The Paper Menagerie

Introduced to Ken Liu through his translation of the Three Body Problem

Some great stories, some less so. Thematically centered on writing and passing on of thought.

I really enjoyed State Change where your soul is a physical object - imagine His Dark Materials but inanimate objects not animals.

The man who ended history was interesting, but was just too long and repetitive. Not to take anything away from the brutality of history where unit 731 is concerned of course.

I don't think this really worked as an audiobook, I wish I'd picked up a paper copy.

This is truly an immaculate collection of short stories. I read that those who like Ted Chiang should read Ken Liu next, and I'm so glad I did. The best stories tend to be stacked closer to the end of the book, but don't skip the earlier ones! My favorites were - "The Literomancer" - "The Paper Menagerie" - "Mono no Aware" - "All the Flavors" - "A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel"

There are some great reflections here on identity, whether East Asian or North American, interweaved with the normal themes about ethics, technology, and social relations that Sci-Fi tends to cover. I can't wait to read his other books in the future.

4 (Read over a very long period as I only read it when I wanted a break from reading novels. It may've received a different score if I'd read it in a shorter period since I'd remember the earlier stories.)

A really stunning collections of stories that range from a heartbreaking but beautiful tale, suffused with magical realism, of a son's coming to terms with his mothers experience as a immigrant, to a rumination on the nature of memory told through the recollections of an alien to the adventures of Chinese prospectors in gold rush Idaho. Liu's fiction uses the fantastical and speculative to explore the human condition in tender provocative ways that left me wanting more, which luckily, exist in his other books!

This collection of stories by Ken Liu is outstanding. These tales are written in a variety of styles, some affecting a nonfiction or documentary style, while others were written more like novels. Some contain fascinating folk tales, which relate to the main story. Also, these narratives vary greatly in length. I got into them all.

The Paper Menagerie is the stand-out, and I was not surprised to find that it won so many awards. I love the way that title takes on a double meaning as the title of this varied collection...I found Simulacrum, All the Flavors, A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel, and The Man Who Ended History to be especially memorable. The way Liu combined history and science fiction in this last story was especially thought-provoking, and also focused on a historical subject I was unaware of before.

For some reason, I do not read many short story collections...it would have been unfortunate to have missed this one. I'd recommend it to anyone.

This may just be the best short story collection I've ever read.

But be careful -- dust kept getting in my eyes!

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