Review of Exhalation

Exhalation

Author: Ted Chiang

Publisher: Vintage Books

Publication Date: May 2019

        A parrot admonishes us about the Fermi Paradox. A time machine in a Baghdad bazaar teaches us about acceptance. A mechanical universe comprehends life by the breath. Virtual pets learn - and teach - humanity. Free will is undone by a button. A robot nanny is a failure of conception. Recorded memory reveals the inhumanities of truth. Even parallel universes cannot separate character from choice.

        It might seem difficult to draw connected lines through stories that range from an Arabian folktale to hard science fiction. But consistent themes are readily apparent and deftly unify Exhalation. Each of the nine stories revolve around the power and constraints of perspective, and the limitations and possibilities of choice. Volition and perspective are the common and complementary themes that make Exhalation a collection rather than just an entertaining bunch of stories.

        In fact, Chiang’s ability to cohere seemingly disparate lines of plot and thought and imagination is what makes Exhalation such a worthy read. The diversity of the settings, timelines, characters, and story length showcases the remarkable breadth of Chiang’s imagination. He is a perfectly fine writer, but it is really in the complexity of his imagination and the breadth of his philosophical provocation that he excels. There is an ouroboros quality that pulls us into Chiang’s writing; the journey of a story arc often ends up limning the questions that created the story in the first place. The result is a deepening sense of curiosity. Sometimes it feels like we’re being told a really good story by a really good professor. We don’t even mind that he’s teaching us something.

        It is not incidental that Chiang is a technical writer for the software industry. His job is to explain, in great detail, complicated things. If he errs in Exhalation, it is by occasionally over-explaining the implications of a story, assuming his audience needs conclusions drawn for them in the same way that an audience reading a technical explanation might. But this is a small critique for an expansive collection. If you like science fiction filled with things that go boom in space, Exhalation might not be for you. This is for people who are willing to be prodded as much as they are entertained.

- D. K. Nuray