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zandrsn's review against another edition
5.0
Not all stories are 5 stars, but many are fantastic, particularly The City of Silence, Folding Beijing and Call Girl.
bahoulie's review against another edition
Need to take this book out of the library again. Only began reading it, and it seemed worthwhile.
bookishgoblin's review against another edition
3.0
This collection was a little hit and miss for me. There were three stories that I liked: ‘Tongtong’s Summer’ and ‘Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse’ by Xia Jia were brilliant and ‘Folding Beijing’ by Hao Jingfang was beautiful. Most of the other stories had no impact on me though and seemed a little poorly chosen, however it is a sort of taster of Chinese SF so at least now I know what I don’t like and what I do, the essays were alright so probably worth a read for anyone studying SF or literature
yogarshi's review against another edition
4.0
Fantastic collection of 13 short stories that blend diverse genres of speculative and science fiction with Chinese history, traditions, and society. While it's hard to play favorites with this collection, here are a few scattered thoughts about some of the stories ( I leave out Liu Cixin's stories as he is arguably the most well known author in this collection, and one of the stories here is drawn from "The Three Body Problem").
* Chen Qifuan stories speak of technology as both a healing force and a disruptive energy. I felt these were the weakest stories in the collection, and placed in the beginning, might turn off potential readers to read on, for the other gems.
* Xia Jia's stories are highly creative stories that are reminiscent of Miyazaki movies. "Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse" is peppered with imaginary vignettes told by a metallic dragon in a post-human future written in the most exquisite prose. "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" is literally a ghost-story, but one full of warmth.
* Ma Boyong's "The City of Silence" is both a tribute to as well as an alternate take on the classic 1984 dystopia. While it's easy to draw parallels between Arvardan and Winston Smith, Ma makes this genre his own, and plays with language and society in unique ways.
* The titular story, by Hao Jingfang, is a classic fabulist tale of unexplored and unseen worlds in the spirit of (and inspired by) Calvino's Invisible Cities. Hao's other story, "Folding Beijing", is equally brilliant --- set in a world where cities collapse and unfold like origami figures (a mix between Inception and China Mieville's "The City and the City", if you will), it is simultaneously an exercise in imaginative world-building as well as an incisive class commentary.
* Tang Fei's "Call Girl" and Cheng Jingbo's "Grave of the Fireflies" are perhaps the oddest stories in the collection, in that they are painted in highly surrealistic strokes that stand out from the rest of the stories. I need to re-visit them at some point, as it is likely that I will have different interpretation of them every time.
* Chen Qifuan stories speak of technology as both a healing force and a disruptive energy. I felt these were the weakest stories in the collection, and placed in the beginning, might turn off potential readers to read on, for the other gems.
* Xia Jia's stories are highly creative stories that are reminiscent of Miyazaki movies. "Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse" is peppered with imaginary vignettes told by a metallic dragon in a post-human future written in the most exquisite prose. "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" is literally a ghost-story, but one full of warmth.
* Ma Boyong's "The City of Silence" is both a tribute to as well as an alternate take on the classic 1984 dystopia. While it's easy to draw parallels between Arvardan and Winston Smith, Ma makes this genre his own, and plays with language and society in unique ways.
* The titular story, by Hao Jingfang, is a classic fabulist tale of unexplored and unseen worlds in the spirit of (and inspired by) Calvino's Invisible Cities. Hao's other story, "Folding Beijing", is equally brilliant --- set in a world where cities collapse and unfold like origami figures (a mix between Inception and China Mieville's "The City and the City", if you will), it is simultaneously an exercise in imaginative world-building as well as an incisive class commentary.
* Tang Fei's "Call Girl" and Cheng Jingbo's "Grave of the Fireflies" are perhaps the oddest stories in the collection, in that they are painted in highly surrealistic strokes that stand out from the rest of the stories. I need to re-visit them at some point, as it is likely that I will have different interpretation of them every time.
anasothershelf's review against another edition
4.0
Esta heterogénea antología es un acercamiento interesante a la ciencia ficción china contemporánea. Casi todas las historias están ambientadas en un futuro cercano y, a pesar de ser muy variadas, si tuviera que destacar algo en común sería esa sensación de desasosiego que provocan. Dicho de otro modo, no son historias con una visión del futuro especialmente optimista. Pese a estar impregnadas de la historia y la cultura chinas, estas historias tratan temas universales que resuenan más relevantes que nunca, como la tecnología, la diferencia de clases, la opresión, la madurez y el paso del tiempo.
