This collection of short stories has many thought provoking ideas but the organization was kinda strange. There is a series of linked stories about humanity going digital that is spread through the book that I liked a lot but wish had been kept less scattered. Many of the stories are bleak, a few are just brutal. They are all well written but the tone makes it tough to get through to many at a time.

I did enjoy the excerpt from Mr. Liu's upcoming novel. I've been eagerly awaiting its release. However, the excerpt doesn't really fit in thematically with the rest of the stories. It's a nice gift to fans of the series but should be skipped by anyone who isn't up to date on the books.

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories is the second short fiction collection (The First was The Paper Menagerie) by SF/F author Ken Liu, one of my favorite writers in genre - and in my opinion one of the strongest at using the genre of SF/F - mainly through science fiction - to convey ideas about humanity and about humanity's future. Liu is one of the more versatile writers in the genre today really, as one might expect from a dude who also works as a translator (see The Three Body Problem), lawyer, and computer programmer.

This collection is, like pretty much all of Liu's work, really good, featuring a diverse range of stories, hitting on different scifi and fantasy concepts, although the concept of humanity uploading their minds into a virtual space is a common concept at the heart of a number of these stories. I would say however that nearly all of these stories are pretty serious explorations of ideas relevant to humanity today, and a number of them are pretty depressing, so if you're looking for a fun read, most of this collection will not provide for you. Be warned.

Reviewing a collection is always difficult, because the various stories hit on a number of different themes, and it's rather defeating the point to go in depth into each story specifically, in my opinion. This collection is no different - a number of stories within deal with concepts such as the uploading of the human mind into a virtual reality, of the importance of having a physical body, of the dangers of trying to control artificial intelligences, whereas other stories deal more directly with the ideas of memory and histories and families, among other things entirely. The collection only features one new story - in addition to an excerpt from Liu's upcoming novel The Veiled Throne* - but the collection features mainly stories afaict which were in published anthologies and not on the web, so I'd only read one of these stories prior to this volume.

*Book 3 of Liu's fantastic The Dandelion Dynasty trilogy, which still doesn't have a release date.

It's also hard when the collection doesn't have 1-2 standouts, because in this case, pretty much all of the stories are stand outs and are really damn strong. So you have a fantastical tale of an American woman sent back to Japan after being interned in WW2 to act as a spy (under threat to her family), who wants merely to go home (and the fantastical connection to said want). Unsurprisingly, it ends in bittersweet heartbreaking fashion. You have the tale of a family where one daughter dies in a mass shooting and the mother tries to use said daughter's memory to promote gun control, only to find the whole family devastated by the acts of trolls as a result.

Perhaps the strongest story of these more grounded in the modern or past US stories is "Byzantine Empathy", in which two women - former roommates - fight over the use of virtual reality to drive empathy - and thus charitable giving - toward people in need in areas that others around the world might otherwise overlook through ignorance or due to realpolitik, with one woman arguing that reason must overcome empathy for the good of all, whereas the other arguing those global concerns shouldn't matter over helping people (Liu clearly comes down on the former side, seeing the latter side as siding with hegemony and empire, but I don't want to ruin more of the story).

But as noted above, the book contains a number of stories grounded more specifically in future technology, particularly the idea that minds can be uploaded into virtual reality, with bodies abandoned either willingly or unwillingly, and what that would mean for humanity. These stories play with the ideas of what is real, what offspring, family connections, and futures (as well as the ability to be part of others' lives past their normal expiration point) mean in such worlds, and what histories actually matter when everything is such. They're all rather strong and form a central part of this collection, even when they don't all directly connect.

There are a few fun stories in the collection, most notably, the titular "The Hidden Girl" and "Gray Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard" (the only brand new story here), which are both excellent. But for the most part, even the less "high concept" of the stories tends to be serious in tone, and bittersweet in its conclusion ("The Message"). So yeah, this is not a collection anyone should be reading looking for brevity and fun. But it's a strong collection filled with powerful themes and ideas and futures, and you could do a hell of a lot worse looking for interesting science fiction than reading any of this collection of Liu's work.

