Exhalation (2019) is a collection of wildly imaginative, inquisitive, and delightful short stories. Each one looks at humanity’s questions in varying science fiction context. Ted Chiang asks what is love if not effort in the form of adopting digital animals. He looks at the pros and cons of memory documentation and how it messes with our truths in the form. He searches for human’s purpose on earth through the lens of archeology and astrology. And he makes it completely enjoyable to read. If you’re going to read any book this year, make it this one.
If Black Mirror was charming
in books, short stories, fiction