooted in appearance being a moral value). Let's be real, I'd never shave if I didn't feel like it was a beauty standard. If I didn't feel like men, even men who respect me, would be disgusted (at hair that everyone has...). So yeah, if I could turn off that part of everyone's brains, I would.

It frustrates me when people say that plastic surgery, makeup, weekly manicures and blowouts, etc. are feminist because women have the ability to choose them. It's certainly progress that women are not forced into as much bodily contortion as say, the 50s, but these practices are still all only chosen by women to please the part of their brain wired to consider appearance a value. And the thing that did this wiring is the patriarchy. So no, it's not possible to get conventionally attractive plastic surgery "for yourself". Because "yourself" has been infected by an outside influence so nefarious it convinces you it came from within.