Reviews

Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation by Various

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tejaswininaik's review against another edition

4.0

Brilliant collection of stories. Each different from the other. Would prefer Asian Chinese fiction any time over the ones coming from the west

steve_brinson's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

ckurnath003's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.5

lucasilievskie's review against another edition

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3.0

An interesting and whimsical collection of contemporary Chinese sci-fi, containing everything from alternate history time travel, trains traversing multi-route space-time curves, split-personality clairvoyants, skies made of crystal, a techno-philosophical Alan Turing-AI conversation, and more.

The quality of the collection was consistently decent with a few busts – some of the stories I would even consider quite imaginative – but I couldn’t help but feel that the premises of the majority of them were only explored at surface-level. The overall execution was closer to playful and thoughtful than profound and revolutionary.

My favorites: What Has Passed Shall Appear in Kinder Light, The New Year Train, The Snow of Jinyang, and The History of Future Illnesses.

Rating: Three

elan's review against another edition

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3.5

not really a strong collection of SF stories in my opinion, some are fairly good yet somewhat forgettable, except "Moonlight" by Liu Cixin, "Submarines" by Han Song and "The Brain Box" by Regina Kanyu Wang, which actually resonated with me.

annescorner's review against another edition

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unfortunately not for me. I was really interested in Chinese translated fiction and found this collection of sci-fi short stories. however, it was most likely the format I did not enjoy, not the writing per se. I just realised that short stories just are not for me.