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kittyg's review against another edition
4.0
Another excellent collection which was translated by Ken Liu but which includes various Chinese SF stories by an array of the writers who are currently making waves. The stories were diverse and mostly enjoyable, although a few were a little less interesting to me as a Western reader because I couldn't relate as easily to them as I had wanted to, but in general even these had a fascinating undertone to them.
Some comments on individual stories below:
86.04% "Chen Quifan's Coming of The Light was a bit of a miss for me. This is the second if Quifan's works which had a lot of potential but which I didn't particularly love. There's loads of good ideas but I just don't think they pay off for me personally. 2*s"
79.79% "Regina Kanyu Wang's Brain Box was a stream of consciousness experiment into what it's like to know your last thoughts are recorded. Fascinating but very short. 3.5*s."
73.96% "Reflection by Gu Shi was short but a poignant if predictable. 3*s."
73.96% "Ma Boyong's The First Emperor's Games was a really fun and short story about an emperor who just wants to play video games. Lots of references :) 4*s"
71.04% "Anna Wu's Restaurant at the end of the Universe: Laba Porridge - 2*s. Better if you've read Douglas Adams, but even so not really my thing."
67.71% "The Snow of Jinyang - Zhang Ran was a DNF. Think the context of this was too hard for me being very culturally different and very heavy on politics..."
54.37% "The Robot Who Liked To Tell Tall Tales by Fei Dao was fun, I liked the adventure and the mini tales the robot went on and told, and Death, and enjoy the meanings in this too. 4*s"
48.54% "The New Year Train by Hao Jingfang was a short but nice read 3*s."
31.04% "Cheng Jingbo's Under A Dangling Sky is beautiful and almost fantasy in tone. It's a retelling of Delphinus and it's soft and easy to enjoy 3.5*s"
27.71% "Salinger and the Koreans by Han Song was not my favourite. Probably as it felt very foreign through the use of Korea and USA as the focus and Salinger who I haven't read before. 2*s"
26.46% "Submarines by Han Song was a short but sad story about the world of the peasants who moored their subs in the Yangtze River. 3*s."
24.17% "Moonlight by Lui Cixin - 3*s. Definitely a fascinating idea of the butterfly effect, but also a glimpse at why trying to help can actually hinder.
Tang Fei's Broken Stars. - 3*s. A reread for me but a story I still enjoyed the second time around. A pale woman who can supposedly read the stars... A father who tries to please and a girl who hides herself until she's forced out of her shell."
12.71% "Just read 'Goodbye, Melancholy' by Xia Jia which was a fascinating story of two people woven together and AI and humans. The story plays on the real life of Alan Turing, and the fictionalised life of Lindy and AIs. The blend between history and fiction is blurry and yet fascinating, and I loved the ideas which were explored in a semi and fully fictionalised way. Definitely recommend, 4*s."
On the whole, 4*s though I think the previous collection had more stories which worked for me personally, but I always want to see more translated SF.
Some comments on individual stories below:
86.04% "Chen Quifan's Coming of The Light was a bit of a miss for me. This is the second if Quifan's works which had a lot of potential but which I didn't particularly love. There's loads of good ideas but I just don't think they pay off for me personally. 2*s"
79.79% "Regina Kanyu Wang's Brain Box was a stream of consciousness experiment into what it's like to know your last thoughts are recorded. Fascinating but very short. 3.5*s."
73.96% "Reflection by Gu Shi was short but a poignant if predictable. 3*s."
73.96% "Ma Boyong's The First Emperor's Games was a really fun and short story about an emperor who just wants to play video games. Lots of references :) 4*s"
71.04% "Anna Wu's Restaurant at the end of the Universe: Laba Porridge - 2*s. Better if you've read Douglas Adams, but even so not really my thing."
67.71% "The Snow of Jinyang - Zhang Ran was a DNF. Think the context of this was too hard for me being very culturally different and very heavy on politics..."
