A review by mdpenguin
China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh

emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I got to the copyright page at the end of this and was amazed that it said 1992. The tech in this makes sense based on the current state of the art. And it's really cool: I love the idea of the modular busses in China and the system integrations and meta materials described in it seem like logical extensions of what people are working on now. The world-building is excellent – it's not just believable, but so fully fleshed out, from technology and economics to education and on through fashion and entertainment – and the author did a good job of letting it slowly explain itself (at least until an almost incongruous part near the end when the protagonist talks a bout the basics of what happened to make the world the way it is).

More than that, though, is that the book is really about the people and how they live in the society, which is very different and yet almost exactly the same as our own. The characters are relatable and likable. The interstitial stories between the chapters from Zhang's point of view stand well as short stories on their own while also contributing a lot to the world building and helping make the jumps between periods in Zhang's life feel more natural. I think that the author did an amazing job with the writing, both in terms of phrasing and pacing, so that it was easy to care about what was going on and be interested in what would come next.