A review by seeceeread
The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories: A Collection of Chinese Science Fiction and Fantasy in Translation from a Visionary Team of Female and Nonbinary Creators by Gu Shi, Xia Jia, Jing Tsu, Anna Wu, Chen Qian, Regina Kanyu Wang, Wang Nuonuo, Yu Chen, Zhao Haihong, Xueting Christine Ni, Chi Hui, Ling Chen, Nian Yu, Xiu Xinyu, Emily Xueni Jin, Shen Dacheng, Chu Xidao, Count E, BaiFanRuShuang, Shen Yingying
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.