54.37% "The Robot Who Liked To Tell Tall Tales by Fei Dao was fun, I liked the adventure and the mini tales the robot went on and told, and Death, and enjoy the meanings in this too. 4*s"
48.54% "The New Year Train by Hao Jingfang was a short but nice read 3*s."
31.04% "Cheng Jingbo's Under A Dangling Sky is beautiful and almost fantasy in tone. It's a retelling of Delphinus and it's soft and easy to enjoy 3.5*s"
27.71% "Salinger and the Koreans by Han Song was not my favourite. Probably as it felt very foreign through the use of Korea and USA as the focus and Salinger who I haven't read before. 2*s"
26.46% "Submarines by Han Song was a short but sad story about the world of the peasants who moored their subs in the Yangtze River. 3*s."
24.17% "Moonlight by Lui Cixin - 3*s. Definitely a fascinating idea of the butterfly effect, but also a glimpse at why trying to help can actually hinder.
Tang Fei's Broken Stars. - 3*s. A reread for me but a story I still enjoyed the second time around. A pale woman who can supposedly read the stars... A father who tries to please and a girl who hides herself until she's forced out of her shell."
12.71% "Just read 'Goodbye, Melancholy' by Xia Jia which was a fascinating story of two people woven together and AI and humans. The story plays on the real life of Alan Turing, and the fictionalised life of Lindy and AIs. The blend between history and fiction is blurry and yet fascinating, and I loved the ideas which were explored in a semi and fully fictionalised way. Definitely recommend, 4*s."
On the whole, 4*s though I think the previous collection had more stories which worked for me personally, but I always want to see more translated SF.
hamidou's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
paladinjane's review against another edition
5.0
This collection of translated Chinese sci-fi features 16 short stories and 3 essays by 15 different authors. In his introduction, Ken Liu explains that he chose these stories to demonstrate a range of styles, although he does not claim to have created a "representative" or "best of" anthology of Chinese SF. Rather, he selected these stories because he enjoyed them and found them memorable. The essays provide context for the reader on the history of Chinese science fiction, from the early translation of western SF into Chinese, to the political and cultural challenges the genre has faced in China, to the development of the genre in China and its current state.
As Liu notes in his introduction, a couple of these stories are less accessible to western audiences, given that they require an understanding of Chinese political history and culture. I personally loved them, but readers may find them a tad challenging. As a whole, I thought the stories in this anthology were fascinating and delightful. Some were funny, some were deeply philosophical, and some were heartbreaking. In this anthology, you'll find time travel, alternate history, and Black Mirror-esque explorations of technology, as well as complex reflections on climate change, Chinese and global politics, and the self.
A few of my favorite stories include:
Baoshu's "What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear," a devastating story of love and survival as the protagonists watch their world descend into fear and insecurity. It involves time travel, of a sort: while all the characters live their lives forward, the events around them unfold backwards through about 70 years of Chinese history.
Liu Cixin's "Moonlight," in which a man is contacted by his future self to ask him to save the world from climate change, only for there to be unintended consequences.
Chen Qiufan's "A History of Future Illnesses," which explores a number of strange future illnesses brought on by changes in our world.
I highly recommend this anthology, which I think I enjoyed even more than Invisible Planets, Liu's earlier anthology of Chinese SF stories in translation. That's saying a lot, because I loved Invisible Planets. This is already one of my favorite books of the year.
As Liu notes in his introduction, a couple of these stories are less accessible to western audiences, given that they require an understanding of Chinese political history and culture. I personally loved them, but readers may find them a tad challenging. As a whole, I thought the stories in this anthology were fascinating and delightful. Some were funny, some were deeply philosophical, and some were heartbreaking. In this anthology, you'll find time travel, alternate history, and Black Mirror-esque explorations of technology, as well as complex reflections on climate change, Chinese and global politics, and the self.
A few of my favorite stories include:
Baoshu's "What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear," a devastating story of love and survival as the protagonists watch their world descend into fear and insecurity. It involves time travel, of a sort: while all the characters live their lives forward, the events around them unfold backwards through about 70 years of Chinese history.
