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A review by rikuson1
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I Liked It π
-β β β ββ- (3.00/5.00)
My Grading Score = 60% (C)
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, now I understand why the other stories are simply "other stories" no offense to most of them or Ken Liu but I can understand why these other stories were not given as big of an attention compared to The Paper Menagerie itself, the other stories that are on its level are few and far and between in my opinion. But they were great. I even ended up liking one more than The Paper Menagerie itself (The Perfect Match).
The other stories, though, are what brought the overall score down so much for me a lot. They can vary so much in what they offer in that you could absolutely love one and dislike other following it, a handful of them felt like the message was more important than telling an engaging story while others felt like they cared far more about the concept and/or idea of what is being presented than the story. In both cases the plot and characters in those stories either took a back seat or were not fleshed out enough for me and when that happens unfortunately they started to lose me hard when their lengths are sometimes more than triple the size of the stories in here that I did love. I can also understand that there just may be some regional nuances that Ken Liu wanted to express and probably did so in a justifying way and I am just not someone who can appreciate whatever certain stories were going for since, like I stated the message sometimes felt like the most important aspect.
The Short Stories in Order in which they are presented.
1) The Booking Habits of Select Species
2) State Change
3) The Perfect Match
4) Good Hunting
5) The Literomancer
6) Simulacrum
7) The Regular
8) The Paper Menagerie
9) An Advanced Readers' Picture Book of Comparative Cognition
10) The Waves
11) Mono No Aware
12) All the Flavors
13) A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel
14) The Litigation Master and the Monkey King
15) The Man Who Ended History
My Rating and Ranking of each of them
1st - The Perfect Match = 5/5
2nd - The Paper Menagerie = 5/5
3rd - Simulacrum = 4.75/5
4th - State Change = 4/5
5th - Good Hunting = 3.50/5
6th - The Regular = 3.50/5
7th - The LM & the MK = 3.50/5
8th - The Man Who Ended History = 3/10
9th - All The Flavors = 3/5
10th - Mono No Aware = 2.75/5
11th - A Brief History of the TPT= 2.75/5
12th - The Waves = 2.75/5
13th - The Literomancer = 2.50/5
14th - The Booking Habits of SS = 2.50/5
15th - An Advanced Readers' PB of CC= 2.50/5
Verdict
Overall, as a whole, I'd say unfortunately I was disappointed if I'm looking at them as a compilation of stories. The ones that shined brightly most certainly did, but the ones that did not really turn me off and those heavily outweighed the great ones. Nonetheless and overall, I still came out not hating it and appreciating it all since Ken Liu's prose was still a pro.
I liked It.
-β β β ββ- (3.00/5.00)
My Grading Score = 60% (C)
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, now I understand why the other stories are simply "other stories" no offense to most of them or Ken Liu but I can understand why these other stories were not given as big of an attention compared to The Paper Menagerie itself, the other stories that are on its level are few and far and between in my opinion. But they were great. I even ended up liking one more than The Paper Menagerie itself (The Perfect Match).
The other stories, though, are what brought the overall score down so much for me a lot. They can vary so much in what they offer in that you could absolutely love one and dislike other following it, a handful of them felt like the message was more important than telling an engaging story while others felt like they cared far more about the concept and/or idea of what is being presented than the story. In both cases the plot and characters in those stories either took a back seat or were not fleshed out enough for me and when that happens unfortunately they started to lose me hard when their lengths are sometimes more than triple the size of the stories in here that I did love. I can also understand that there just may be some regional nuances that Ken Liu wanted to express and probably did so in a justifying way and I am just not someone who can appreciate whatever certain stories were going for since, like I stated the message sometimes felt like the most important aspect.
The Short Stories in Order in which they are presented.
1) The Booking Habits of Select Species
2) State Change
3) The Perfect Match
4) Good Hunting
5) The Literomancer
6) Simulacrum
7) The Regular
8) The Paper Menagerie
9) An Advanced Readers' Picture Book of Comparative Cognition
10) The Waves
11) Mono No Aware
12) All the Flavors
13) A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel
14) The Litigation Master and the Monkey King
15) The Man Who Ended History
My Rating and Ranking of each of them
1st - The Perfect Match = 5/5
2nd - The Paper Menagerie = 5/5
3rd - Simulacrum = 4.75/5
4th - State Change = 4/5
5th - Good Hunting = 3.50/5
6th - The Regular = 3.50/5
7th - The LM & the MK = 3.50/5
8th - The Man Who Ended History = 3/10
9th - All The Flavors = 3/5
10th - Mono No Aware = 2.75/5
11th - A Brief History of the TPT= 2.75/5
12th - The Waves = 2.75/5
13th - The Literomancer = 2.50/5
14th - The Booking Habits of SS = 2.50/5
15th - An Advanced Readers' PB of CC= 2.50/5
Verdict
Overall, as a whole, I'd say unfortunately I was disappointed if I'm looking at them as a compilation of stories. The ones that shined brightly most certainly did, but the ones that did not really turn me off and those heavily outweighed the great ones. Nonetheless and overall, I still came out not hating it and appreciating it all since Ken Liu's prose was still a pro.
I liked It.