Click image for interactive version. Most stories are less than an hour, and it’s time well spent for seekers of not just great, but essential speculative fiction.

Exhalation isn’t just a collection of short stories, it’s an experience that you will revisit over and over in your mind. I’m still processing the issues it raises about technology, society, and our collective and individual free will. It’s hard to put into words how profound the ideas, and the execution of those ideas, are.

Again, it’s an experience.

Story collections can sometimes be hit or miss and they are only as strong as their weakest link. There are none here. Ted Chiang wrote the stories in this collection, his second, over the course of almost a decade and a half (2005-2019). They all feel timeless, distinct, and something that is experienced at a personal level.

I’ll argue that these stories do what the best sci-fi should do, and then some. Science fiction allows people to potentially be more open or exposed to ideas that they otherwise wouldn’t be. Exhalation checks that block and then does something even more rare – it gets you thinking about changing your behavior, about being a better citizen of the world, and by doing so, moving the needle in the right direction.

Happy Reading!

Josh

Recreation of the book cover. Click image to interact.