A review by leasky
Invisible Planets by Ken Liu
5.0
Ken Liu is quickly becoming one of my favourite people, with his wonderful Dandelion Dynasty novels and shining a bright light on Chinese science fiction for western readers, including his translation of Liu Cixin's hard sci-fi Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy and now translating this wonderful collection of short science fiction stories written by some exceptionally talented Chinese sci-fi writers. What a guy!
Anyway, enough gushing about Ken! I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and I'm very excited about the next installment, Broken Stars, as I need more! Chen Qiufan stories are dark and slightly depressing, with some exceptional social commentary that really makes you think. Ma Boyong's The City of Silence is a brilliant, modern homage to 1984 and was utterly terrifying! Liu Cixin's Taking Care of God is such an inventive piece of work that in such few words adds historical context to the story and could easily be turned into a full novel. I didn't appreciate his story The Circle as this was an adaptation of a chapter in The Three Body Problem that I didn't want to think about again as it's hurts my brain! Cixin is clearly a very intelligent man in addition to being a wonderful story crafter.
But...I have to give the most praise to Xia Jia. Tongtong’s Summer is a sweet story about using technology to help combat that feeling of loneliness and redundancy that a lot of people can feel in their old age, told through the eyes of a little girl watching her grandfather flourish with this new tech. Brought a tear to my eye! However, Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse was my absolute favourite, about a mechanical Dragon-Horse navigating a human-free, post-apocalyptic land and making a friend along the way. The sweetness of this story was amazing. I loved it!
5 massive stars!
Anyway, enough gushing about Ken! I thoroughly enjoyed this collection and I'm very excited about the next installment, Broken Stars, as I need more! Chen Qiufan stories are dark and slightly depressing, with some exceptional social commentary that really makes you think. Ma Boyong's The City of Silence is a brilliant, modern homage to 1984 and was utterly terrifying! Liu Cixin's Taking Care of God is such an inventive piece of work that in such few words adds historical context to the story and could easily be turned into a full novel. I didn't appreciate his story The Circle as this was an adaptation of a chapter in The Three Body Problem that I didn't want to think about again as it's hurts my brain! Cixin is clearly a very intelligent man in addition to being a wonderful story crafter.
But...I have to give the most praise to Xia Jia. Tongtong’s Summer is a sweet story about using technology to help combat that feeling of loneliness and redundancy that a lot of people can feel in their old age, told through the eyes of a little girl watching her grandfather flourish with this new tech. Brought a tear to my eye! However, Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse was my absolute favourite, about a mechanical Dragon-Horse navigating a human-free, post-apocalyptic land and making a friend along the way. The sweetness of this story was amazing. I loved it!
5 massive stars!