Thanks to an e-book ARC from NetGalley, we’re reading The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu a little earlier than expected this year. In the preface to this latest collection of short stories, Liu frames short fiction as an entrance to a world where readers for just a little bit. Beautiful metaphor as that makes, Liu’s worlds often look frightening like the one we live in now, filled with rising global temperatures, emojis, and complicated relationships between science and people. Sometimes interconnected, sometimes not, each story builds a world where the imagination squirms, pinpointed by the omnipresent, what if, leading down enchanting new trails. 

Part of the beauty of science fiction is the extrapolation of, well, science, which includes social science as well the Hard Stuff – physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. In particular, politics and science fiction have mingled since the beginning of what we now recognize the genre, namely Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, from which the sub-genre, dystopian derives. The politics of technology come to the brutal forefront of “Byzantine Empathy” where a virtual reality website starts bidding war between philanthropic lobbyists and earnest activists over the plight of refugees from ethnic cleansing. That’s but one of the bleak futures of many of these stories. 

Frequently, religions and philosophies grapple with the concept of life as a computer program after the singularity. Many of these stories feature “the gods” of this cloud society, fighting petty duels that result in either command the entire world economy or security for the sanctity of human choice, whether to ascend to the aether or not. Once humans stop living in human bodies, they leave behind scavengers, bent on fighting the old battles between generations. Generational conflict echoes across migration patterns all over these worlds, from one family’s generational journey from China to the US in “Ghost Days” to a little girl’s birthday celebration as she ages into a mother and grandmother and enters the Singularity in “Seven Birthdays.” Liu time and time again proves to be a fan of the right word, rather a gang of flashy words. This bleak style just enough of an opening to grasp characters jaded from worlds that really really suck. Liu’s simple, elegant prose frames the entire collection, presenting a scientific conflict that amplifies the real emotional struggle behind the minds that create it.

However, to counter the science-heavy side of this collection, a few outright fantasy stories stand out, often as the brightest spots. “Maxwell’s Demon” about a Japanese-American spy in 1945, hated by both countries, and that can speak to ghosts, giving us the rare World War II story that examines American prejudice as well as Axis. Other fantasies collected here tend to take on mythic properties, while still employing downright rad character arcs. My favorite story of the collection, “The Hidden Girl,” stretches all the way back to Tang dynasty China where a young girl gets kidnapped, trained as an assassin, and finally rebels against her kidnappers. Finally, fans of Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty book series will be treated to look at the upcoming third novel, The Veiled Throne. “A Chase Beyond the Storms” presents not only the titular chase scene between otherworldly aircraft but insights into the dueling Dara and Agon empires as they attempt to forge onward in a world of gods and monsters. 

Certainly not the lightest upcoming book, Liu’s short stories continue instead to resonate like stones dropped into the well of thought. This latest collection presents a master perfecting his craft. Overall, an exciting rumination on what not only, but the past, might hold.

Ken Liu is a talented storyteller. Some of the stories in this book almost made me cry. I read them with tear-filled eyes. The Reborn, Thoughts and Prayers, The Gods Will Not Be Chained, The Message and Maxwell's Demon were my favourite stories.

I received this as a digital ARC from Netgalley.

Ken Liu is one of the best short science fiction writers out there today. I am totally convinced at this. And this book just emphasizes his range as a writer. Many of the stories in this anthology are technological science fiction that range from the near future to very very distant future. There are some fantasy tales interspersed among the collection, including the title story which is set in China's Three Kingdoms era.

I had read and loved The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, I was expecting this book to be more of the same: an anthology of unconnected short stories and novellas. I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the stories in this collection were linked together. Some combined together to follow a single through-line with the same characters to tell a larger story. Others were spread apart spatially and temporally. Since they were told out of chronological order, it became a little game to figure out whether a story was connected to the larger plot and where it fit in. Each of the stories could stand on their own, but together they give us a magnificent tale with enough room and potential to grow further.

As a final bonus to all great stories, the collection also contained an except from Liu's upcoming The Veiled Throne, the finale to his Dandelion Dynasty trilogy.

If you want to read fiercely intelligent and diverse short science fiction from one of the current masters, this book is a must read.

