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A review by andicbuchanan
Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation by Ken Liu
4.0
On the whole, this collection interested me more than I enjoyed it. It pushed me outside the norms and structures I'd come to expect reading short SFF, and often left me intrigued. Many of the stories made substantial political references, references to events and figures, politicians and philosophers. It's not a case of my not understanding these - I usually did, and where I didn't they were easy to look up - but it led to a sense there were whole other layers to this that I wasn't understanding. Which to me is a sign I should read more Chinese SF where available, not less.
Standout stories for me were:
- “Broken Stars” by Tang Fei
- “Submarines” by Han Song
- “What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear” by Baoshu
I am not sure to what extent the trends in this are trends in Chinese Science Fiction, and to what extent they're trends in what Ken Liu likes (Liu has stated he only translates work he likes) but I'm struck by the combination of history and technology in so many of the stories, the presence of anachronistic technology, sometimes explained but sometimes unremarked, as if some cousin of magic realism except with internet instead of ghosts.
Standout stories for me were:
- “Broken Stars” by Tang Fei
- “Submarines” by Han Song
- “What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear” by Baoshu
I am not sure to what extent the trends in this are trends in Chinese Science Fiction, and to what extent they're trends in what Ken Liu likes (Liu has stated he only translates work he likes) but I'm struck by the combination of history and technology in so many of the stories, the presence of anachronistic technology, sometimes explained but sometimes unremarked, as if some cousin of magic realism except with internet instead of ghosts.