Book Review of 'Exhalation: Stories'

What makes Ted Chiang’s ‘Exhalation’ - a collection of hard science fiction stories - a unique read is the contemplative and the incisive nature of his prose. Some of the ideas in his stories are simply mind-boggling and make you somewhat uncomfortable in a Black Mirror-ey sort of way. 

Nothing erases the past. There is repentance, there is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough.

‘Exhalation’ has 9 stories in total - a couple of them are essentially short novellas in themselves. Ted Chiang’s strength is the effortless world-building in his stories. In a few short pages, each story creates a world that is both familiar and unfamiliar with its own peculiarities. 

Even when we’ve experienced the same events as other individuals, we never constructed identical narratives: the criteria used for selecting moments were different for each of us, and a reflection of our personalities.

One of the stories from Ted Chiang’s previous book became the amazing movie ‘Arrival’ back in 2016. ‘Exhalation’ definitely has a few stories that Hollywood will likely cash on. Be as that may, if you enjoy hard science fiction, do give this a go. 4/5.