i think my expectations were too high since paper menagerie and other short stories is one of my fav books ever, but this fell a little short for me. this is a darker, more cautionary collection that poses a lot of important/relevant questions about humanity and survival/preservation, but the emotional resonance i love ken liu for felt more forced and juvenile in this.

i appreciate how a lot of the stories revolve around a common theme (the “singularity” or this idea of uploading human consciousness), which gave the collection cohesion but still managed to introduce something new with each story. he approaches transhumanism from many different angles while grounding his explorations in human stories, which i enjoyed.

sometimes it felt like i was reading one of those books i used to read as a kid that tries to make technical/scientific concepts fun and understandable, though, like there was this really long exchange explaining how smart contracts on blockchain work, and sometimes the inclusion of technical concepts felt silly like that one story where recursion was used as a weapon for the uploaded humans.