Stories of Your Life and Others

Ted Chiang

Feb 2014 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Todd McLaren and Abby Craden

About this audiobook

This new edition of Ted Chiang's masterful first collection, Stories of Your Life and Others, includes his first eight published stories. Combining the precision and scientific curiosity of Kim Stanley Robinson with Lorrie Moore's cool, clear love of language and narrative intricacy, this award-winning collection offers listeners the dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar. Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change-the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens-while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy. In the amazing and much-lauded title story (the basis for the 2016 movie Arrival), a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her knowledge of alien languages and non-linear memory recollection. A clever pastiche of news reports and interviews chronicles a college's initiative to "turn off" the human ability to recognize beauty in "Liking What You See: A Documentary." With sharp intelligence and humor, Chiang examines what it means to be alive in a world marked by uncertainty and constant change, and also by beauty and wonder.

Ratings and reviews

Great narration, stories are hit or miss. The title story, the basis of movie Arrival, brought me here and did not disappoint. A few others were well written and thought provoking, one I liked more than Arrival. Around half were bizarro religious sci-fi which made immersion impossible. The bad ones were more towards the end, to the point where I decided not to finish. It is worth a listen but skip the ones that aren't intriguing. I'd recommend getting it at a library instead of purchasing.

good app

About the author

Ted Chiang is a celebrated science fiction writer and the author of numerous short stories, including "Exhalation," which won the Hugo, British Science Fiction, and Locus awards. He lives near Seattle.

Todd McLaren was involved in radio for more than twenty years in cities on both coasts. He left broadcasting for a full-time career in voice-overs, where he has been heard on more than 5,000 TV and radio commercials, as well as TV promos, narrations for documentaries on such networks as A&E and the History Channel, and films.

Abby Craden is a professional actress and voice artist who can be heard in numerous TV and radio commercials, video games, and audiobooks. An AudioFile Earphones Award winner as well as an AudioFile Best Voice of 2012, Abby is an award-winning stage actress and a resident artist with the prestigious theater A Noise Within.