A review by saralynnburnett
Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation by Ken Liu
4.0
There are several essays in the back of this book such as one on ‘What Makes Chinese Science Fiction Chinese.’ I actually read these first before reading the stories and it allowed me to think more deeply about each one.
While I didn’t enjoy this as much as the translator Ken Liu’s own collection of own short stories, The Paper Menagerie this compilation gave a wonderful collection of stories from both male and female contemporary Chinese scifi authors. I particularly enjoyed his inclusion of so many women scifi authors and there were so many memorable stories in here. I think my favorite had to be Folding Beijing. It had a very ‘Inception’ quality about it. I also loved The Flower of Shazui - mostly for it’s richly portrayed setting in a towering slum and Tongtong’s Summer - where a robot comes to help her grandfather.
While I didn’t enjoy this as much as the translator Ken Liu’s own collection of own short stories, The Paper Menagerie this compilation gave a wonderful collection of stories from both male and female contemporary Chinese scifi authors. I particularly enjoyed his inclusion of so many women scifi authors and there were so many memorable stories in here. I think my favorite had to be Folding Beijing. It had a very ‘Inception’ quality about it. I also loved The Flower of Shazui - mostly for it’s richly portrayed setting in a towering slum and Tongtong’s Summer - where a robot comes to help her grandfather.