Liu Cixin's "Moonlight," in which a man is contacted by his future self to ask him to save the world from climate change, only for there to be unintended consequences.
Chen Qiufan's "A History of Future Illnesses," which explores a number of strange future illnesses brought on by changes in our world.
I highly recommend this anthology, which I think I enjoyed even more than Invisible Planets, Liu's earlier anthology of Chinese SF stories in translation. That's saying a lot, because I loved Invisible Planets. This is already one of my favorite books of the year.
jetamors's review against another edition
4.0
I liked most of the stories in this one, but my favorite was "What Has Passed Shall In Kinder Light Appear" by Baoshu.
cosmicllama's review against another edition
5.0
Read the full review at the Quill to Live - https://thequilltolive.com/2019/06/11/broken-stars-wholeheartedly-good/
I recently decided to treat myself by purchasing Broken Stars, a collection of contemporary Chinese speculative fiction curated and translated by Ken Liu. The collection had been showing up a lot on my Amazon queue, and while I was out at the store I decided “why not?” I had never really read a collection of non-horror short stories that weren’t by the same author. I was not originally planning on writing about Broken Stars, but the more stories I read, the more magnetic the book became, and I would feel ashamed if I did not use my platform to evangelize about the magic of this collection. Featuring sixteen stories from fourteen authors, Broken Stars is an incredible feast of Chinese science fiction.
First off, the collection feels incredibly personal. Ken Liu does a fantastic job of introducing the authors, their perspectives, backgrounds, and interests prior to each story. Sometimes he would even provide a framing of how the story can be read and enjoyed, especially when some of the cultural context may be lost on Western readers. It was very helpful, especially since most of my education on Chinese history ended in high school. It felt like he held out his hand to the reader and took you on your very own personal journey into the stories he loves. His introductions made the whole experience very welcoming, and dissipated a lot of the anxiety I had about “not getting it.” On top of all that I think Liu did an excellent job of ordering the stories as well. He slowly dug deeper and deeper into Chinese history with each successive story, occasionally breaking up the intensity with something lighter. I never felt confused by what was happening, as some of the more Chinese stories had annotations to clue the reader in.
The hardest part about this review is actually talking about the stories in the book. They all felt incredibly special in some way, making it tough to choose which to highlight here. Liu himself even mentions in the foreword that he did not try to make a “best-of” compilation, opting instead for more variety. He certainly succeeds, as each story had its own personality, exploring different modes of storytelling, covering a plethora of science fiction staples, and exploring ideas I had never really considered reading before. Particularly of interest to me were the stories that dealt with time and the individual’s place within society. I’ll talk about three of the stories here to jump-start interest.
First off is Moonlight by Liu Cixin, of The Three Body Problem fame. It’s one of the shorter stories, but Liu Cixin makes it work overtime. It follows a man who feels he can contribute nothing to the world, as he receives phone calls from himself in the future. Each version of himself calls him to warn of the future and sends the present version detailed plans on how to solve the crisis. However, each time he thinks about sending out the plans to get to work, the future changes, prompting another future version of himself to call to explain the new problem. It’s a fun and somewhat daunting story that shows the power of the individual to help change society, for better or worse. The ending is harrowing but conveys the message perfectly.
Possibly my favorite story is What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear by Baoshu. It follows Xie Baosheng, a boy born in 2012, or as the first paragraph ends “I was born on the day the world was supposed to end,” as he grows up and experiences our past as his future. Meaning when he turns one, it’s 2011, when he turns four, it’s 2008 and so on and so forth. On its own, watching events unfold in reverse order is powerful enough the idea is powerful enough, watching the events happen again in reverse order. Major events in world and modern Chinese history still occur with new context as they are played backwards. However, Baoshu is not content with just replaying the second half of the twentieth century. The story itself is incredibly human, showcasing how easy it is for one’s life to get swept up in the passage of time. Major life events are competing with the ever-changing state of the world on equal footing. As Baosheng gets older, his decisions are met with more and more inertia from his earlier life and the new expectations of society. It is one of the longer stories, but honestly, buying the book for just this story would have been worth it.
