Oh, interesting. I did not relate to the narrator in "Story of Your Life" at all, but based on the firestorm that arose in my LJ when I reported on that story ages ago, I seem to be in a minority on that front. I haven't read the full collection, but I agree that the main character in "Seventy-Two Letters" is not that appealing, and in fact when I do read Ted Chiang, I don't read him for the characters, I read him for the mathy flavor of his worldbuilding. I will have to read this collection sometime--of "Hell Is the Absence of God" I only remember that I found it baffling and had to have it explained to me (which explanation I have since forgotten), and I'm not sure I've ever read the others.