The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! đ
dufremde's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
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
3.5
reviewing short story collections is so difficult; how do you weigh the writing craft, the themes, the curation, and are the highs more impactful than the lows, and what parts are going to stick with me a month from now? a uneven reading experience made this even harder, so I guess I'll just go with quick impressions:
- the stuff that worked REALLY worked, but a few stories left me absolutely cold and/or sent me into a depression spiral. let's just talk about the bad experiences first: the cruelty of "literomancer" felt pointless and jarring, "the regular" was faux-edgy in a way that felt slimy to read sometimes, and to be perfectly honest, the title storyâyes, the one that won all the awardsâwas so mid in its themes and execution that I was just baffled after reading it. like that was some Amy Tan shit. overall, I think Liu has an issue writing women that feel real, and that makes me sad. and to me, an East Asian, some of the extremely East Asian tropes felt trite and tired, even in the stories that I liked.
- onto better times... I loved the intensity of both "bookmaking habits" and "comparative cognition," the imagination that went into both was astounding and I felt like I could have devoured an extended compendium of both concepts.
- I quite enjoyed the loosely connected trio of "comparative cognition" + "waves" + "mono no aware." it had the makings of a longer series, and I liked the combination of slice-of-life/character study with the overarching speculative sci-fi plotline.
- "all the flavors" and "litigation master" had that magical realism thing going for them, weaving in well-known Chinese literary figures, but I'm not sure they'll stick with me. (I was scared "all the flavors" was going to go the way of "literomancer" so I'm glad it stayed optimistic/open-ended. still, I wonder about including both when they kind of had a similar structure.)
- "trans-pacific tunnel" + "man who ended history" had Things To Say, and I'm lowkey mad he put the latter story at the very end, although I do think it is the showstopper of the entire collection. however, I have mixed feelings; I loved the concept of the documentary (which Liu says was inspired by Ted Chiang) and the intersection between time travel and transnational historical trauma really landed, but unfortunately for me he chose to center the story around Unit 731, which is one of my personal triggers, so I had to unfocus my eyes for a lot of the actual discussion over what happened. it's one of the most brutal episodes of WWII and still has reverberating effects, and I appreciate what Liu was trying to do with the sociopolitical commentary but I also felt physically ill while reading it. the entire collection needed massive content warnings, but especially this last story!
anyway I had to start another book at 2 a.m. to act as a palate cleanser lmao thanks bud
- the stuff that worked REALLY worked, but a few stories left me absolutely cold and/or sent me into a depression spiral. let's just talk about the bad experiences first: the cruelty of "literomancer" felt pointless and jarring, "the regular" was faux-edgy in a way that felt slimy to read sometimes, and to be perfectly honest, the title storyâyes, the one that won all the awardsâwas so mid in its themes and execution that I was just baffled after reading it. like that was some Amy Tan shit. overall, I think Liu has an issue writing women that feel real, and that makes me sad. and to me, an East Asian, some of the extremely East Asian tropes felt trite and tired, even in the stories that I liked.
- onto better times... I loved the intensity of both "bookmaking habits" and "comparative cognition," the imagination that went into both was astounding and I felt like I could have devoured an extended compendium of both concepts.
- I quite enjoyed the loosely connected trio of "comparative cognition" + "waves" + "mono no aware." it had the makings of a longer series, and I liked the combination of slice-of-life/character study with the overarching speculative sci-fi plotline.
- "all the flavors" and "litigation master" had that magical realism thing going for them, weaving in well-known Chinese literary figures, but I'm not sure they'll stick with me. (I was scared "all the flavors" was going to go the way of "literomancer" so I'm glad it stayed optimistic/open-ended. still, I wonder about including both when they kind of had a similar structure.)
- "trans-pacific tunnel" + "man who ended history" had Things To Say, and I'm lowkey mad he put the latter story at the very end, although I do think it is the showstopper of the entire collection. however, I have mixed feelings; I loved the concept of the documentary (which Liu says was inspired by Ted Chiang) and the intersection between time travel and transnational historical trauma really landed, but unfortunately for me he chose to center the story around Unit 731, which is one of my personal triggers, so I had to unfocus my eyes for a lot of the actual discussion over what happened. it's one of the most brutal episodes of WWII and still has reverberating effects, and I appreciate what Liu was trying to do with the sociopolitical commentary but I also felt physically ill while reading it. the entire collection needed massive content warnings, but especially this last story!
anyway I had to start another book at 2 a.m. to act as a palate cleanser lmao thanks bud
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Rape, Violence, and Sexual violence
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.Â
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
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
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
josiah17's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
4.5
This was an incredibly rich, moving, and thought-provoking collection of short stories. Ken Liu has a brilliant mind and has wonderful writing. I found so many stories to be introspective, emotional, human, and very philosophical in an approachable manner. Liu interweaves so many strong and relevant themes into his works. I can't wait to read his long form fiction in The Dandelion Dynasty series. Some of my favorite stories I want to highlight were "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species," "Good Hunting,"  "The Literomancer," the titular story "The Paper Menagerie," and "An Advanced Readers' Picture Book of Comparative Cognition."Â
I highly recommend this collection of short fiction to everyone.
I highly recommend this collection of short fiction to everyone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Torture
Moderate: Body horror
Minor: Rape and Sexual content
danielles_reads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Iâm honestly in awe of Ken Liuâs mind! This collection is full of stories bursting with imagination, discussing everything from language, culture, our responsibility to history, racism, imperialism and colonialism, personal trauma, and family relationships.
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:
Preface: made me tear up a lil bit tbh. I like how he talked about how different human consciousnesses are but how we can connect through books. âCommunication is a miracle of translation.â
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Death, Murder, and Torture
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Suicide
madijwhat's review
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
This is everything I love about short story collections. Incredible & Beautiful book.Â
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Rape
WarningâThe last story is particularly graphic.blenchbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Genocide, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Medical trauma, Murder, Child death, Hate crime, Medical content, Racism, Rape, Forced institutionalization, and War
kthudson15's review against another edition
This book was very good, would recommend. The only reason I DNFed is because Iâm in a fragile mental state & some of the stories were sad (in a good way; I just canât handle them currently). The last story has some content that was not helping my mental health so I decided it was better to just stop than push through.Â
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Grief
Moderate: War, Child death, Death of parent, Racism, Genocide, and Violence
Minor: Racial slurs and Murder
ruthhelizabeth's review
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
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
lynxpardinus's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
4.75
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
sofiadanielle's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- 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
Wow, just wow.Â
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
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Rape, Torture, and War
Moderate: Suicide, Racism, and Xenophobia