Ken Liu
Autore di La grazia dei re
Sull'Autore
Fonte dell'immagine: Author Ken Liu at the 2016 Texas Book Festival By Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53295648
Serie
Opere di Ken Liu
Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation (2016) — A cura di; Traduttore — 566 copie, 22 recensioni
Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation (2019) — A cura di; Traduttore — 368 copie, 12 recensioni
Vagabonds 9 copie
The year of the rat 4 copie
Staying Behind {short story} 4 copie
The Perfect Book 3 copie
The Tome of Tourmaline 3 copie
Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit - Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts {short story} 2 copie
The Fish of Lijiang 2 copie
State Change 2 copie
In the Loop [short story] 2 copie
Ghost Days {short story} 2 copie
A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight 2 copie
The Waves 2 copie
Effect and Cause 2 copie
Maxwell's Demon 2 copie
Tying Knots [short fiction] 2 copie
The Literomancer 2 copie
The Flower of Shazui 1 copia
母の記憶に (新☆ハヤカワ・SF・シリーズ) 1 copia
天球の音楽 1 copia
折りたたみ北京 現代中国SFアンソロジー 1 copia
Uma [short fiction] 1 copia
Idols 1 copia
Carthaginian Rose 1 copia
Call Girl 1 copia
Crystal [short story] 1 copia
Beneath The Language 1 copia
Real Faces 1 copia
The Perfect Match 1 copia
Arc 1 copia
Before and After 1 copia
The Last Seed [short story] 1 copia
The Tides [short story] 1 copia
The Last Summer [short story] 1 copia
Cutting {short story} 1 copia
Running Shoes 1 copia
Gossamer 1 copia
The Magic Paintbrush 1 copia
The Weight of Memories 1 copia
Quality time {story} 1 copia
Byzantine Empathy {short story} 1 copia
Real Artists {short story} 1 copia
The Moon Carver 1 copia
Opere correlate
From a Certain Point of View: 40 Stories Celebrating 40 Years of Star Wars (2017) — Collaboratore — 848 copie, 36 recensioni
Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories (2011) — Collaboratore, alcune edizioni — 511 copie, 18 recensioni
Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History (2014) — Collaboratore — 216 copie, 17 recensioni
Remembrance of Earth's Past: The Three-Body Trilogy (2017) — Traduttore, alcune edizioni — 203 copie, 5 recensioni
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Second Annual Collection (2015) — Collaboratore — 172 copie, 7 recensioni
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-First Annual Collection (2014) — Collaboratore — 172 copie, 2 recensioni
Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond (2013) — Collaboratore — 154 copie, 11 recensioni
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Six (2012) — Collaboratore — 140 copie, 4 recensioni
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Seven (2013) — Collaboratore — 138 copie, 3 recensioni
The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year's Best Science Fiction (2019) — Collaboratore — 131 copie, 1 recensione
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection (2017) — Collaboratore — 127 copie, 3 recensioni
Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories (2014) — Collaboratore — 118 copie, 6 recensioni
The Long List Anthology: More Stories From the Hugo Award Nomination List (2015) — Collaboratore — 109 copie, 4 recensioni
Ex Libris: Stories of Librarians, Libraries, and Lore (2017) — Collaboratore — 97 copie, 11 recensioni
Carbide Tipped Pens: Seventeen Tales of Hard Science Fiction (2016) — Traduttore — 95 copie, 6 recensioni
The Year's Best Science Fiction Vol. 1: The Saga Anthology of Science Fiction 2020 (2020) — Collaboratore — 93 copie, 8 recensioni
The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2015 Edition (2015) — Collaboratore — 74 copie, 2 recensioni
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Nine (2015) — Collaboratore — 62 copie, 3 recensioni
The Final Frontier: Stories of Exploring Space, Colonizing the Universe, and First Contact (2018) — Collaboratore — 59 copie, 2 recensioni
L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume XIX (2003) — Collaboratore — 55 copie, 2 recensioni
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Thirteen (2019) — Collaboratore — 54 copie, 3 recensioni
More Human Than Human: Stories of Androids, Robots, and Manufactured Humanity (2017) — Collaboratore — 50 copie, 1 recensione
The Long List Anthology Volume 3: More Stories From the Hugo Award Nomination List (2017) — Traduttore — 48 copie
The Reincarnated Giant: An Anthology of Twenty-First-Century Chinese Science Fiction (2018) — Traduttore — 46 copie
Solaris Rising 3: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction (2014) — Collaboratore — 40 copie, 6 recensioni
Empire of Dreams and Miracles: The Phobos Science Fiction Anthology (v. 1) (2002) — Collaboratore — 35 copie
The Long List Anthology Volume 7: More Stories From the Hugo Award Nomination List (2022) — Collaboratore — 29 copie, 1 recensione
Sunspot Jungle: Volume Two: The Ever Expanding Universe of Fantasy and Science Fiction (2) (2018) — Collaboratore — 20 copie
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction January/February 2012, Vol. 122, No. 1 & 2 (2012) — Collaboratore — 19 copie
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction September/October 2012, Vol. 123, Nos. 3 & 4 (2012) — Collaboratore — 17 copie, 1 recensione
The Best of Galaxy's Edge 2013-2014 (2014) — Collaboratore, alcune edizioni; Collaboratore — 17 copie
Philosophy through Science Fiction Stories: Exploring the Boundaries of the Possible (2021) — Collaboratore — 16 copie, 1 recensione
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction September/October 2019, Vol. 137, Nos. 3 & 4 (1991) 15 copie