This collection of short stories reaches into the past and stretches into the future to comment on a very complicated present. A science fiction master and a keen observer of human nature, Ken Liu successfully examines climate change, an ever-growing dependence on technology, crowdfunding, and many other hot button issues. His twisty plots and innovative premises drew me into the stories,

Although I enjoyed each story, I grew a little tired of the premise of having human consciousness uploaded into a data center. The first story featuring this idea was clever and touching. The second was interesting, but I started to feel like it was a little drawn out. By the time the third iteration came around, I was ready to move on. To his credit, it speaks to Liu's writing that even when revisiting the same idea multiple times, he was still able to demonstrate something new about human nature in each version. Maybe my fatigue was due to my having to try really hard to attempt to understand the technical language used in these stories. Computer programmers might follow with ease, but I found that wading through the jargon was both tiring and distracting from the human drama that drives each story.

My favorite stories were ones where technology took a back seat. Although fantasy is not my favorite genre, I found myself empathizing with the shape-shifting characters in ""Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Cole Leopard."
The title story, "The Hidden Girl" was a cross between a fairy tale, a revenge narrative, a martial arts adventure, and a coming of age story. It felt like a breath of fresh air since it did not center around technology, a theme of so many other stories in this collection.

Having said that, my favorite story, "The Message," did integrate technology as a major component. However, although the tech component helped to propel the story forward (with a Siri-like computer and space exploration), the human drama shone brightly. When Liu's stories accomplish this, there's no other author that can touch him. His bittersweet commentary on love and sacrifice was a highlight of the collection for me..

Part of me loved the breadth of the stories in this collection; another part of me wishes that an editor would have cut a few stories. The preview of his upcoming novel, sandwiched between stories, seemed unnecessary. However, as a whole, the stories were a magnificent testament to a writer at the top of his game.

Ken Liu is one of the best short story tellers out there in genre fiction right now. His new collection displays the depth and diversity of his work, though AI is a definite theme threaded throughout.

I had read a few of these stories before, but most were new to me. A few didn't quite click for me. Most, however, were fantastic. Stand-outs included "Thoughts and Prayers," "Seven Birthdays," and "The Message." I fully expect to see this book up for awards next year.

Ken Liu's collection of short stories does what few collections can do for me: have every single story be enjoyable.

I mostly stray from these books for that reason-- I'll end up skipping stories I don't like, which can sometimes be like a quarter of the stories overall But I truly enjoyed 95% of this book, with the best story being "Reborn" in my opinion. This type of cerebral science fiction is why sci-fi should be respected as much (or more than, tbh) literary fic. Mind-blowing stuff.

I've been following Ken Liu's career through his translations that have opened the world of contemporary Chinese science fiction to English speaking readers. These include Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem and two collections of short stories written in China by current authors. His first collection of his own stories, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories , is a multiple prize winner that is accessible to a broad reading audience. The Hidden Girl should extend that audience with more thoughtful, imaginative short pieces that "eloquently explore the place where ordinary and the extraordinary meet. (The Washington Post March 22nd, 2016)".

4.5 stars to this excellent collection of short stories. It's a sign of how good Ken Liu's writing is that even the preface introducing the collection had me spellbound.

I love how Liu uses fantasy and science-fiction elements to thoroughly explore real-world issues. Internalised racism, colonialism, estrangement between parent and child, a longing for one's place within one's culture, mass shootings, online trolls, climate change—he ties all these elements seamlessly with fantastic creatures, bizarre technology, and the future of our world.

The stories are tightly paced, and they hit hard as they should. Every story brought something new to the table, exploring different aspects of modern technology and how its progression may one day impact society in the (sometimes very far) future—often with a grim, but not fatalistic outlook. There was the occasional story that’d be more appropriately classified as fantasy, and they were enjoyable too, but I found they weren’t as hard-hitting and engaging as his sci-fi shorts.

One theme Liu revisits constantly throughout these stories is that of family—the sometimes strained, sometimes conflicted love between parent and child. I’m a sucker for any parent-child relationship, and Liu just knows how to cut deep on this front.

Also, kudos to Liu for writing probably the first explanation of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology that I actually found entertaining rather than dull.

That's not to say every story in this collection was a hit; there were a couple that failed to grip my interest, and there were spots where I felt the prose dipped in quality (it seems some of these stories are rather old, written many years ago, so that may explain why). But overall, I'd recommend this collection to anyone in the mood for some interesting sci-fi shorts.

he Good: Short scifi and fantasy stories that ask you to think about the hard questions
The Bad: Inconsistent theme throughout – very different stories
The Literary: Rare combination of hard scifi and strong characters

This second collection by Ken Liu includes sixteen previously published science fiction and fantasy stories from the last five years, one new novelette, and an excerpt from the third book in the Dandelion Dynasty series, The Veiled Throne.

I adored Liu’s first collection of short fiction, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, and this new one is full of mostly 4 and 5 star gems as well. Liu has a way of creating memorable fantasy stories with intricate visuals, but grounds them with the emotional weight of Chinese family history, as he did with The Paper Menagerie, which became the first work of fiction to win the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy Award. The trend follows into this collection’s stories, including Ghost Days, Maxwell’s Demon, and the titular story The Hidden Girl.

But in this collection a new type of story stands out for me. Liu veers away from fantasy into science fiction, from the internet, to post-humans and artificial intelligence, all from the intimate vantage point of small families living in post-apocalyptic landscapes, uninhabitable planets, or entirely digital worlds. Most of my favorite stories from this collection fall into this category of little girls and their relationship with their parents in a world propelled forward by technology, and the consequences that arise. These include:

-Thoughts and Prayers—The family members of a victim of mass-shooting attempt to find meaning in her death, using the countless videos she left behind to fight for policy change amid a sea of internet trolls.
-The Gods Will Not Be Chained—A bullied girl finds protection in a mysterious online persona who speaks only in emoji. The first of a series of three short stories, The Gods Will Not Be Slain and The Gods Have Not Died in Vain. All three stories explore online consciousness, whether uploaded from a human mind or a purely digital creation, and their relationships with a corrupt corporation, world politics, and a singular little girl, no longer bullied.
-Staying Behind—While most of humanity is uploading their consciousness, a young man rejects the digital world, embracing his physical body, and choosing raise children a post-apocalyptic landscape.
-Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer—A young immortal post-human explores the ruins of the real world, devastated by climate change, with her mom, who is leaving the expanse of the digital world to explore the solar system.
-Memories of My Mother—After being given only two years to live, a woman goes into stasis, only reemerging to visit her daughter every seven years.
-Seven Birthdays—Over the span of a million years, a young girl and her mother embark on a transition from organic to silicon-based life.

Technology is a powerful and inevitable force. Some may choose to embrace it and take advantage of the opportunities it presents. But even simple choices have consequences. Technology won’t solve all our problems, especially when strong biases push us away from those for whom we care deeply. I love how Liu builds these stories about the wonderful possibilities of technology, how it could shape and transform us as humans, against the built-in conflict of how it may impact one of the most traditional human ideals—the relationship between child and parent. Change is inevitable, beautiful, and tragic.

Highly recommended for fans of scifi with heart!

The stories in this collection are beautifully written, seamlessly exploring compelling structure, character motivations and story lines in a way that may take place in other worlds but are fundamentally human.

I liked that the stories about uploaded human consciousness were woven throughout the volume. I thought that the views about the benefits/drawbacks of technology and digital existence as expressed through conflicting character viewpoints was interesting and refreshing, if not ultimately satisfying (which might not even be possible!). Overall I found myself underwhelmed by some of the technological fairytales. I particularly liked "The Hidden Girl" and "The Message," although you may call the ending of this latter one ahead of time.

