Picked this up after loving Lui's first collection, The Paper Managerie.

A collection of 19 short stories,I really enjoyed about 4 of these. Most were pretty good and several were tangentially related, but by the end, I was ready to move on. I would recommend Liu's first collection to those interested over this one.

I absolute adored Ken Liu's first short story collection, The Paper Menagerie, so I was thrilled to see he had another one coming out. Taken as an entire collection, I didn't like this one quite as much at the first, but I still really enjoyed it, and Liu is one of my favorite short fiction writers currently working today. His background in coding and tech was quite apparent in many of these stories, a majority of which focused on the Singularity and its implications. Some of my favorite stories were "Maxwell's Demon," "The Reborn," "Byzantine Empathy," "Dispatches from the Cradle," "The Hidden Girl," and "The Message."

Some particular favourites:
The Reborn
Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard
The Hidden Girl
The Message

Some of the stories were amazing and I wanted more, but some were so boring and I couldn't wait for them to be over, and admittedly, some when completely over my head and I didn't understand them at all. I like that the stories remind me of the show Black Mirrow. Overall, it took me a long time to finish this book and honestly couldn't wait to be done with it.

Half of these stories are about children and parents. I guess that's a subject of interest for the author but I didn't care for it. I still liked the reoccurring themes of Asian culture like that in The Paper Menagerie.

5 stars. End of discussion. Amazing and awesome.

I have listed the stories in order here, but I have hidden all commentary on each story with spoiler tags. I wanted a few more words to help me remember the stories because there were so many. So many are so brilliant. It's been a while since I read the stories, so I am leafing through the book from the library to jog my memory for this review. I might fumble a bit, but in a sense, some of this is just for me, but I hope others enjoy it, too. I did get slightly tired of all the writing, so there is less and less detail as I go along. :)

I think it is important that you read the stories in order. I read a couple of stories at first that were shorter. I wanted something short to read at the time. However, I learned there is a richness when you read them in order. Elements from one story are hinted at or referred to in others. I think Ken Liu likes playing with some elements or building on them or viewing them at different angles. It is intriguing and tantalising. It is part of what makes this all so brilliant.

The stories are also so strong that I couldn't read the next story right after. I had to stop and recover. Yes, in one case, recover because the story hit me in the solar plexus, or I had to stop and mull over what I just read. This is my first Ken Liu book. I am a fan. When I posted something about it on Mastodon, the reaction indicated that I am not alone in thinking his writing is brilliant.

Ghost days

Spoiler

This story goes back in time from the year 2313 on a distant planet. Ona, a school child who has an alien biochemistry so she can survive on her planet, has to attend school where she has a human teacher who is teaching not just advanced math, but also that humans are superior and "aliens" are inferior. A colonisation story. She is given an heirloom, an antique bronze spade, of her teacher's to use in a story to present to the class. She learns it is ancient and came from across space. She speculates about the stories it could tell - ghost stories. In 1989, Fred Ho is supposed to go on a Halloween with a white girl, but is made to feel excluded by the mother's racist remarks. He is always an outsider. In 1905, William is torn between becoming more Western and having to put up with his father's old Chinese traditions. He is helping his father set up for Yu Lan, the feast for the ghosts (ancestors). He finds what looks like counterfeit ancient "bubi", ancient bronze coins that look like spades... Gangsters come and attack them, but William helps his father ward them off. He keeps the bubi. In 1989, Fred manages to give the white girl his ancient coin shaped like a spade, and he tells her he got it from his grandfather. In 2313, Ona is seeing a vision of another time - perhaps the earlier inhabitants of the planet she lives on. She observes it all like she is ghost in that time. A young creature gives her the spade. Apparently it projects words into her mind like a whisper: Remember us, you who treasure the old. She uses the visions she has to prepare her story, her ghost story, for school.