Lastly, on the funnier side is The First Emperor’s Games by Ma Bodong. Following the First Emperor’s unification of China, the emperor becomes an avid computer game player. Once you accept the absurd premise that an emperor from 221 BC is playing video games, the story flows in an entertaining fashion. Liu mentions that this particular story might require some extensive use of Wikipedia to understand the more Chinese aspects of the humor, I still found it quite entertaining on my first run without the extra knowledge. It follows the Emperor as his myriad of advisors suggests different popular computer games to pass his time such as Civilization or The Sims. It’s a fun read that gets deeper the more you understand about ancient Chinese history and philosophy, so definitely take a few passes at it as you learn more from the internet.
There are a few stories that stand out to me in particular, but ultimately the whole collection is enjoyable. It’s refreshing to have read such a wide variety of stories from an incredible spectrum of voices. I’m glad I decided to step outside of my literary comfort zone to enjoy this collection, and it certainly has spurred me to look for more translated fiction. I do not feel comfortable giving a score to collection as a whole, or even to the individual stories. What I will say is that the work Ken Liu put into creating this collection, and translating it to English clearly shows. And if you’re looking for something different, but with a tang of familiarity, I highly recommend Broken Stars.
Rating: Broken Stars – Enjoyable, Deep, and Worth Your Time/10
-Alex
I recently decided to treat myself by purchasing Broken Stars, a collection of contemporary Chinese speculative fiction curated and translated by Ken Liu. The collection had been showing up a lot on my Amazon queue, and while I was out at the store I decided “why not?” I had never really read a collection of non-horror short stories that weren’t by the same author. I was not originally planning on writing about Broken Stars, but the more stories I read, the more magnetic the book became, and I would feel ashamed if I did not use my platform to evangelize about the magic of this collection. Featuring sixteen stories from fourteen authors, Broken Stars is an incredible feast of Chinese science fiction.
First off, the collection feels incredibly personal. Ken Liu does a fantastic job of introducing the authors, their perspectives, backgrounds, and interests prior to each story. Sometimes he would even provide a framing of how the story can be read and enjoyed, especially when some of the cultural context may be lost on Western readers. It was very helpful, especially since most of my education on Chinese history ended in high school. It felt like he held out his hand to the reader and took you on your very own personal journey into the stories he loves. His introductions made the whole experience very welcoming, and dissipated a lot of the anxiety I had about “not getting it.” On top of all that I think Liu did an excellent job of ordering the stories as well. He slowly dug deeper and deeper into Chinese history with each successive story, occasionally breaking up the intensity with something lighter. I never felt confused by what was happening, as some of the more Chinese stories had annotations to clue the reader in.
The hardest part about this review is actually talking about the stories in the book. They all felt incredibly special in some way, making it tough to choose which to highlight here. Liu himself even mentions in the foreword that he did not try to make a “best-of” compilation, opting instead for more variety. He certainly succeeds, as each story had its own personality, exploring different modes of storytelling, covering a plethora of science fiction staples, and exploring ideas I had never really considered reading before. Particularly of interest to me were the stories that dealt with time and the individual’s place within society. I’ll talk about three of the stories here to jump-start interest.
First off is Moonlight by Liu Cixin, of The Three Body Problem fame. It’s one of the shorter stories, but Liu Cixin makes it work overtime. It follows a man who feels he can contribute nothing to the world, as he receives phone calls from himself in the future. Each version of himself calls him to warn of the future and sends the present version detailed plans on how to solve the crisis. However, each time he thinks about sending out the plans to get to work, the future changes, prompting another future version of himself to call to explain the new problem. It’s a fun and somewhat daunting story that shows the power of the individual to help change society, for better or worse. The ending is harrowing but conveys the message perfectly.
