Sure this isn’t a completely original idea the 1957 short story “Omnilingual” by H. And even if the aliens do have their own language, it’s usually based on human language constructs.īut in “Story of Your Life,” the aliens’ language (called “Heptapod”) is so different that the entire plot is based around decoding it. There’s always a universal translator, or the aliens somehow speak English, or whatever. What should be one of the most interesting parts of making contact is explained away with a handwave. (1) It has an alien language that’s ACTUALLY ALIENĪs an armchair-linguist, language interactions with aliens in sci-fi usually end up disappointing. Let’s talk about all three in more detail. Let’s get to it.Īside from just being good fast-paced science fiction, “Story of Your Life” has three things going for it that really set it apart: (1) it has an alien language that’s ACTUALLY ALIEN, (2) its unique structure, and (3) its humanity. I’ll be waiting.Īll right, read it? Great.

It’s not very long and you can get it here on Amazon. If you haven’t read the story yet, I highly recommend doing so before continuing. Unfortunately to explain why the story is so good, it requires some spoilers. Once I found that out I immediately read the whole thing, and I have to say it was one of the best short stories I’ve read… ever. Here’s the teaser trailer for the film if you haven’t seen it yet:Īnd best of all, Arrival is based on a short story – “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang. So when I heard about the upcoming movie Arrival where a linguist cracks an alien species’ language, I was sold from the get-go. As a fan of linguistic-fiction (and you should totally read my story Devilese plug plug plug), I get excited every time I see a new entry into the genre.

Story of your life book ted chiang