An interesting and colorful collection of stories competently translated by Ken Liu. It is interesting how fanciful an author can get when a planet is described in a paragraph or even five. And the stories run from the fanciful to the grim, though more sad and resigned that buoyant or hopeful. ( )

Like many short story collections, some of the stories in this collection were better than others. Unlike most short story collections, I liked all of them. Thus, this collection is better than average as far as story collections go. Although, as essays at both the introduction and closing make clear, there is no singular definition of Chinese science fiction, one thing I really appreciated about this collection is that the stories were distinctly from a cultural background different than I was used to. Not the plots so much as the details of life -- names, food, cultural reference -- that permeate fiction even when it is set in a different time and place.

My personal favorites from this collection were "The Fish of Lijiang" by Chen Quifan, "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" and "Tongtong's Summer" by Xia Jia, "Invisible Planets" by Hao Jingfang, and "Taking Care of God" by Liu Cixin. ( )

我是根據本書目錄，在網上找中文版對照著看，主要是閱讀中文版。

收錄的短篇小說有：「鼠年」、「麗江的魚兒們」、「沙咀之花」、「百鬼夜行街」、「童童的夏天」、「龍馬夜行」、「寂靜之城」、「看不見的星球」、「北京折疊」、「特殊服務」、「螢火蟲之墓」、「The Circle」、「贍養上帝」。

我最喜歡「童童的夏天」，很溫暖。也喜歡「北京折疊」，針砭現實，很犀利。

我發現有兩篇小說「鼠年」和「寂靜之城」，英文版和中文版是有出入的。「鼠年」的英文版結尾處加了一句說明，刪了一大段，把尾巴改得好非常多！「寂靜之城」的英文版把則是把所有設定背景有點像現代中國的部分都改掉了XDDDD 這是為什麼 XDDDD 對照Ken Liu在序言所說，希望讀者不要把中國小說都解讀成在諷刺中國政治，我覺得.....非常諷刺哈哈哈。為了不想被英文讀者「誤讀」，乾脆把諷刺中國的部分都改換掉 :P 劉慈欣在書末的散文，反駁英文書評家認為它對外星人描寫黑暗是因為中國政治背景黑暗，提出的論點似乎有道理但是又似乎漏洞百出，我一直反覆琢磨，很有意思。



( )

I've been looking forward to reading this collection for a while, as I'm interested in Science Fiction from other countries, especially from a different language and vastly different culture. There were some very interesting ideas in here:
The Year of the Rat had a completely fascinating premise of enhanced rats taking over the country. The City of Silence was scary for how much I do NOT want it to be prescient. But by far the best story here was Tongtong's Summer, which is a great example of Hopeful SciFi. Something that is very much needed these days. It's also one of the sweetest stories I've ever read without being cloying.

CHEN QIUFAN - The Year of the Rat: 5 Stars
CHEN QIUFAN - The Fish of Lijiang: 5
CHEN QIUFAN - The Flower of Shazui: 4
XIA JIA - A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight: 4
XIA JIA - Tongtong’s Summer: 5
XIA JIA - Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse: 4
MA BOYONG - The City of Silence: 5
HAO JINGFANG - Invisible Planets: 2
HAO JINGFANG - Folding Beijing: 4
TANG FEI - Call Girl: 2
CHENG JINGBO - Grave of the Fireflies: DNF
LIU CIXIN - The Circle: 5
LIU CIXIN - Taking Care of God: 4

Average: 3.77, Weighted: 3.90, rounding up to 4 stars ( )

I loved [Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation] edited and translated by Ken Liu. The general introduction to the collection and the introduction to each author were so helpful to this clueless western reader. The book contains 13 short stories by 7 authors chosen by Ken Liu, as well as essays by 3 of the authors about Chinese science fiction. This collection made me really wish I could read Chinese so I could appreciate the originals. I loved everything I read and know I missed so much lacking the cultural context. I especially enjoyed the titular story by Hao Jingfang because it made my little biology nerd heart so happy. I mean, the story wasn't much, and I didn't really get the closing message, but I heart all the different alien biology/society vignettes--so very playful and imaginative.

The story by Cheng Jingbo was "Grave of the Fireflies," and I wondered whether the title was inspired by the Studio Ghibli movie and/or its source (I'm a devotee, and this movie consistently ranks high in best of animation lists--but absolutely the most depressing movie I think I've ever seen, no rewatching that). Or whether the title in both cases is some cultural referent that I regretfully don't know. "The Year of the Rat" from Chen Qiufan was a gut punch to start the collection, while I found "Tongtong's Summer" by Xia Jia the most charming; Ma Boyang's "The City of Silence" was a wonderful homage to [1984], while "The Circle" by Liu Cixin really reminded me of [The Silent Stars Go By] by James White; I found Tang Fei's "Call Girl" very haunting and Hao's"Folding Beijing" poignant. With the exception of "Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse," all of these stories were previously published in both Chinese and English-language science fiction magazines. However, Ken Liu newly translated all of them for this collection.

It's a great collection. I recommend it. ( )