The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! đ
10stormlight's review against another edition
3.75
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.Â
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
compassrosa's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Medical trauma and Physical abuse
Moderate: Murder and Racism
Minor: Suicide and Rape
danielles_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Iâve only read a handful of SFF short story collections because I really disliked the first one I read, and I wasnât sure if it was the author or the format. Turns out it is possible to write short, engaging speculative stories that make sense with minimal world building and make you attached to the characters! A lot of these stories were absolute tear jerkersâI cried my eyes out at the titular story, which was only 28 minutes long but so emotional. Liu discussed a lot of trauma, both personal and collective, which made this a really heavy but worthwhile read.
I loved so many of the stories and only found two of them to be meh. My favorites were: The Man Who Ended History, Mono no Aware, The Paper Menagerie, The Regular, and Good Hunting. My least favorites were The Perfect Match and Simulacrum (though the latter inspired a good book club discussion). I do kind of wish that Liu had spaced out the longer stories more evenly throughout the collectionâthe stories in the first half were all fairly short, but the longest stories were all in the second half. It made the pacing feel a bit uneven.
I definitely need to read more of Liuâs work! I highly recommend this collection to anyone looking to read more short speculative fiction.
Spoiler thoughts on each story:
The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species: wow, these species are all so different! I love the metal species with stone brains carving out a little for their descendants. And the species that has to physically touch the books to read and so they lock them away and only share interpretations. So creative, loving this already.
State Change: Gave Ling Ma vibes. A seemingly mundane story with slightly absurd speculative elements that has a greater meaning. But with actual closure lol. This one was fascinating and had me all in. I liked the excerpts with historical figuresâ souls too. Iâm already so impressed with Liuâs mind!
The Perfect Match: Disappointing. An obvious manifesto against tech companies that was super predictable. Hopefully this is a one-time issue.
Good Hunting: This one made me tear up 𼲠I loved the theming, characters, ending. Beautiful
The Literomancer: Ken Liu is really just gonna rip my heart out of my throat like that huh?? jesus. This one was too real. The ending did feel rushed and kind of forced with the dad explaining literally every detail about the torture to his wife, but ultimately I think it succeeded in delivering the message he wanted about imperialism, anti-communism, etc. I also loved the discussion around Chinese characters and languageâyou can really see Liuâs translation skills at work.
Simulacrum: Was that ending implying that Anna started the simulacrum of her mom? Interesting. Iâll always be team family members donât deserve reconciliation just because theyâre family, so it would make sense sheâd rather bond with a fake version of her mom than have that message be her last memory of her. And her dad was creeping me out.
The Regular: omg this was so scary and intense. How does Liu always get me to connect with these characters so quickly?? Ruth hanging from the windowsill waiting for the Watcher had me STRESSED. And then her getting the chance to make up for her daughterâs death by saving Carrie in the way she couldnât for her daughter⌠đ the feels
The Watcher was creepy af and his POV heightened the tension even more. And Liu really seems to understand womenâs experiences with sexism with the comments Ruth made about what she dealt with from men
The Paper Menagerie: freaking bawling at his momâs story, she didnât deserve that and neither did he đđ
An Advanced Readers' Picture Book of Comparative Cognition: Just the kind of philosophical sci-fi I like. Uranium-based life forms, who even comes up with that?!? Though I canât deny that traveling 550 AU from the sun to listen to messages around the universe for the rest of your life sounds depressing as fuck. I like to think that the parts about different aliens were things she learned while listening.
I think the point was to show how insignificant our thoughts and legacy are to the universe and the different ways love can be expressed.
The Waves: This one was wild. I feel like Liu took the typical âwhat makes us human?â sci-fi theme to its absolute limit in a way I havenât really seen before. I also felt the revulsion Maggie felt when Bobby turned into a machine đ but then when they essentially turned into light I started thinking, whatâs the point of living like that forever? So strange. I like how he incorporated creation stories too. For a second I thought Maggie was going to create humans from mud at the end there lol
Mono no Aware: A beautiful story about community and sacrifice and the inherent transience of life. Loved it.
All the Flavors: this was⌠fine. It was pretty much just straight historical fiction and it felt meh compared to the other brilliant stories in this collection. And it was so long! I also kept getting the names in the legend confused so I probably didnât fully understand it. And I know itâs historically accurate but hearing âChinamanâ constantly was grating.
A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel: interesting alternate history that had a real dark but realistic turn. Damn, the prisoner trying to escape was Hokkien like the narrator and not a communist terrorist like he was told :(
The Man Who Ended History: wowowow, this one was incredible. A perfect example of a sci-fi with meaningful social commentary. I loved the rumination on how we interact with history, and the discussion of the needs of the individuals affected by past atrocities vs the needs of society as a whole vs the need to save and document these atrocities. I had never heard of unit 731 before. Pure evil, but Iâm glad that this story informed me.
Graphic: Rape, Death, Murder, and Torture
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Suicide
blenchbooks's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Medical trauma, Murder, Child death, Hate crime, Medical content, Racism, Rape, Forced institutionalization, and War
ruthhelizabeth's review
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
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
paulaortuno's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Suicide, Police brutality, Colonisation, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Rape, Mental illness, Racism, Blood, and Classism
lynxpardinus's review against another edition
4.75
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
sofiadanielle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Ken Liu is certainly an author who has undeniable power in his words. Each story has left an impact on me. He created worlds so complete that even the shortest stories included donât leave the reader feeling not submerged in whatever the setting and plot is.Â
The intertwining of Asian folklore, futuristic creations and ideals, was something new for me to find in a singular story, never mind a series of them. Liu also doesnât shy away from gruesome bits in the stories centered around real wars and global conflicts.Â
Definitely not for the faint of heart, as some topics are heavy and detailed, but I feel that despite these sometimes gory details, the heart of the story- reflectivity on society most of the time- always prevails.Â
Simply amazing and deeply moving. I wonât be forgetting this read for a long time.Â
Graphic: Death, Rape, Torture, and War
Moderate: Suicide, Racism, and Xenophobia
onamoonbeam's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.25
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
Graphic: Torture, Colonisation, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Rape, Murder, Sexual violence, and Suicide
starrynight's review
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
Graphic: Medical content, Death, Sexual violence, Rape, Torture, Colonisation, Murder, Racism, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Gun violence
Minor: Suicide and Animal cruelty