Stories of Your Life and Others

The first book from one of the most acclaimed new SF writers of the last dozen years

Ted Chiangs first published story, ”Tower of Babylon”, won the Nebula Award for 1990. Subsequent stories have won the Asimov's SF Magazine reader poll, a second Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternative history. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992. Story for story, he is the most honored young writer in modern SF. Now, collected for the first time, are all seven of this extraordinary writers extraordinary stories plus a new story written especially for this volume.

What if men built a tower from Earth to Heavenand broke through to Heavens other side? What if we discovered that the fundamentals of mathematics were arbirtrary and inconsistent? What if there were a science of naming things that call life into being from inanimate matter? What if exposure to an alien language forever changed our perception of time? What if all the beliefs of fundamentalist Christianity were literally true, and the sight of sinners being swallowed into fiery pits were a routine event on city streets? These are the kinds of outrageous questions posed by the stories of Ted Chiang. Stories of your life... and others.

Contents:

• Tower of Babylon
• Understand
• Division by Zero
• Story of Your Life
• Seventy-Two Letters
• The Evolution of Human Science
• Hell Is the Absence of God
• Liking What You See: A Documentary
• Story Notes