Ken Liu is one of the most original, thought-provoking and award-winning short-story writers of his generation. This is the first collection of his work – sixteen stories that invoke the magical within the mundane, by turns profound, beguiling and heartbreaking.
Included here are: The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary (Finalist for Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon Awards), Mono No Aware (Hugo Award winner), The Waves (Nebula Award finalist), The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species (Nebula and Sturgeon award finalists), All the Flavors (Nebula Award finalist), The Litigation Master and the Monkey King (Nebula Award finalist) ,and the most awarded story in the genre's history, The Paper Menagerie (the only story ever to win the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards).
- ISBN10 1784975672
- ISBN13 9781784975678
- Publish Date 10 March 2016 (first published 8 March 2016)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 1 December 2022
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Head of Zeus
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 464
- Language English
Reviews
ross91
Some of the stories were ok, some were great, some a little boring and some AMAZING, especially the one that gives this collection its title.
I'm happy to have finally read something by this author, I'm patiently waiting for his Dandelion Series to be over, so I can start reading it as well
empressbrooke
Then many of the rest of the stories followed a pattern that I did not enjoy at all - nested stories that flipped back and forth between a main plotline and unrelated bits that were meant to thematically tie in to the main plot. "An Advanced Readers' Picture Book of Comparative Cognition" felt almost identical to "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species" except that the main plot is interspersed with explanations of how various made up alien species store their memories. "The Waves" intersperses various cultures' creation myths into the main plotline, which is annoying because the main plot was actually quite interesting and I wanted to stay with it. "Mono No Aware" flips back and forth between present and past, which I normally wouldn't mind, except I was feeling fatigued by bits taking my attention from the main story. "All The Flavors" likewise flips between the main story and tales of a Chinese god.
The final three stories are fine, but never really soared to the heights of the run of stories that left me so delighted (though "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" came close).
The ones I loved fully deserved more than three stars, so I gave the entire volume four. The ones I did not like as much could certainly be loved by someone who isn't as annoyed by the story-within-a-story device that I thought was much overused.
dokie80
Definitely will read other book by this author.