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A review by mary_soon_lee
Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy by Fonda Lee
3.0
“Where the Stars Rise” is an anthology of Asian science fiction and fantasy. I love the variety of these twenty-three stories, encompassing many different Asian flavors, as well as many different varieties of science fiction and fantasy. Here you will find characters who are male, female, young, old, human and inhuman. There are characters with disabilities, characters of different ethnicities, robots, djinns, ghosts, mermaids, and superheroes.
As is almost inevitable in such a broad-ranging anthology, not every story appealed to me, but by and large I enjoyed this. My personal favorite was Karin Lowachee’s “Meridian,” a strong, dark tale with a haunting end. I’ve had Lowachee’s first novel waiting on my to-read shelves for a few years, and now I’ll be promoting it in the ranks. I also particularly liked Minsoo Kang’s chilling “Wintry Hearts of Those Who Rise,” Fonda Lee’s story about choices and possibilities, “Old Souls,” and Naru Dames Sundar’s brief but effective “The Orphans of Nilaveli.”
As is almost inevitable in such a broad-ranging anthology, not every story appealed to me, but by and large I enjoyed this. My personal favorite was Karin Lowachee’s “Meridian,” a strong, dark tale with a haunting end. I’ve had Lowachee’s first novel waiting on my to-read shelves for a few years, and now I’ll be promoting it in the ranks. I also particularly liked Minsoo Kang’s chilling “Wintry Hearts of Those Who Rise,” Fonda Lee’s story about choices and possibilities, “Old Souls,” and Naru Dames Sundar’s brief but effective “The Orphans of Nilaveli.”