Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

9 reviews

10stormlight's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

Some really conceptually interesting and thought provoking stuff. A collection of very emotional (and sometimes heartrending) stories. Primarily sci fi and magical realism with a heavy historical influence. 

As a warning, there is a ton of *extremely* graphic content in here. In fact, I think this may be the most explicitly graphic book I have ever read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Torture, Violence, Gore, Rape, Suicide, Body horror, Death, Grief, Medical content, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Racism, Child death, Sexual content, War, Death of parent, Confinement, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Terminal illness, Bullying, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, and Racial slurs

ruthhelizabeth's review

challenging dark informative medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Murder, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Gun violence, Gore, Confinement, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Pregnancy, Genocide, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Blood, War, Torture, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Suicide

samdalefox's review

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

I had first read 'The paper menagerie' as a stand alone story and loved it, so bought Liu's full short story collection. As you can see from the individual ratings below, I also loved the rest of the stories. The only one to drop below 4/5 was 'All the flavours', mostly because I don't think the structure and length entirely paid off. Outstanding pieces include 'State change', Simulacrum', 'The paper menagerie', and 'The man who ended history: a documentary'. Although the collection averaged 4.5, I'm bumping it up to 4.75 because the work is greater than the sum of its parts. 
 
It's hard to describe Ken Liu's writing style and subject matter. It's an easy to read, sci-fi, magical realism, literary, historical fiction, kind of genre. There were several times I looked up specific events referenced and learnt about Chinese and pan-Asian history. I found this incredibly enjoyable, the way history and culture are presented is informative, but in an appeasing way because it's told almost like a fairy tale. I also greatly appeciated the author's notes at the end of the stories with historical features explaining the references and pointing to further reading. 

The stories cover difficult themes such as imperialism, industrialisation, migration and immigrant experience, ethical use/misuse and philosophical development of technology, revolution and nationalism, militarianism, philosophy of communication and memory, and censorship, all with respect to Chinese people.

"Every act of communication is a miracle of translation"

The book making habits of select species 4.25⭐
State change 4.75⭐ 
The perfect match 4.25⭐
Good hunting 4⭐
The literomancer 4.5⭐
Simulacrum 5⭐
The regular 4⭐
The paper menagerie 5⭐
An advanced reader's picture book of comparative cognition 4.25⭐
The waves 4.5⭐
Mono no aware 4.5⭐
All the flavours 3.5⭐
A brief history of the trans Pacific tunnel 4.25⭐
The litigation master and the monkey king 4.75⭐
The man who ended history: a documentary 5⭐

Average = 4.43 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation and Classism

Minor: Murder, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Death, Genocide, Confinement, Hate crime, Bullying, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Rape

The stories cover difficult themes such as imperialism, industrialisation, migration and immigrant experience, ethical use/misuse and philosophical development of technology, revolution and nationalism, militarianism, philosophy of communication and memory, and censorship all with respect to Chinese people.

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, Colonisation, Genocide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Death of parent, Racism, Suicide, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Rape, Racial slurs, Infidelity, Police brutality, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual violence, and Slavery

Minor: Dementia and Sexual content

kalira's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Ken Lie has a brilliant approach to weaving together history and realism with fantastical/speculative fiction elements, drawing it all into poignant and deeply emotional relief.

It took me a long time to read this anthology, largely because the stories are very good . . . and sometimes, so painful and heavy and immediate that upon finishing I needed to set the book aside and take some time. Both to process the story and to give myself a little emotional space to breathe.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Child death, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Gore, Trafficking, Vomit, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Death, War, Alcohol, Colonisation, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Chronic illness, and Grief

onamoonbeam's review

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.25

sometimes, ken liu, you are SO deep in the sauce

my favorite stories in this collection were paper menagerie, bookkeeping habits, and the waves. monkey king was so fun but also i was listening to my audiobook on my morning commute and i was not expecting so many stories to have graphic depictions of torture! an important topic esp in the context of historical erasure! not what i was expecting!

oh i am so tired when writing this i nearly forgot about good hunting (first saw it in love death and robots! i actually like the og better even if the animation is gorgeous) and state change

sometimes the sauce is good sometimes the sauce gets lost in so much extensions of history and context

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Colonisation, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Rape, Murder, Sexual violence, and Suicide

heidipolkissa82's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Torture, Genocide, Physical abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, Blood, and Colonisation

fromjuliereads's review

challenging dark hopeful informative reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This collection of short stories was so well done! I don't normally read short story collections, but I always loved reading short stories for study purposes. These were unlike any I had read.

These stories incorporate real places and history into science fiction and fantasy. They are raw, unique, heartbreaking, and in many ways, eye opening. While a couple were a bit long or not for me, I had quite a few that I thoroughly enjoyed and could still find appreciation for all of them.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

readandfindout's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

On first read in 2017: There were multiple five star stories for me in this anthology. However, because there were also some two and two and a half star stories, this gets 4 stars overall. Ken Liu is such a smart writer. I really enjoy his style.

2023 reread: 4.25 stars overall

The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species: 5 stars (2017), 4 stars (2023)
State Change: 4 stars (2017), 4.5 stars (2023)
The Perfect March: 3 stars (2017), 4 stars (2023)
Good Hunting: 4.5 stars (2017 and 2023)
The Literomancer: 5 stars (2017 and 2023)
Simulacrum: 2 stars (2017), 3.5 stars (2023)
The Regular: 4.5 stars (2017 and 2023)
The Paper Menagerie: 4.5 stars (2017), 5 stars (2023)
An Advanced Readers' Picture Book of Comparative Cognition: 3 stars (2017 and 2023)
The Waves: 5 stars (2017), 3.5 stars (2023)
Mono No Aware: 5 stars (2017), 4.5 stars (2023)
All the Flavors: 3 stars (2017), 4 stars (2023)
A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel: 2.5 stars (2017), 4 stars (2023)
The Litigation Master and the Monkey King: 4 stars (2017), 5 stars (2023)
The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary: 5 stars (2017 and 2023)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Xenophobia, Blood, Physical abuse, Violence, Genocide, Murder, Grief, Colonisation, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Hate crime, War, Body horror, Torture, Gore, Medical trauma, and Rape

Moderate: Suicide, Racism, and Death of parent

Minor: Racial slurs