Exhalation

Exhalation is a collection of nine science fiction short stories published by Knopf in 2019. It gathers nearly a decade of Chiang's acclaimed work, exploring themes including free will, parallel universes, artificial intelligence, and the nature of consciousness.

Yes, Exhalation (2019) is Chiang's second published collection, following Stories of Your Life and Others (2002), which included the story 'Story of Your Life' that was adapted into the 2016 film Arrival directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Amy Adams. Chiang is famously selective, having published only around two dozen stories in his career.

Yes, the title story 'Exhalation' won the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novelette, and 'The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate' won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novelette. Chiang has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards across his career, making him one of the most decorated short fiction writers in science fiction.

The stories in Exhalation use science fiction as a vehicle for rigorous philosophical inquiry, tackling questions of free will versus determinism, the ethics of technology, and humanity's relationship with the unknown. Critics frequently compare Chiang's intellectual depth to that of Ursula K. Le Guin and Stanisław Lem.