Where to start with Ted Chiang: 4 award-recognized stories
Ted Chiang writes few stories, and nearly every one has won or been shortlisted for a major award. They are short, precise and full of ideas about language, time and minds.
If you read just one: Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang, because it is his most famous story and the basis for the film Arrival.
The novellas
1. Story of Your Life
Won the Nebula Award; finalist for the Hugo Award (1999–2000) ·
A linguist learns an alien language that changes the way she experiences time.
2. The Lifecycle of Software Objects
Won the Hugo and Locus Awards; finalist for the Nebula Award (2011) ·
Two people raise digital beings over years as the world around them changes.
3. Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom
Finalist for the Hugo, Locus and Nebula Awards (2020) ·
Devices let people talk to their other selves in branching timelines.
4. Seventy-Two Letters
Finalist for the Hugo and Locus Awards (2001) ·
In a world where names can animate clay, a scientist faces a crisis about the future of humanity.
How we chose
Every book in this guide won or was a finalist for at least one of the Hugo, Nebula, Locus or Arthur C. Clarke awards. Each book page lists its full award history with sources. Page counts come from English print editions and vary by edition. 4 books in all.