Asimov's Science Fiction: Vol. 37, No. 4 & 5 [April/May 2013] (2013) — Collaboratore — 15 copie, 1 recensione
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction July/August 2012, Vol. 123, Nos. 1 & 2 (2012) — Collaboratore, alcune edizioni — 15 copie
Heiresses of Russ 2015: The Year's Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction (2015) — Collaboratore — 15 copie, 1 recensione
Deserts of Fire: Speculative Fiction and the Modern War (2016) — Collaboratore — 12 copie, 1 recensione
Terra nova : antología de ciencia ficción contemporánea (2012) — Collaboratore — 12 copie, 2 recensioni
How to Live on Other Planets: A Handbook for Aspiring Aliens (2015) — Collaboratore — 12 copie, 2 recensioni
Clarkesworld: Issue 110 (November 2015) (2015) — Traduttore, alcune edizioni — 11 copie, 2 recensioni
Terra Nova vol. 2: Antología de ciencia ficción contemporánea (Spanish Edition) (2013) — Collaboratore — 6 copie, 2 recensioni
Terra Nova vol. 3: Antología de ciencia ficción contemporánea (2014) — Collaboratore — 6 copie, 1 recensione
Tor.com Short Fiction: Sept/Oct 2023 — Collaboratore — 2 copie
Forever Magazine Issue 26 — Collaboratore — 1 copia
BRUTUS No.1011 2024-07-15 夏は、SF。 — Collaboratore — 1 copia
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome legale
- 刘宇昆
- Altri nomi
- Liu, Ken
- Data di nascita
- 1976
- Sesso
- male
- Nazionalità
- USA
- Luogo di nascita
- Lanzhou, China
- Luogo di residenza
- Palo Alto, California, USA
Waterford, Connecticut, USA
Quincy, Massachusetts, USA - Istruzione
- Harvard College (BA, English)
Harvard Law School - Attività lavorative
- programmer
corporate lawyer
litigation consultant
writer
translator - Agente
- Joe Monti (Barry Goldblatt Literary Agency)
Utenti
Recensioni
Liste
Premi e riconoscimenti
Potrebbero anche piacerti
Autori correlati
Statistiche
- Opere
- 119
- Opere correlate
- 213
- Utenti
- 6,708
- Popolarità
- #3,651
- Voto
- 3.8
- Recensioni
- 298
- ISBN
- 167
- Lingue
- 9
- Preferito da
- 10
Story Synopsis:
This standalone short story is a part of the Faraway series, described on Amazon as “a collection of retold fairy tales that take the happily-ever-after in daring new directions.”
I have long heard of Ken Liu’s astounding imagination in Sci-Fi works, and hence I picked up this little story despite not having great luck with this series. Surprisingly, the story worked decently for me, but not for the reasons it should have.
Officially, this is supposed to be based on ‘The Princess and the Pea’, but to be honest, the link between the two works is minimal. The only common point is that the princess’ super-sensitivity to a pea twenty mattresses below is transposed to the extent of sensitivity humans have to memory deposits on inanimate objects. As such, this story doesn’t work as a fairy tale retelling at all.
However, were you to forget the fact that this is supposed to be a fairy tale retelling, and instead, read it as a sci-fi story that is more character-driven than plot-driven, you have a fair chance of liking it better.
To me, the stand-outs of this tale were:
✨ A triple character perspective, so rare in short stories. The story begins with Gui, goes to Clara, then Beatrice, and then cycles back to Clara and finally Gui. It was an unusual short-fic experience.
✨ The character-driven proceedings, where the entire flow of the narrative is governed by the decisions made by the central trio. Plot-loving readers wont enjoy this aspect as the plot details are relatively vague. But as a lover of literary fiction, I enjoyed this experience.
✨ The central trio are very interesting characters. With their varying levels of sensitivity to memories, they display a wide range of reactions to the memories, making their experiences distinct.
✨ This is the most mature story of the four Faraway stories I read, with the characters behaving realistically than going over the top. It is hence also the only story that doesn’t feel YA.
✨ I enjoyed the concept of memories being retained by objects and hence affecting those who touch the same. So creative! It’s farfetched, of course, but then again, it’s fantasy, so it can go wild in its imagination.
✨ Some interesting aspects raised by the plot – would you erase painful memories or would you rather retain them to learn from them? How would you feel if others could touch your possessions and relive your personal memories?
The story could have done better though. Its tiny length didn’t allow enough page space for a detailed exploration of the characters. The story would have been mind-blowing had it been lengthier and hence allowed enough time for its characters and its creative concept to pack a punch.
The Faraway Collection has five stories. I’ve read four of them, and my journey through the series ends here as the fifth one ([b:Hazel and Gray|55817030|Hazel and Gray (Faraway Collection)|Nic Stone|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1604005427l/55817030._SY75_.jpg|87027574], the Hansel & Gretel retelling) has too many triggers I am not fond of. Of the four I read, this was the best story for me, followed closely by Gayle Forman’s The Wickeds. The remaining two don’t even deserve a mention.
At the same time, I must stress upon the fact that I forgot to read this as a retelling once the magic of the plot took over. If you are looking for a fairytale-like magical experience, or if you don’t enjoy character-driven tales, this isn’t for you.
I liked it enough, but I do wish it had been a novella so that it could have filled in some of those interesting missing blanks.
3.5 stars.
This is the fourth standalone story from the Faraway Collection, and is currently available for free to Amazon Prime subscribers.
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