The Paper Menagerie

by Ken Liu

[empressbrooke]

This was my first time reading Ken Liu as an author rather than as a translator. Much like the other set of short stories I just read (Ted Chiang's [b:Exhalation|41160292|Exhalation Stories|Ted Chiang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534388394l/41160292._SX50_.jpg|64336454]), it's really difficult to sum up my feelings with a single rating. The opener, "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species", is more of a thought experiment than a story, as it literally details the bookmaking habits of various made up alien species. Then it hits a series of particularly fantastic stories ("State Change", "The Perfect Match", "Good Hunting", "The Literomancer", "Simulacrum", "The Regular", "The Paper Menagerie"). "The Regular" in particular fell into one of my favorite sub-genres, mysteries set in a sci-fi setting.

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.