Possibly my favorite story is What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear by Baoshu. It follows Xie Baosheng, a boy born in 2012, or as the first paragraph ends “I was born on the day the world was supposed to end,” as he grows up and experiences our past as his future. Meaning when he turns one, it’s 2011, when he turns four, it’s 2008 and so on and so forth. On its own, watching events unfold in reverse order is powerful enough the idea is powerful enough, watching the events happen again in reverse order. Major events in world and modern Chinese history still occur with new context as they are played backwards. However, Baoshu is not content with just replaying the second half of the twentieth century. The story itself is incredibly human, showcasing how easy it is for one’s life to get swept up in the passage of time. Major life events are competing with the ever-changing state of the world on equal footing. As Baosheng gets older, his decisions are met with more and more inertia from his earlier life and the new expectations of society. It is one of the longer stories, but honestly, buying the book for just this story would have been worth it.
Lastly, on the funnier side is The First Emperor’s Games by Ma Bodong. Following the First Emperor’s unification of China, the emperor becomes an avid computer game player. Once you accept the absurd premise that an emperor from 221 BC is playing video games, the story flows in an entertaining fashion. Liu mentions that this particular story might require some extensive use of Wikipedia to understand the more Chinese aspects of the humor, I still found it quite entertaining on my first run without the extra knowledge. It follows the Emperor as his myriad of advisors suggests different popular computer games to pass his time such as Civilization or The Sims. It’s a fun read that gets deeper the more you understand about ancient Chinese history and philosophy, so definitely take a few passes at it as you learn more from the internet.
There are a few stories that stand out to me in particular, but ultimately the whole collection is enjoyable. It’s refreshing to have read such a wide variety of stories from an incredible spectrum of voices. I’m glad I decided to step outside of my literary comfort zone to enjoy this collection, and it certainly has spurred me to look for more translated fiction. I do not feel comfortable giving a score to collection as a whole, or even to the individual stories. What I will say is that the work Ken Liu put into creating this collection, and translating it to English clearly shows. And if you’re looking for something different, but with a tang of familiarity, I highly recommend Broken Stars.
Rating: Broken Stars – Enjoyable, Deep, and Worth Your Time/10
-Alex
hatingongodot's review against another edition
4.0
Thought-provoking, just the way I like my sci-fi to be! I have to say that aside from Cixin Liu's Three-Body Problem, I don't know much about Chinese science fiction. I enjoyed this collection quite a bit (and even found myself tearing up at some of the more sentimental stories), but I found the essays at the end particularly useful since it gave me more of a cultural context for the literary landscape of Chinese sci-fi.
accidentalspaceexplorer's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed a lot of the stories in here - my favorites were Moonlight, The Robot Who Liked to Tell Tall Tales, and The Brain Box, but there were many that made me think, captured my imagination, or were simply amusing to read. I will say that a cursory knowledge of Chinese history helps a lot, and a reasonably thorough understanding of modern Chinese history helps more.
The only disappointing thing about this anthology is that I'd love to read more by these authors, but many of their stories don't have English translations!
The only disappointing thing about this anthology is that I'd love to read more by these authors, but many of their stories don't have English translations!
andicbuchanan's review against another edition
4.0
On the whole, this collection interested me more than I enjoyed it. It pushed me outside the norms and structures I'd come to expect reading short SFF, and often left me intrigued. Many of the stories made substantial political references, references to events and figures, politicians and philosophers. It's not a case of my not understanding these - I usually did, and where I didn't they were easy to look up - but it led to a sense there were whole other layers to this that I wasn't understanding. Which to me is a sign I should read more Chinese SF where available, not less.
Standout stories for me were:
- “Broken Stars” by Tang Fei
- “Submarines” by Han Song
- “What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear” by Baoshu
I am not sure to what extent the trends in this are trends in Chinese Science Fiction, and to what extent they're trends in what Ken Liu likes (Liu has stated he only translates work he likes) but I'm struck by the combination of history and technology in so many of the stories, the presence of anachronistic technology, sometimes explained but sometimes unremarked, as if some cousin of magic realism except with internet instead of ghosts.
