Army to communicate with the aliens, and are assigned to one of nine looking glass sites in the US. Dubbed 'looking glasses', they are audiovisual links to the aliens in orbit, who are called heptapods for their seven-limbed radially symmetrical appearance. The aliens arrive in spaceships and enter Earth's orbit 112 devices resembling large semi-circular mirrors appear at sites across the globe. Addressed to her daughter, the story alternates between recounting the past: the coming of the aliens and the deciphering of their language and remembering the future: what will happen to her daughter as she grows up, and the daughter's untimely death.

Louise Banks the day her daughter is conceived. 'Story of Your Life' is narrated by linguist Dr. The film also won the 2017 Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. It stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay it won the award for Best Sound Editing. Titled and directed by Denis Villeneuve, it was released in 2016. Ī film adaptation of the story, Arrival, was conceived and adapted by Eric Heisserer. The novella has been translated into Italian, Japanese, French and German. It was nominated for the 1999 Hugo Award for Best Novella. 'Story of Your Life' won the 2000 Nebula Award for Best Novella, as well as the 1999 Theodore Sturgeon Award. Its major themes are language and determinism. ' Story of Your Life' is a science fiction novella by American writer Ted Chiang, first published in Starlight 2 in 1998, and in 2002 in Chiang's collection of short stories, Stories of Your Life and Others.

Illustration for 'Story of Your Life' by Hidenori Watanabe for S-F Magazine

Ted chiang stories