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A review by annemaries_shelves
Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation by Ken Liu
4.0
4.5 stars
Ugh this was so, so, so good. As a fan of Ken Liu's writing, I was extremely keen on picking up an anthology edited and translated by him as soon as possible - if he's picking the stories, they have to be good.
And he didn't disappoint.
While not every story is my personal favourite, all of them offered something new and fresh to me and, importantly, entertained me. Some of them made me think, some made me feel, some made me laugh, and some did it all.
I'll definitely be going back and reading Invisible Planets (the first anthology edited and translated by Liu) as well as looking up any additional fiction translated by a few of the authors included in here.
For those interested in a history of Chinese Sci-Fi and its current boom (thanks to Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem), there are three short essays collected at the end of the book. None of the essays spoil any of the stories included in the anthology, so it's up to the reader on whether they'd want to read the essays before or after the collection.
My rankings of each story (in order of appearance/read):
Goodnight, Melancholy - Xia Jia - 4 stars.
A dual-story of our main character and her robots and Alan Turing and his AI, Christopher.
Moonlight - Liu Cixin - 5 stars.
A man is visited by his future self to save the world.
Broken Stars - Tang Fei - 3.5 stars.
A girl learns what the stars have in fate for her. Also, she met Zhang Xiaobo
Submarines - Han Song - 3.5 stars.
Submarines housing peasants cause a ruckus in a large city.
Salinger and the Koreans - Han Song - 3.5 stars.
What if North Korea successfully took over the world. And Salinger's reclusiveness was to his detriment.
Under a Dangling Sky - Cheng Jingbo - 4.5 stars
Magic and science are indistinguishable and Giana the dolphin is so precious.
What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear - Baoshu - 5 stars
Obsessed. Our protagonist experiences all of China's modern history as if it occurred in reverse to our timeline. So many brilliant philosophical moments.
The New Year Train - Hao Jingfang - 5 stars
An interview about a train that disappeared in the space-time continuum.
The Robot Who Liked to Tell Tall Tales - Fei Dao - 5 stars
A robot travels through the lands and space-time to experience the craziest things possible. But will he ever get home?
The Snow of Jinyang - Zhang Ran - 3.75 stars
A slow build chuanyue-style story with a contemporary Chinese man dropped into the 10th century CE (late Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period) who's just trying to get home.
For those who didn't know (like myself) of chuanyue - it's a sub-genre of SFF that has contemporary characters going back in time, usually because of inconsequential reasons, and trying to get home.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: Laba Porridge - Anna Wu - 5 stars
The first in a series and I want to read them all. What would you sacrifice to have all the writing ability in the universe?
The First Emperor's Games - Ma Boyong - 3.5 stars
What if the first Emperor of China loved video games?
Reflection - Gu Shi - 4 stars
Clairvoyants are not to be messed with.
The Brain Box - Regina Kanyu Wang - 5 stars
Fucked me up. Never want to have my thoughts constantly recorded so that the last five minutes of my life can be preserved. No, thank you.
Coming of the Light - Chen Qiufan - 4.5 stars
A searing examination of the role and impact of social media technology on society and spiritualism.
A History of Future Illnesses - Chen Qiufan - 5 stars
A dark, disturbing, but almost-not-quite-humorous look at several different future illnesses the world will have to contend with. All related to technology.
Ugh this was so, so, so good. As a fan of Ken Liu's writing, I was extremely keen on picking up an anthology edited and translated by him as soon as possible - if he's picking the stories, they have to be good.
And he didn't disappoint.
While not every story is my personal favourite, all of them offered something new and fresh to me and, importantly, entertained me. Some of them made me think, some made me feel, some made me laugh, and some did it all.
I'll definitely be going back and reading Invisible Planets (the first anthology edited and translated by Liu) as well as looking up any additional fiction translated by a few of the authors included in here.
For those interested in a history of Chinese Sci-Fi and its current boom (thanks to Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem), there are three short essays collected at the end of the book. None of the essays spoil any of the stories included in the anthology, so it's up to the reader on whether they'd want to read the essays before or after the collection.
My rankings of each story (in order of appearance/read):
Goodnight, Melancholy - Xia Jia - 4 stars.
A dual-story of our main character and her robots and Alan Turing and his AI, Christopher.
Moonlight - Liu Cixin - 5 stars.
A man is visited by his future self to save the world.
Broken Stars - Tang Fei - 3.5 stars.
A girl learns what the stars have in fate for her. Also, she met Zhang Xiaobo
Submarines - Han Song - 3.5 stars.
Submarines housing peasants cause a ruckus in a large city.
Salinger and the Koreans - Han Song - 3.5 stars.
What if North Korea successfully took over the world. And Salinger's reclusiveness was to his detriment.
Under a Dangling Sky - Cheng Jingbo - 4.5 stars
Magic and science are indistinguishable and Giana the dolphin is so precious.
What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear - Baoshu - 5 stars
Obsessed. Our protagonist experiences all of China's modern history as if it occurred in reverse to our timeline. So many brilliant philosophical moments.
The New Year Train - Hao Jingfang - 5 stars
An interview about a train that disappeared in the space-time continuum.
The Robot Who Liked to Tell Tall Tales - Fei Dao - 5 stars
A robot travels through the lands and space-time to experience the craziest things possible. But will he ever get home?
The Snow of Jinyang - Zhang Ran - 3.75 stars
A slow build chuanyue-style story with a contemporary Chinese man dropped into the 10th century CE (late Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period) who's just trying to get home.
For those who didn't know (like myself) of chuanyue - it's a sub-genre of SFF that has contemporary characters going back in time, usually because of inconsequential reasons, and trying to get home.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: Laba Porridge - Anna Wu - 5 stars
The first in a series and I want to read them all. What would you sacrifice to have all the writing ability in the universe?
The First Emperor's Games - Ma Boyong - 3.5 stars
What if the first Emperor of China loved video games?
Reflection - Gu Shi - 4 stars
Clairvoyants are not to be messed with.
The Brain Box - Regina Kanyu Wang - 5 stars
Fucked me up. Never want to have my thoughts constantly recorded so that the last five minutes of my life can be preserved. No, thank you.
Coming of the Light - Chen Qiufan - 4.5 stars
A searing examination of the role and impact of social media technology on society and spiritualism.
A History of Future Illnesses - Chen Qiufan - 5 stars
A dark, disturbing, but almost-not-quite-humorous look at several different future illnesses the world will have to contend with. All related to technology.