El material adicional que acompaña a estas historias (prólogo, introducciones de autores y los tres ensayos del final) aporta un contexto muy necesario que enriquece aún más la experiencia y plantea cuestiones muy interesantes sobre qué constituye la ciencia ficción y la evolución del género en China.
Acabada la antología, mi primer impulso es investigar más sobre alguno de estos autores y cruzar los dedos para que traduzcan más obras de ellos.
Mis favoritas son las de Xia Jia (Tongtong's Summer, Night Journey of the Dragon-horse), Ma Boyong (The City of Silence) y Liu Cixin (The Circle).
En resumen: más ciencia ficción china, por favor.
El material adicional que acompaña a estas historias (prólogo, introducciones de autores y los tres ensayos del final) aporta un contexto muy necesario que enriquece aún más la experiencia y plantea cuestiones muy interesantes sobre qué constituye la ciencia ficción y la evolución del género en China.
Acabada la antología, mi primer impulso es investigar más sobre alguno de estos autores y cruzar los dedos para que traduzcan más obras de ellos.
Mis favoritas son las de Xia Jia (Tongtong's Summer, Night Journey of the Dragon-horse), Ma Boyong (The City of Silence) y Liu Cixin (The Circle).
En resumen: más ciencia ficción china, por favor.
farenmaddox's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
2.0
There were some truly stellar stand-out stories in here that I absolutely loved (Folding Beijing, Taking Care of God, and A Hundred Ghosts Parade come to mind but there were a few other good ones) but some of them were really just not great (The Flower of Shazui in particular). I like enough of the collected stories to be glad to have bought/read the book. But honestly, as a collection it's just really bad. I can understand wanting to showcase the best of Chinese sci-fi, but man, at least unify them with a theme or a mood or something. This collection gave me whiplash.
ashleympeacock's review against another edition
4.0
An excellent anthology of Chinese sci-fi. Discovered this because of Folding Beijing, which I read several years before. It was delightful to read again. I also quite enjoyed The Year of the Rat, A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight, Tongtong's Summer, and Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse.
There were a few I didn't enjoy though. The City of Silence was just a rehash of 1984 that didn't really explore anything new. Mentioning 1984 in the story doesn't change the fact that it's the exact same story. Call Girl was very confusing - not sure what that was about, but maybe I need to re-read it. Taking Care of God was very blunt; it felt like the author was shouting in your face with a megaphone instead of letting you discover the story on your own.
Ken Liu did a phenomenal job as a translator/editor. Translations can often be difficult, but all of the stories were well-written and evocatively beautiful.
There were a few I didn't enjoy though. The City of Silence was just a rehash of 1984 that didn't really explore anything new. Mentioning 1984 in the story doesn't change the fact that it's the exact same story. Call Girl was very confusing - not sure what that was about, but maybe I need to re-read it. Taking Care of God was very blunt; it felt like the author was shouting in your face with a megaphone instead of letting you discover the story on your own.
Ken Liu did a phenomenal job as a translator/editor. Translations can often be difficult, but all of the stories were well-written and evocatively beautiful.
jessaminebooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
3.0
Like most short story collections, I liked some stories more than others. It was interesting to see sci-fi stories from a culture vastly different from my own - there are definitely things I missed the significance of.
erikars's review
4.0
Like many short story collections, some of the stories in this collection were better than others. Unlike most short story collections, I liked all of them. Thus, this collection is better than average as far as story collections go. Although, as essays at both the introduction and closing make clear, there is no singular definition of Chinese science fiction, one thing I really appreciated about this collection is that the stories were distinctly from a cultural background different than I was used to. Not the plots so much as the details of life -- names, food, cultural reference -- that permeate fiction even when it is set in a different time and place.
My personal favorites from this collection were "The Fish of Lijiang" by Chen Quifan, "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" and "Tongtong's Summer" by Xia Jia, "Invisible Planets" by Hao Jingfang, and "Taking Care of God" by Liu Cixin.
My personal favorites from this collection were "The Fish of Lijiang" by Chen Quifan, "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" and "Tongtong's Summer" by Xia Jia, "Invisible Planets" by Hao Jingfang, and "Taking Care of God" by Liu Cixin.