Exhalation

Ted Chiang's second collection gathers nine stories: seven first published between 2005 and 2015, plus two that were new to the book. A time portal in The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate confronts a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad with past mistakes and the pull of second chances. In the epistolary title story, an alien scientist makes a discovery with consequences for all of reality, and in Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom, glimpses of alternate universes force a new look at choice and free will. It was a finalist for the inaugural Ray Bradbury Prize.

Andrej Karpathy called the collection required reading and named The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate, the title story and What's Expected of Us as his three favorites.