

Understand - A novelette by Ted Chiang - gwern
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/under.htm?2

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huxley
Ted Chiang's "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" novella was read (by J.J.
Campanella) on Starship Sofa back in 2008, it is one of the best things I've
read/listened:

[http://www.starshipsofa.com/2008/03/23/aural-delights-
no-15-...](http://www.starshipsofa.com/2008/03/23/aural-delights-no-15-ted-
chiang/)

"Understand" is available on archive.org:

[http://archive.org/details/TedChiangUnderstand](http://archive.org/details/TedChiangUnderstand)

More stuff is here:
[http://www.sffaudio.com/?page_id=4811](http://www.sffaudio.com/?page_id=4811)

~~~
huxley
Also good for keeping track of Ted:

[http://tedchiang.blogspot.ca](http://tedchiang.blogspot.ca)

which mentions that "Story of your Life" was optioned for a film directed by
Nic Matthieu (also working on Robotech) and adapted by Eric Heisserer.

~~~
salty-horse
Not sure how good that resource is. It was last updated on 2012, and things
happened since then :)

It doesn't mention his new story The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling,
available at
[http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2013/the_truth_of...](http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2013/the_truth_of_fact_the_truth_of_feeling_by_ted_chiang)

Or a recent appearance at the EXPO 1:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_632pic1PlU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_632pic1PlU)

~~~
talon88
Oh my God, a new Ted Chiang story.

I have to say, having read everything he's written, I'm curious what a full
novel would look like, though I'd be happily content if he just came out with
a short story/novellete/novella a year forever. He just puts so much thought
into his world-building it's incredible.

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rumbler
Ted Chiang's short story collection, "Stories of your life and others",
contains some of the best writing I've read in my life.

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jcgun
Ted Chiang writes some amazing stuff. "Lifecycle of Software Objects" is a
personal favourite.

~~~
aghull
All his short stories are worth reading. My favourites are this one, Story of
Your Life, and Tower of Babylon.

~~~
lmm
I couldn't stand Story of Your Life. I felt it made no sense from a physics
point of view, and if you're not going to do that then why write science
fiction at all? (Whereas I very much enjoyed Lifecycles of Software Objects)

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DanBC
Was also recently available on BBC Radio Four Extra.
([http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jtyf](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jtyf))
Sadly, not still available there. (But probably available on Usenet or in a
torrent.)

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eridius
I thought this was an interesting story, but in the end, it was also
completely pointless. The premise was good, but instead of following the
premise to its logical conclusions based on our current understanding of the
world, he proceeded to just make up _everything_. But what really killed it
for me was that the ending was terrible. I don't want to spoil anything, but
the events that led to the ending pretty badly contradicted the abilities of
the protagonist (notably the self-awareness and "meta-programming").

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nine_k
While "Understand" is nice, "72 letters" seem even more brilliant.

Ted Ching usually puts into a short story an amount of ideas some other
authors would expend on a trilogy.

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crapshoot101
I would pay a ridiculous amount of money for a Ted Chiang novel - "Story of
Your Life" is one of the greatest short stories I have ever read, and others
like "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" are spectacular as well.

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Vivtek
He isn't very prolific, but each thing he writes is incredible.

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raintrees
Inspiring, seductive... I sound like the back of any book reviewed by the main
stream, but _the work is good_!

To me, at least...

