Broken stars Contemporary Chinese science fiction in translation

*Starred Review* Liu continues to anthologize the best of the Chinese sf scene (after Invisible Planets, 2016), showcasing a diverse array of styles. Some stories are relatively straightforward sf narratives, such as Baoshu's "What Shall in a Kinder Light Appear," in which one man lives a reverse time line of China's history, while others are experimental pieces like Regina Kanyu Wang's "Brain Box," in which a man experiences his beloved's last moments, thanks to a brain implant. Some stories explicitly reflect the unique cultural context; for example, Zhang Ran's "The Snow in Jinyang," set in a strangely advanced tenth-century city that plays with the tropes of chuanyue, a genre in which a modern person is thrown back into the past. Other highlights include Fei Dao's "The Robot Who Liked to Tell Tall Tales," about a robot whose quest to become the best liar leads him on a fairy tale-like space adventure, and Chen Qiufan's "A History of Future Illnesses," in which a grim future of people increasingly transformed and deformed by technology is presented through a series of case histories. Rounded out by essays on topics related to Chinese sf, this anthology is a must-read for any genre fan.--Nell Keep Copyright 2019 Booklist

In this rewarding anthology, Liu continues the objective he pursued in Invisible Planets (2016), introducing readers to 16 contemporary science fiction stories translated from the Chinese, seven for the first time. Selections range in tone from the whimsicality of Chen Qiufan's "Coming of the Light," about an advertising firm whose campaign to merge technology with religion goes awry, to the poignant drama of Xia Jia's "Goodnight, Melancholy," a meditation on what it means to be human that's inspired by AI research and the computation experiments of Alan Turing. The book's most provocative stories offer variations on the time travel theme. In Liu Cixin's "Moonlight," a scientist gets phone calls from his future self proposing solutions to contemporary environmental problems that have become apocalyptic in the future, while Baoshu's ingenious "What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear" concerns a man who lives the real historical events of China's past century backwards, and Zhang Ran's "The Snow of Jinyang" introduces a time traveler who steampunks the world of 10th-century China. Three essays on Chinese science fiction's history and development further enlighten Western readers, who will be very excited by these outstanding works. Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.