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A review by yogarshi
Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation by Ken Liu
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.