Stories of Your Life and Others Audiobook By Ted Chiang cover art

Stories of Your Life and Others

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection of 1M+ titles.
Yours as long as you’re a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for $8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Stories of Your Life and Others

By: Ted Chiang
Narrated by: Abby Craden, Todd McLaren
Try Standard free

$8.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.78

Buy for $20.78

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.

©2002 Ted Chiang (P)2014 Tantor

Accolades & Awards

Locus Award
2003
Nebula Award
1999
Anthologies & Short Stories Locus Award Nebula Award Science Fiction Thought-Provoking Short Story Fiction First Contact World Literature Suspenseful United States Fantasy Heartfelt Funny Witty Fantasy Anthology

Critic reviews

"Chiang writes seldom, but his almost unfathomably wonderful stories tick away with the precision of a Swiss watch-and explode in your awareness with shocking, devastating force." ( Kirkus, Starred Review)

Featured Article: The Best Short Story Audiobooks to Immerse Yourself In Now


Short stories have had a huge impact on the canon of great literature. In fact, some of history's most revered novelists—Ernest Hemingway, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Louisa May Alcott among them—wrote short stories, which make excellent introductions to their work. Plus, these bite-size listens are the perfect way to get a big dose of literary inspiration even when you’re short on time. To get you started, we’ve compiled a list of listens.

Featured Article The Best Short Story Audiobooks to Immerse Yourself In Now

Editor's Pick

Easily the most compelling set of short stories ever
"Containing the inspiration for the movie Arrival, Stories of Your Life and Others is a sublime collection that puts Ted Chiang’s virtuosic implementation of science front and center. More than that, each story is mathematical in its approach and structure, but the content somehow always transcends the human experience to ask profound questions about existence, emotion, and desire. The end result will leave you astounded that one writer could so precisely pinpoint the algorithms of sensation."
—Michael D., Audible Editor

Thought-provoking Concepts • Original Ideas • Excellent Narration • Fully Developed Protagonists • Philosophical Depth

Highly rated for:

All stars
Most relevant
Really cool collection of short stories. Recommended by a friend and I would recommend it on to more myself. Great.

amazing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Picked it up after seeing Arrival. That story did not disappoint although a lot was added for the movie.

stories that make you think

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This collection is a treasure trove of mind bending ideas that practically beg to be deconstructed and discussed. If religious subjects weren't so radioactive I could see this collection becoming a high school or college lit classic.

Makes you think. Perfect Book Club selection.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
these stories require active attention Angus thought. some are kinda sci-fi, some theologcal fiction. they explore gender assumptions, thought,. really interesting intelligent writing.

thoughtful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It's a book of several short stories, and some were a lot better than others. I preferred the woman's narration to the man's.
The best was "Story of Your Life" which is the basis for the movie "Arrival". If you like the movie, you'd like the story.

some better than others

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews