2.5 ☆ - majority of the stories in here were 2☆ stories for me. although the concepts were unique, i found that they were underdeveloped, ended really abruptly, or were rather forgettable

there were three stories that i loved. one of them being 'story of your life', aka the story that the film arrival is based on. definitely a standout story in this collection. i reallly liked 'hell is the absence of god'. i think that ted chiang excels at writing longer, emotive pieces as opposed to ambitious scientific thought projects. the latter comes across as dull in this format, the former works realllyy well for me. this was so good, i loved the unique take on religion and theology. my other favourite was 'liking what you see: a documentary'. this final story was the most thought-provoking. it's discussions on beauty/pretty privilege were outstanding. i love that chiang approached this extremely complex topic from a variety of perspectives, allowing the reader to arrive at their own conclusions. so so well-written.

however, only 3 out of 8 stories worked for me :/ even though those 3 stories were incredible, the collection as a whole was disappointing