Ken Liu
What is with these Chinese (/origin) writers? Ted Chiang’s “Stories of Your Life and Others” was the best collection of speculative fiction I had read. Then there was Liu Cixin’s “The Three Body Problem” trilogy that had a fantastic story arc even while retaining scientific accuracy. And now, Ken Liu, who had translated Liu Cixin’s work into English, and has also credited Ted Chiang as an inspiration for the last story in this book.
All fiction, the author says in the preface, is about prizing the logic of metaphors over reality, which is irreducibly random and senseless. This is what I would call the DNA of the book, and teasing out the metaphors in some of the stories is what I considered the most exciting part of reading this book. Also mentioned in the preface is the author’s perspective that he does not pay attention to the distinction between fantasy and science fiction or genres in general, and a few stories serve as excellent examples. Good Hunting could be steampunk and fantasy, The Waves would be science fiction and fantasy, The Man who ended history could be historical fiction and science fiction. The genre is rendered irrelevant in the larger scheme of things. Everything is speculative fiction.
The other benefit of that is the superb variety of stories one can read in this, many of which are sublimely profound and poignant. Even when alluding to history of places and events one is not completely familiar with- The Literomancer, All the Flavours, The Litigation Master and the Monkey King – there is a sensitivity and depth that makes the stories universal.
My favourites would be these : The Perfect Match, which is extremely relevant for the current times when large corporations and their AI driven algorithms try to take control of human lives, The Paper Menagerie for its delicate take on children, magic and human relationships and finally State Change, for the stunning imagination and the use of metaphors.
Do yourself a favour and pick up this gem right away!
