I feel like an idiot but I have only just discovered Ted Chiang

[Leslie]

omg...how did I miss this profoundly talented sci fi author? How? HOW???? And all the Nebula's he has won and still I missed? aaaaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhh

I stumbled over his short story collection Exhalation, read the first story eponymously named, and fell in love. So now in true writer style, I MUST UNDERSTAND how he managed to create a fully formed vision of this totally alien world in a short story. I think this falls on @Walker talking about Asimov's classic Nightfall in the Bootcamp we are just finishing up. That lead me to read the full novel, not as good BTW. And I think that was how I ended up with the Chian collection. Anyone else read Exhalation or the one I am reading now The Lifecycle of Software Objects want to help me figure this out.

Good God, what I would not give to write like that.

 

[Tracy Koppel]

Sorry, I haven't read anything by Chiang, but your post made me want to read them. I'm swamped now and in August. Maybe in September or October we can form a read-like-a-writing book discussion group and discuss how he does it?

 

[Pat Griffith]

His stuff is amazing. I looked for the short story after I saw "Arrival" in 2016. The short story Arrival is based on is absolutely brilliant. He only has the two short story collections. That's it! I could read his stuff forever,