Although he’s known for his science more than anything, Ted Chiang delivers mind-bending ideas. ‘Hell is the Absence Of God’ interrogates suffering, religion, faith, selfishness, selflessness, irrationality, rationality, gratitude, ingratitude, devotion, virtue, morality, deity, the morality of deity, all punctuated by massive, impassive angels.
“Pilgrims took up residence all over the site, forming temporary villages with their tents and camper vans; they all made guesses as to what location would maximize their chances of seeing the angel while minimizing the risk of injury or death.”
First published in Starlight 3, 2001. Collected in Stories of Your Life and Others, Tor Books, 2002, and Picador, 2014
A Personal Anthology 