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Ted Chiang's two collections of short stories are near the top of my list for best fiction of this century. Anyone with an interest in technology and humanity

Ted Chiang's two collections of short stories are near the top of my list for best fiction of this century. Anyone with an interest in technology and humanity will find them to be a phenomenal read.

tomduncalf 7y ago
Agreed, they are both really enjoyable reads with some very clever, thought provoking stories. Highly recommended.
justicezyx 7y ago
Links to Amazon pages? I almost exclusively follow software engineering books since 2012 when I started my career as SWE. Had little knowledge in outside areas...
goostavos 7y ago
It's really the humanity of the books that gets me. Division by Zero is one of his pieces that I find myself thinking about all the time for that very reason. It just captures this somberness about how relationships can grow and change and sometimes end. I do now have a Ted Chiang shaped hole in my life after finishing his collections. I just haven't found another author that really gets into the heart of what sci-fi can be.
- sooheon 7y ago
  Try Greg Egan's Axiomatic. I picked it up from a free books charity knowing nothing about it, and found the author to be a little "harder" than Chiang but with the same focus on the humanity to be found in sci-fi.
  - p1esk 7y ago
    Michael Crichton is very good too, and of course Ray Bradbury.
  - davidivadavid 7y ago
    For a taste, make sure to check out Closer, available here: http://eidolon.net/?story=Closer http://eidolon.net/?story=Closer
- ajot 7y ago
  You could try reading something from Jorge Luis Borges. It may not be as sci-fi-y, generally more in the atmosphere of "Tower of Babylon", but great in its treatment of human nature and its relationship with universe.
  - nyolfen 7y ago
    seconding, i found borges through a recommendation after reading chiang and he (borges) became my favorite author
- velavar 7y ago
  Some of Ken Liu's stories in The Paper Menagerie filled that gap for me. They are fabulous in their own right, though, maybe a lot more "dream"-like.

Ted Chiang's two collections of short stories are near the top of my list for best fiction of this century. Anyone with an interest in technology and humanity will find them to be a phenomenal read.

tomduncalf 7y ago

Agreed, they are both really enjoyable reads with some very clever, thought provoking stories. Highly recommended.

justicezyx 7y ago

Links to Amazon pages? I almost exclusively follow software engineering books since 2012 when I started my career as SWE. Had little knowledge in outside areas...

goostavos 7y ago

It's really the humanity of the books that gets me. Division by Zero is one of his pieces that I find myself thinking about all the time for that very reason. It just captures this somberness about how relationships can grow and change and sometimes end. I do now have a Ted Chiang shaped hole in my life after finishing his collections. I just haven't found another author that really gets into the heart of what sci-fi can be.

sooheon 7y ago
Try Greg Egan's Axiomatic. I picked it up from a free books charity knowing nothing about it, and found the author to be a little "harder" than Chiang but with the same focus on the humanity to be found in sci-fi.
- p1esk 7y ago
  Michael Crichton is very good too, and of course Ray Bradbury.
- davidivadavid 7y ago
  For a taste, make sure to check out Closer, available here: http://eidolon.net/?story=Closer http://eidolon.net/?story=Closer
ajot 7y ago
You could try reading something from Jorge Luis Borges. It may not be as sci-fi-y, generally more in the atmosphere of "Tower of Babylon", but great in its treatment of human nature and its relationship with universe.
- nyolfen 7y ago
  seconding, i found borges through a recommendation after reading chiang and he (borges) became my favorite author
velavar 7y ago
Some of Ken Liu's stories in The Paper Menagerie filled that gap for me. They are fabulous in their own right, though, maybe a lot more "dream"-like.