REVIEW: The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

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The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
Publishing information: Paperback; 450 pages
Publisher: Saga Press; 8 March 2016
ISBN: 9781481442541
Copy: Received from publisher
Reviewer: Tyson

Amazon

Synopsis: "A publishing event: Bestselling author Ken Liu selects his award-winning science fiction and fantasy tales for a groundbreaking collection—including a brand-new piece exclusive to this volume.

With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie. This mesmerizing collection features all of Ken’s award-winning and award-finalist stories, including: “The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary” (Finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards), “Mono No Aware” (Hugo Award winner), “The Waves” (Nebula Award finalist), “The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species” (Nebula and Sturgeon award finalists), “All the Flavors” (Nebula award finalist), “The Litigation Master and the Monkey King” (Nebula Award finalist), and the most awarded story in the genre’s history, “The Paper Menagerie” (The only story to win the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards).

A must-have for every science fiction and fantasy fan, this beautiful book is an anthology to savor."

Last year about this time I read an impressive novel called The Grace of Kings (review here) and when I learned of Liu's latest book, a series of his short stories, I knew I had to get a hold of it and check it out. Luckily, the publisher was graceful (pun intended) enough to send me a review copy.

The Paper Menagerie is a compilation of works that have previously been published in various forms but for the first time together in one spot. Each story has garnered awards and the respect of his peers and readers alike.

A major theme that I found in many of his stories was that magic exists but changes form as technology and science advance. It is quite telling in his story Good Hunting, the story of a fox spirit who loses her ability to change form when the foreigners from the west arrive and bring their technology to China. It is through this technology that she adapts and learns to change her form again.  I truly enjoyed the story and the ending was not at all what I expected as it took a sharp left.

Another of my favorites that dealt with the dangers of technology was The Perfect Match, this is a story that warns of the dangers of having too much technology in our lives. When a company that is eerily similar to Google or Baidu creates an AI that controls every facet of your life is threatened by individuals that want to get off the grid, we learn how it fights back.

With any collection there will be some terrific stories that will truly resonate with you and there will be a few that do not but Liu is a unique writer and there were far more ups than downs. Any true Science Fiction reader should appreciate this collection and it is a must own in my opinion. This collection should tie you over until Wall of Storms, the second book in the Dandelion Dynasty hits shelves later this year.

Overall 8.5/10
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