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A review by suzy_g
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu
3.0
Actual rating: 3.5 stars
Forget Tom Cruise - Ken Liu is the man who achieved mission impossible when he had me rating his other short story anthology ([b:The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories|24885533|The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories|Ken Liu|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511290092l/24885533._SY75_.jpg|44534169]) five well-earned stars. I therefore had high hopes for this, his second collection of shorts.
In the spirit of this blockbuster simile I've got going on: cue the movie montage where it all goes a bit wrong.
I guess it was inevitable that I'd struggle to find another five star gem, but even so - this offering is more than decent. 'The Hidden Girl and Other Stories' is still full of interesting concepts, is very well written, is exceptionally accessible (without ever being condescending) and full of glimmering moments of brilliance.
'The Hidden Girl...' is more thematic in its approach than was the case in 'The Paper Menagerie...'. A large proportion of the stories within this collection deal with the question of advancing technology, AI and, specifically, the uploading of human consciousness into machine based entities/networks in the face of organic destruction. It is more sci-fi heavy than the previous outing, but (as inferred above), Liu has an uncanny knack of describing scientific processes without ever making me (a person who got a good-but-certainly-not-great C Grade in GCSE Science many, many moons ago) feel stupid. It's a gift really, as I make myself feel stupid on a daily basis to be honest.
I liked the interplay between the stories that resulted from the shared theme that appeared throughout many of them, however the flip side was that it started to feel same-y. That said, there were a couple of stories that explored other themes and this kept me from feeling any real sense of fatigue in terms of the subject matter. My overall feeling, however, was that the content missed the mark in terms of balance.
I'm still very much a fan of Liu's work and would encourage anyone to pick up his books, as I truly believe they hold something for everyone and that his writing very much deserves to be read. This book was by no means a fall from grace; it just didn't quite reach the dizzying heights of his earlier offering for me.
Forget Tom Cruise - Ken Liu is the man who achieved mission impossible when he had me rating his other short story anthology ([b:The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories|24885533|The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories|Ken Liu|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511290092l/24885533._SY75_.jpg|44534169]) five well-earned stars. I therefore had high hopes for this, his second collection of shorts.
In the spirit of this blockbuster simile I've got going on: cue the movie montage where it all goes a bit wrong.
I guess it was inevitable that I'd struggle to find another five star gem, but even so - this offering is more than decent. 'The Hidden Girl and Other Stories' is still full of interesting concepts, is very well written, is exceptionally accessible (without ever being condescending) and full of glimmering moments of brilliance.
'The Hidden Girl...' is more thematic in its approach than was the case in 'The Paper Menagerie...'. A large proportion of the stories within this collection deal with the question of advancing technology, AI and, specifically, the uploading of human consciousness into machine based entities/networks in the face of organic destruction. It is more sci-fi heavy than the previous outing, but (as inferred above), Liu has an uncanny knack of describing scientific processes without ever making me (a person who got a good-but-certainly-not-great C Grade in GCSE Science many, many moons ago) feel stupid. It's a gift really, as I make myself feel stupid on a daily basis to be honest.
I liked the interplay between the stories that resulted from the shared theme that appeared throughout many of them, however the flip side was that it started to feel same-y. That said, there were a couple of stories that explored other themes and this kept me from feeling any real sense of fatigue in terms of the subject matter. My overall feeling, however, was that the content missed the mark in terms of balance.
I'm still very much a fan of Liu's work and would encourage anyone to pick up his books, as I truly believe they hold something for everyone and that his writing very much deserves to be read. This book was by no means a fall from grace; it just didn't quite reach the dizzying heights of his earlier offering for me.