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Exhalation
- Narrated by: Ted Chiang, Edoardo Ballerini, Amy Landon, Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
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Publisher's Summary
This much-anticipated second collection of stories is signature Ted Chiang, full of revelatory ideas and deeply sympathetic characters. In ‘The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate’, a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and the temptation of second chances. In the epistolary ‘Exhalation’, an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications not just for his own people but for all of reality. And in ‘The Lifecycle of Software Objects’, a woman cares for an artificial intelligence over 20 years, elevating a faddish digital pet into what might be a true living being. Also included are two brand-new stories: ‘Omphalos’ and ‘Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom’.
In Exhalation, Ted Chiang wrestles with the oldest questions on earth - what is the nature of the universe? What does it mean to be human? - and ones that no one else has even imagined. And, each in its own way, the stories prove that complex and thoughtful science fiction can rise to new heights of beauty, meaning and compassion.
What listeners say about Exhalation
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Cassandra
- 09-12-2021
I really quite liked that
Surprisingly interesting compilation of short science fiction stories with a twist. It's unlike the standard science fiction of space ships and battles. This book is more concerned about exploring philosophical questions in a scientific context.
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- Julie E Morris
- 08-10-2022
I've never read/listened to anything like it
the performance is great, short stories are unmatched.
a truly thought provoking book. Must read
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- michael strong
- 14-10-2019
Outstanding!
Fantastic performance added an extra dimension to a collection of extraordinary tales. Highly, highly recommended.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Heli Lahteela-Tabone
- 18-02-2020
Really interesting scifi short stories
All the stories explore the idea of a fictional technology or idea or premise and how it would affect an everyday life. It's honestly my favourite kind of scifi. Suggesting a likely or unlikely-but-interesting change in society and following the implications on a small scale is very cool. They're also generally fairly optimistic stories, which is very pleasant. Not every story caught me, but lots of them stayed with me for days and weeks after reading. Possibly they'll stay forever.
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3 people found this helpful
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- M. Tweedale
- 11-06-2023
Thoughtful speculative fiction
At least two stories in this collection are now among my favourite speculative fiction short stories that I've experienced.
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- Tiffany
- 16-08-2019
Enjoyed the book but hated the female narrator
The stories and author's notes were interesting but the female narrator was terrible. She was robotic and lacked nuance. Other narrators were good.
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3 people found this helpful
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- pootlebaby
- 22-11-2019
Wonderous
A series of extraordinary short stories, that are intelligent and glistening with questions and ideas.
Highly recommended.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jordie
- 03-10-2021
mixed feelings
love the ideas in these stories, but some are a little too long for being 'short' story. the voices of the digiands were not credible and neither was their pronunciation. other stories were wonderful.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Dario
- 02-01-2022
a mix quality bag of stories
Time travel and multiverse stories were good, with some new perspectives and we'll written, the rest mediocre. The social media story was long, boring and poorly written.
Some of the narrator's characters voices were distracting and didn't add anything.
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- Zhuo Jia Dai
- 04-12-2019
Only the first story is really good. The rest, meh
The first story about the Merchant was pretty good. Then the stories explored intriguing themes but were not as interesting to listen to
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