The Story of Your Life

Subterranean Press just announced a letterpress printed (which I think is a first for them) version of Ted Chiang’s novella Story of Your Life, going on sale on Monday.

The novella is the basis for the movie Arrival. I liked the movie. Is the story worth reading?

All Editions of Story of Your Life Feature:

Text and Signature pages were printed by DWRI Letterpress;
Two color printing on the signature pages;
Six full-color illustrations offset printed on 80# Finch;
Text has been printed on Mohawk Superfine 100# text with an eggshell finish

The slipcase has two color stamping in a light green and black, matching the colors of the stamping on the book. The book and slipcase are both bound in Verona cloth, in different shades of green. The front features one of the heptapod aliens, a detail from one of the interior art pieces by Henry McCausland. The back of the slipcase is stamped in light green foil with the various flutters of the aliens’ language.

Limited: 500 signed numbered hardcovers, in slipcase: $175

The story is fantastic --- I have read most of Ted Chiang's short stories and it's probably my favorite. Where can you see this announcement? I can't find it on the website anywhere!

It’s a great story, one of his best. I don’t love the way the cover looks, unfortunately.

>3 Shotcaller: Yep. That's why I am on the fence. Not a fan of the production at all.

>3 Shotcaller: Same here on the cover.

>2 howtoeatrat: it was emailed out this morning, and then also just posted on Facebook

Thanks. Agreed on not loving the cover but hard to beat the original one

I recieved my copy today from the early preorder. It is a bit story-bookish in it's overall design and format, and the general production values are about the same as a Subterranean numbered with the same papers and cloth binding.

That said, the letterpress printing is very nicely done and I think the text pages present the best reading experience out there for this story. A fine press definitely could've done more with it, but it's a fairly substantial little edition for the cost.

I only have one title from the, The Club Dumas, but it's very nicely (a la the old Folio Society) edition.

The only edition I could find was from 2018 --
https://subterraneanpress.com/stories-of-your-life-and-others/
Anyone have a link with some details (and any pics)?

>11 astropi: The production details are in the first post, and hope this link works:

Thank you for bringing this to my attention!

>1 jsg1976:

The story is definitely worth reading. They are different. On balance, I think the movie is better—it finds an emotional core the story largely lacks. I'd be hard pressed to name a better science fiction movie. But the story goes deeper into some of the intellectual dimensions that interest Chiang.

Chiang's newest collection, Exhalation has a number of excellent pieces. My favorite is The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate. It's a perfect mash-up of science fiction and a 1001-nights tale.

For sale now --

https://subterraneanpress.com/chiang-soyl/

All Editions of Story of Your Life Feature:

Text and Signature pages were printed by DWRI Letterpress;
Two color printing on the signature pages;
Six full-color illustrations offset printed on 80# Finch
Text has been printed on Mohawk Superfine 100# text with an eggshell finish

So, the regular (limited) edition is very reasonable at $175, and the (sold out) Lettered edition is... $1000 -- yowza! Anyone know what the Lettered had that the regular does not that makes it so expensive? I would imagine it come with original art, but don't know.

They haven’t put the lettered up for order yet.

In my opinion, that is not the most attractive book. The artwork looks cartoony, for such a serious story.

Agreed, a bit off. I still bought the regular limited edition though. I appreciate this one being flagged here --- would have missed otherwise.

I bought the last Ted book, so I had pre-order rights. The book looks like something idw would publish. Had to skip. Hopefully another publisher gets another shot at this.

>18 Undergroundman: I actually find the illustrations very charming. I haven't read the novella so I can't say how apropos they are, but I have no problem with the art.

I really like this. It is a favorite of mine as a short story/novella and movie. The cover perhaps could have been improved, but since it is directly from an interior illustration (which I like as an illustration, maybe the background and color help it) it doesn't put me off. Thanks everyone for this thread - I also might not have seen it otherwise and missed out.

Got it for the content, but the letterpress printing isn't as dark as I would like, the color doesn't fit the previous two anthologies, and with the art I feel like I'm reading a NYT Modern Love column. Still got the numbered, and probably will get the lettered as well.

>16 What_What: I think the presentation in a story-book type format is totally appropriate to the framing device. It's just not necessarily an aesthetic I would normally go for in my collection.

That said, I've finished my copy and it was still a joy to read in letterpress. The content of the artwork is clever in interpolating the different story fragments, though like I said not normally an aesthetic I'd seek out.

It's my all-time favorite short story, so I was happy to be able to order a copy. I'm eager to re-read it in this format.

I do think that the movie is even better than the story.

>23 amysisson: Interesting. Will have to watch the movie.

Received my copy. It's a beautiful work, and the letterpress is masterfully executed with a wonderful bite to it! The illustrations are lovely, and I was impressed that they even had a few figures (Snell's Law) done in letterpress -- let's face it, you don't see much letterpress physics these days :)

I was very pleased with mine as well. (I'll admit, as a middle-aged person with failing eyes, I very much appreciate the large text and wide margins!)

Double Post -- ignore, sorry

>26 ambyrglow: Great to hear! If anyone is interested, here is the letterpress studio they used, which again, did a fabulous job --
https://dwriletterpress.net/

Received mine as well, and it is lovely. I like the illustrator's content choices, i.e. which scenes they chose to illustrate.

I received mine too and I agree with all above,. Its a beautiful little book and a great tribute to a wonderful novella. I think the style does suit the narrative framing of the story.