I was so struck by it that by the time I got to the first of what I was certain must be three tales-within-the-tale I was already exclaiming, “Oh my god.” It reminded me of just how much truly excellent stories excite me.
Because what is to elucidate something efficiently and effortlessly if not telling a damn good story, be it fiction or fact? It’s all stories, in the end. Then, of course, I realized this was just me making unnecessary distinctions. It’s probably why the writer he brought to my mind the most was Carl Sagan, one of the great explainers of our age. It works because Chiang is nothing if not a brilliant communicator of ideas. Chiang comes from a scientific background, after all, and his approach to stories is less “what if” than it is “how would this work for real.” He takes these speculative realities and, rather than tell us a conventional narrative within, he often opts to define them to us. The fact that they explore exceedingly interesting hypotheticals meant that I enjoyed my time with them, although perhaps in a different way than I would, say, something by more traditional fabulists. A good portion of them read more like thought experiments than they do proper narratives. Which is interesting because one running thought I had throughout my reading of Exhalation was that I wouldn’t really call a lot of its entries stories - at least not in the traditional sense. It’s certainly reignited an interest in short fiction, which I find myself seeking out more after starting this. I’ve admired Chiang’s work for a long time, though I’ve shamefully read little of it until now. Exhalation is quite simply one of the most breathtaking collections I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.
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