If you weren’t my mother, this would be illegal, you’ll say, seething as you unwind the power cord and plug it into the wall outlet. Thirteen years ago I knew the carpets would need vacuuming around now, and having a baby seemed to be the cheapest and easiest way to get the job done. The only reason you had me was so you could get a maid you wouldn’t have to pay, you’ll say bitterly, dragging the vacuum cleaner out of the closet. I remember the scenario of your origin you’ll suggest when you’re twelve. Telling it to you any earlier wouldn’t do any good for most of your life you won’t sit still to hear such a romantic - you’d say sappy - story. I’d love to tell you the story of this evening, the night you’re conceived, but the right time to do that would be when you’re ready to have children of your own, and we’ll never get that chance. Right now your dad and I have been married for about two years, living on Ellis Avenue when we move out you’ll still be too young to remember the house, but we’ll show you pictures of it, tell you stories about it. And then your dad says, Do you want to make a baby?
We came out onto the patio to look at the full moon then I told your dad I wanted to dance, so he humors me and now we’re slow-dancing, a pair of thirtysomethings swaying back and forth in the moonlight like kids. Your dad and I have just come back from an evening out, dinner and a show it’s after midnight. This is the most important moment in our lives, and I want to pay attention, note every detail. Your father is about to ask me the question.
He lives near Seattle, Washington.Įxcerpt. Stories of Your Life and Others has been translated into ten languages. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. His fiction has won four Hugo, four Nebula, and four Locus awards, and he is the recipient of the John W. In 1989 he attended the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Workshop. Ted Chiang was born in Port Jefferson, New York, and holds a degree in computer science. He puts the science back in science fiction-brilliantly.-Booklist (starred Review) The first must-read SF book of the year.-Publishers Weekly (starred Review) You won’t know SF if you don’t read Ted Chiang.-Greg BearĬhiang writes seldom, but his almost unfathomably wonderful stories tick away with the precision of a Swiss watch-and explode in your awareness with shocking, devastating force.-Kirkus Reviews (starred Review) each of those stories is a goddamned jewel.-Cory Doctorow, BoingBoingĬonfirms that blending science and fine art at this length can produce touching works, tales as intimate as our own blood cells, with the structural strength of just-discovered industrial alloys.-Seattle TimesĬhiang derides lazy thinking, weasels it out of its hiding place, and leaves it cowering.-Washington PostĮssential. United by a humane intelligence that speaks very directly to the reader, and makes us experience each story with immediacy and Chiang’s calm passion.-China Mieville, The Guardian You must read him.-Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble Now.-Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves If you don’t know his name, let’s fix that. Ted Chiang is one of the best and smartest writers working today. but with the perfection of slow-growing crystal.-Lev Grossman, Best of the Decade: Science Fiction and Fantasy, Techland
Meticulously pieced together, utterly thought through, Chiang’s stories emerge slowly.