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A review by adrianhon
Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation by Ken Liu
4.0
Several tremendously smart and funny stories in this collection, including:
Submarines by Han Song
What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear by Baoshu (extraordinarily good)
The Robot Who Liked to Tell Tall Tales by Fei Dao (Liu compares this to Calvino, but the more obvious inspiration is Stanislaw Lem)
The Snow of Jinyang by Zhang Ran (absolutely hilarious yet also a very smart take on the old “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court” genre)
The First Emperor’s Games by Ma Boyong (this shouldn’t work but it absolutely does, and has some OG videogame knowledge)
Coming of the Light by Chen Qiufan (wasn’t wholly convinced but it’s very well written)
...
Though I realise these are not presented as a representative selection of Chinese sci-fi (if such a thing were possible), or even a “best of” (ditto), I can’t help but wonder at a number of trends:
- Why is there so much historical fiction? I don’t see the same thing in western sci-fi. Is it because the US is a much young country?
- There are a *lot* of nagging wives. It’s not a good look, folks.
- Interesting range in the background of authors. Lots of philosophers and historians and economists.
Submarines by Han Song
What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear by Baoshu (extraordinarily good)
The Robot Who Liked to Tell Tall Tales by Fei Dao (Liu compares this to Calvino, but the more obvious inspiration is Stanislaw Lem)
The Snow of Jinyang by Zhang Ran (absolutely hilarious yet also a very smart take on the old “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court” genre)
The First Emperor’s Games by Ma Boyong (this shouldn’t work but it absolutely does, and has some OG videogame knowledge)
Coming of the Light by Chen Qiufan (wasn’t wholly convinced but it’s very well written)
...
Though I realise these are not presented as a representative selection of Chinese sci-fi (if such a thing were possible), or even a “best of” (ditto), I can’t help but wonder at a number of trends:
- Why is there so much historical fiction? I don’t see the same thing in western sci-fi. Is it because the US is a much young country?
- There are a *lot* of nagging wives. It’s not a good look, folks.
- Interesting range in the background of authors. Lots of philosophers and historians and economists.