Standout stories for me were:
- “Broken Stars” by Tang Fei
- “Submarines” by Han Song
- “What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear” by Baoshu
I am not sure to what extent the trends in this are trends in Chinese Science Fiction, and to what extent they're trends in what Ken Liu likes (Liu has stated he only translates work he likes) but I'm struck by the combination of history and technology in so many of the stories, the presence of anachronistic technology, sometimes explained but sometimes unremarked, as if some cousin of magic realism except with internet instead of ghosts.
thesundayeffect's review against another edition
4.0
I never fail to feel dumb when reading sci-fi short stories, especially sci-fi short stories, but I still thoroughly enjoyed reading through this anthology. I am sure I would have enjoyed it so much more if I had a better grasp of Chinese history, pop culture and other references, but from it was still a fascinating read based on what I do know.
Some of my favourite stories are:
Moonlight - Liu Cixin
This short story really made me realise that I'm very into stories about time travel or pseudo time travel where you get to see the how the implications to the future are played out and how it affects the present timeline. Other stories that to me has the same feel regarding time travelling (or similar) is The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.
What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear - Baoshu
This was just so interesting to read, and I would have gotten so much more out of this story if only I had a better understanding of Chinese history. In this story, major political events in China are happening in reverse, or at least out of order, and technology is regressing as time is moving forward. The characters in the story reminisce about more advanced technology from in the past. Methods of communication had devolved from email all the way to sending snail mail. To be honest I didn't really understand fully the story but the premise was just so good.
The First Emperor's Game - Ma Boyong
Really, just the idea of Qin Shihuang playing modern day games should persuade you to read this story. I had to google the final game reference, but when I got it, oh mannn
A History of Future Illnesses - Chen Qiufan
Not a story in the traditional sense, but just introductions to different would be illnesses from the future due to the advancement of technology. Again, super interesting! The second half of the story was getting slightly too abstract for me to understand, but I've read so much sci-fi and I haven't really gave a second thought to how illnesses inflicting humans could have also evolved.
Essays
The essays are really great! Super informative about the development of Chinese Sci-fi in the past 100 years or so, and also lets us know about the sci-fi community in China. Before Liu Cixin's The Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy blew up, sci-fi in China was super niche, having it's momentum arrested multiple times due to different political movements in the past 100 years. It was so interesting to read about how through the perseverance and passion of the community that Chinese sci-fi is where it is now.
Some of my favourite stories are:
Moonlight - Liu Cixin
This short story really made me realise that I'm very into stories about time travel or pseudo time travel where you get to see the how the implications to the future are played out and how it affects the present timeline. Other stories that to me has the same feel regarding time travelling (or similar) is The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.
What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear - Baoshu
This was just so interesting to read, and I would have gotten so much more out of this story if only I had a better understanding of Chinese history. In this story, major political events in China are happening in reverse, or at least out of order, and technology is regressing as time is moving forward. The characters in the story reminisce about more advanced technology from in the past. Methods of communication had devolved from email all the way to sending snail mail. To be honest I didn't really understand fully the story but the premise was just so good.
The First Emperor's Game - Ma Boyong
Really, just the idea of Qin Shihuang playing modern day games should persuade you to read this story. I had to google the final game reference, but when I got it, oh mannn
A History of Future Illnesses - Chen Qiufan
Not a story in the traditional sense, but just introductions to different would be illnesses from the future due to the advancement of technology. Again, super interesting! The second half of the story was getting slightly too abstract for me to understand, but I've read so much sci-fi and I haven't really gave a second thought to how illnesses inflicting humans could have also evolved.
Essays
The essays are really great! Super informative about the development of Chinese Sci-fi in the past 100 years or so, and also lets us know about the sci-fi community in China. Before Liu Cixin's The Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy blew up, sci-fi in China was super niche, having it's momentum arrested multiple times due to different political movements in the past 100 years. It was so interesting to read about how through the perseverance and passion of the community that Chinese sci-fi is where it is now.
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