nsmith521's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
3.5
ctjohnson7's review
4.0
an excellent short story collection with several insightful essays dispersed throughout. while I didnโt love every story,ย there were several standouts for me (the stars we raised, the restaurant at the end of the universe, and dragonslaying), and overall it provided a good glimpse into the breadth of chinese sci-fi and fantasy writing. ย
zarrazine's review
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
anna_rosales's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
nikolas_fox's review
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
seeceeread's review against another edition
4.0
๐ญ "Reading is one of the major ways in which we inform ourselves and develop empathy. Women's internet literature is doing far more than informing male readers about the internal motivations of female characters. It's also educating them on how to interact with women in real life โ how to treat them as comrades and equals." โXueting Christine Ni, ๐๐ฆ๐ต ๐๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ โ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ขโ: ๐๐ฐ๐ธ ๐๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ต ๐๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐ด ๐๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข
"A collection of science fiction and fantasy in translation from a visionary team of female and nonbinary creators," details the cover. The team includes Booksta darling RF Kuang, whose work here was especially delightful.
The stories skip between comedic and occult, heartwarming and horrifying. Characters form relationships with budding stars, program hyperrealistic simulations of baby-rearing, follow the origin story of a painting back to its sordid roots in bullying and disregard, look on as merpeople mutilate each other to be sold as playthings for the powerful ...
Many conceptual kernels will stay with me for their ingenuity, though some of the writing felt more passing than praiseworthy. I suspect, too, that the single narrator wore me down. The audio style across 21 parts was too similar and some shorts blurred into each other; a hard copy reread would probably be even more enjoyable.
The embedded essays are fascinating and encourage me to process with more nuance and intention. Like in Olivarez' ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ผ๐น๐ฑ, hearing from the translator deepened my appreciation. Translators have critical roles as "mediators" of our experiences and their reflections about the kinds of choices they must make expand my possibilities as a reader, because they effectively give permission to wonder how other punctuation, diction (especially when preserved in the first language), explanation, allusion ... might have emerged from the same source material with another's hand.
"A collection of science fiction and fantasy in translation from a visionary team of female and nonbinary creators," details the cover. The team includes Booksta darling RF Kuang, whose work here was especially delightful.
The stories skip between comedic and occult, heartwarming and horrifying. Characters form relationships with budding stars, program hyperrealistic simulations of baby-rearing, follow the origin story of a painting back to its sordid roots in bullying and disregard, look on as merpeople mutilate each other to be sold as playthings for the powerful ...
Many conceptual kernels will stay with me for their ingenuity, though some of the writing felt more passing than praiseworthy. I suspect, too, that the single narrator wore me down. The audio style across 21 parts was too similar and some shorts blurred into each other; a hard copy reread would probably be even more enjoyable.
The embedded essays are fascinating and encourage me to process with more nuance and intention. Like in Olivarez' ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ผ๐น๐ฑ, hearing from the translator deepened my appreciation. Translators have critical roles as "mediators" of our experiences and their reflections about the kinds of choices they must make expand my possibilities as a reader, because they effectively give permission to wonder how other punctuation, diction (especially when preserved in the first language), explanation, allusion ... might have emerged from the same source material with another's hand.
vvatson's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Done done done finally done! It only took two months lmao. An interesting collection of short stories and essays but my god my reading rut was way too real.ย
The essays on story craft, female writership in Chinese scifi/fantasy, well as considerations that is given to translation work process.ย
The short stories are mixed, some was okay/not memorable, a few I had to look up to see what I was suppose to get out of the experience, quite a number of them were beautifully written, and at least one of them made me physically recoil with have graphic it was.
Overall Im glad for the experience but man probably wouldnt read this again unless somehow I need it as a reference.ย
The essays on story craft, female writership in Chinese scifi/fantasy, well as considerations that is given to translation work process.ย
The short stories are mixed, some was okay/not memorable, a few I had to look up to see what I was suppose to get out of the experience, quite a number of them were beautifully written, and at least one of them made me physically recoil with have graphic it was.
Overall Im glad for the experience but man probably wouldnt read this again unless somehow I need it as a reference.ย
dinibharadwaj's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
3.0
Most of the subtleties in each of the stories went over my head probably because I wasn't in the right headspace but I quite enjoyed the essays by the translators.
eclownizzy's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5