Maxwells demon

Spoiler

This was a real punch to the gut. A young girl and her family are rounded up and put into the Japanese concentration camps in 1943. She is also a physicist and wishes she could work as one, but racism forces her into this camp. She is given the option to help the U.S. in the war against Japan. Her physics talents are needed. She is to openly renounce her U.S. citizenship so it is believable to the Japanese when she "escapes" to go work for them. She is convincing and the Japanese hire her to work on their war plans. She is also an Okinawan, who are despised by the Japanese. She has the ability to communicate with the dead. The Japanese want to use her to convince the dead spirits to help make a Maxwell engine to drive all their war machinery. The dead spirits would imbue themselves into objects and their energy could move these objects. Many horrible things happen and she just wants to escape and go home to America. She finally flees and she sees some American soldiers. She runs up to them calling out that she is American, but they shoot and kill her. Her spirit floats out of her body and she imbues herself in their U.S. flag because she knows that will help to take her home. Utterly devasted when I finished reading this.

The reborn

Spoiler

The Tawnin are aliens that take over Earth. You either cooperate with them, or you are "reborn". Your bad behaviour is cut out of your memory and you live a new life with all your past memories gone, and new ones substituted so you think you know who you are. If you become bad again, you have this memory operation, and they try again. The main character has a relationship with a Tawnin and think he loves him. He discovers he has tried to retain memories despite it all, and he is really desparately fighting against the domination of the Tawnin. He prefers to shoot his brains out in the end so the Tawnin can no longer abuse him.

Thoughts and prayers

Spoiler

Various people remember victims of a mass killing. It's about all the thoughts and prayers people "send" on social media, trolling on social media, and all the emotional p0rn in these incidents. Lots of food for thought about the way we consume the news of these events. An uncomfortable read.

Byzantine empathy

Spoiler

Using VR films to tell emotional stories to get empathy and support for catastrophes in the world. Another tough commentary on manipulating our emotions to achieve a goal.

The Gods will not be chained

Spoiler

The first of the three "The Gods..." stories in the book. Maddie's father has died, but his consciousness has been uploaded to a computer. They connect and communicate largely through emojies. The setting is dystopian. A lot happens in the virtual world, and later on wars are fought in the virtual world.

Staying behind

Spoiler

This is world where many decide to upload their consciousness to cyberspace so you never have to die. The world has too many problems, but not in cyberspace. This story is about those who choose not to be uploaded and how they are regarded by others who are eager to be uploaded. There is a lot of food for thought about artificial intelligence here, too.

Real Artists.

Spoiler

Sophie lands a job interview with her dream job - working at Semaphore Pictures. She thinks they make the perfect movies. Then she learns that she will be hired to just watch movies. A giant computer then watches her face and monitors all her physical reactions to judge what is good or bad about the movie, and fine tunes the movie for the next revision, until the result is a "great movie". The computer does it all... An excellent commentary on AI and our own creative processes.

The Gods will not be slain

Spoiler

The second "The Gods..." story. In some unknown future, Maddie's dad has his consciousness uploaded to a computer (not voluntarily). He dies, but his consciousness lives on in cyberspace. The world is a terrible place with wars on the horizon. One other consciousness wants to start a nuclear war to move people to some next stage, but Maddie's dad wants to stop him. An interesting spin on this idea of uploading ourselves into cyberspace.

Altogether elsewhere, vast herds of reindeer

Spoiler

Renée is a girl who is born in cyberspace. Her mother is an Ancient, who was born in and lived in the world before uploads were possible. Renée calls others who are uploaded for "normal people"! Her mother decides to take on a job of being shot far into space and managing a robot with just her consciousness. She will be separated from Renée forever because of this. She has 45 years left to live in this world/space, so she underclocks the space they are in so mother and daughter can have time together - 45 years. Renée is then out of sync with her father.

The Gods have not died in vain

Spoiler

The final "The Gods..." story.

Memories of my mother

Spoiler

Dispatches from the cradle

Spoiler

Grey rabbit, crimson mare, coal leopard

Spoiler

A chase beyond the storms

Spoiler

The hidden girl

Spoiler

Seven birthdays

Spoiler

The message

Spoiler

Cutting

Spoiler

Relatos de inteligencias artificiales, la humanidad y otras cuestiones.

Intenso, interesante e imaginativo. Siempre es un placer leer a este autor, se maneja genial con los relatos.