Like his first collection, Ted Chiang's EXHALATION is a master class of speculative short fiction: wondrous, sharp and inviting. These nine stories, some new and some rare uncollected classics, explore our world through futures or parallels that at most exist only a few deviations from our own. He leaps into time travel or alternate universes with the same grace and wit in which he imagines the consequences of emerging technology.

The stories vary in length, style and form, but all are executed with his trademark precision and mind-shattering wisdom. One reads his work and thinks, Yes, that's it, that's exactly what would happen. Even if the possibility had never crossed one's mind before, Chiang's fresh rendering reads so complete and plausible, without ever sacrificing the joy and adventure of embarking on a speculative literary plane.

"Ted Chiang's work is exquisite. He is a master of his form, and his stories have wide-reaching appeal. EXHALATION is fresh and innovative, chilling and hopeful, luminous and true."

In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," layers of story and time expertly intertwine in a ONE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS-esque tale, with time travel and portals, set in Baghdad. "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom" and "What's Expected of Us" both uniquely imagine how readily simple emergent technology can become ubiquitous and completely change how we as a species experience life and each other. "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" explores how the capitalism of fads and the ethics of AI might intersect.

One of my favorite stories, "The Great Silence," asks us to reckon with the dissonance between how desperately humans want to believe there are other meaningful species in the universe and how wholly destructive we are to the other meaningful species here on our own planet.

All of these stories are far more strange and profound than any paraphrase may suggest. Chiang's writing is clear and distinct, yet full of graceful arabesques that hurtle the reader towards startling, poignant realizations. The truths are often brutal, but he crafts his stories with empathy as tender as it is raw.

Of language, choice, memory and free will. Of how we orbit each other and intersect. Of what parts of our selves and our relationships are manufactured: either by ourselves or by our environments, and increasingly by tech or marketing. Ted Chiang's work is exquisite. He is a master of his form, and his stories have wide-reaching appeal. EXHALATION is fresh and innovative, chilling and hopeful, luminous and true.