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Comment by stared | Hacker News Reader

I read "Stories of Your Life and Others" this year and it was for me the best fiction in a few years. Cognitive sci-fi, sometimes with religious themes (e.g. what if Kabbalah were a basis for the industrial revolution).

Also, quite a few stories by Ted Chiang are available online, see links in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Chiang.

EDIT: Freely accessible stories converted to mobi (the Kindle format): https://www.dropbox.com/s/wbhdyer9qfpexcm/Stories%20accessib...

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'story of your life', the short story the film is based on, can be read online here: http://web.archive.org/web/20101206050220/http://guccipiggy....

I'm reading the The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate now. It's really great. It feels a bit like Borges, but conveniently deboned of the classical allusion a modern idiot like me can choke on.

For me, the ultimate trifecta of high-concept sci-fi authors is Ted Chiang, Charles Stross, and Greg Egan. Every time I read one of their books I'm left dropping a constant stream of "whoa"s.

If you liked his Kabbalah story, you will love http://unsongbook.com

edit: and the much shorter http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/04/03/the-study-of-anglophysi...

Seventy-Two Letters is a great story. I'd absolutely love to see a Zachtronics-esque take on it too.

I will second this, that book was fantastic. I hope the movie is as good as the story, but I don't think it will.

But you will go to the movie anyway, fully knowing that it will not meet your expectations... ;)

(Also, free will vs time seem to be one of his favourite themes - at least two other stories are about that.)

> But you will go to the movie anyway, fully knowing that it will not meet your expectations... ;)

Yes :( Same with the Martian. The movie was good, but the book was just fantastic.

It was a very in-joke (cf.: would you conceive a daughter if.. [spoiler]). Actually, I heard that the movie is good.

Oh, haha, I didn't catch it at first. Good one :)

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