Online at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3152237372

Exceptional collection from one of our very best SF authors. At his best, he’s as good as any writer in the business. As always, I liked some stories more than others. Rating based on my favorites, all SF: 4 stars. Most of the fantasies didn’t work for me.
<b>Highlights:</b>
● Seven Birthdays (2016), http://www.tor.com/2016/11/15/reprints-seven-birthdays-ken-liu/ A million or so years in the life of Mia and her Mom. Ken Liu dreams big in this meticulous, breathtaking hard-SF tale of the transition from organic to silicon-based life. 5+ stars, my favorite of his shorts. More: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32994441-seven-birthdays
● Ghost Days (2013), Three stories about the immigrant experience, from Hong Kong in 1905, Connecticut in 1989, and Nova Pacifica, a new colony world, in 2313. First-rate story: 4+ stars.
● Byzantine Empathy (2018). A young Chinese programmer designs a block-chain cryptocurrency to help refugees. A powerful and thoughtful near-future SF novelette. 4 stars
● Staying Behind (2011), Will Uploading bring the Singularity? Thoughtful, bittersweet story. 4 stars.
<b>The stories:</b>
● Ghost Days (2013), http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/ghost-days/ Three stories about the immigrant experience, from Hong Kong in 1905, Connecticut in 1989, and Nova Pacifica, a new colony world, in 2313. I liked the SF part best, but this is a first-rate story throughout. 4+ stars.
● Maxwell’s Demon (2012). A young Nisei woman, a physics grad student before being interned, is sent to Japan as a spy in 1943. It doesn’t work out for her, or for Japan. Grim ending is historically accurate. Science fantasy, 3.5 stars.
● The Reborn (2014), https://www.tor.com/2014/01/29/reborn-ken-liu/ An unpleasant paranoia-piece about an alien invasion. Not for me. 2 stars
● Thoughts and Prayers (2019), https://slate.com/technology/2019/01/thoughts-and-prayers-ken-liu-short-story.html A college girl was a victim of a mass shooting. Her mother agrees to make her a poster-girl for gun control. Then the trolls arrive…. Memorable story that I pretty much hated. 1.5 stars, for me. Many other readers liked it.
● Byzantine Empathy (2018). A young Chinese programmer designs “Empathium,” a block-chain cryptocurrency to help refugees. Her American roommate in college, now a board member in a prominent NGO, happens to meet her old friend in a war zone in Burma. A powerful and thoughtful near-future SF novelette. 4 stars
● The Gods Will Not Be Chained (2015, Apocalypse Triptych #1). A brilliant computer engineer, on his deathbed, is forcibly uploaded by his company. First of 3 linked stories — which amount to a novella.
● The Gods Will Not Be Slain (2015, Apocalypse Triptych #2). Uploading becomes common. Unhappy consequences. Widespread warfare.
● The Gods Have Not Died in Vain (2015, Apocalypse Triptych #3). Is Uploading better than Real Life? Maybe so…. 3.5 stars for this interesting, if implausible(?) medium-future SF story.
● Staying Behind (2011), http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/liu_10_11/ Will Uploading bring the Singularity? Thoughtful, bittersweet story, recommended. 4 stars.
● Real Artists (2011), http://escapepod.org/2013/01/03/ep377-real-artists/ A new way to make movies disappoints an aspiring filmmaker. 3.5 stars.
● Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer (2010). Liu’s first posthuman story. Klein bottles, whales & the Chrysler Building are featured—but no reindeer. 3+ stars.
● Memories of My Mother (2012), http://dailysciencefiction.com/science-fiction/time-travel/ken-liu/memories-of-my-mother. Good but confusing sort-of sequel to “Reindeer”. 3+ stars.
● Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit—Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts (2016) (reread). Asa organized the terraforming of both Mars and Earth. Then she quit to become a hermit. Strange story, reprinted in Dozois #34. 3.5 stars
● Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard (2020). A brother & sister work a small midden mine in a post-collapse society. The story morphs into a transformation science-fantasy. I didn’t much care for it. First publication here.
● The Hidden Girl (2017), Fantasy set in the Imperial court of Tang Dynasty China.
● Seven Birthdays (2016), A million or so years in the life of Mia and her Mom. Ken Liu dreams big in this meticulous, breathtaking hard-SF tale of the transition from organic to silicon-based life. 5+ stars, my favorite of his shorts.
● The Message (2012). A xenoarchaeologist and his daughter explore alien ruins and make a fateful discovery. Pretty hokey story, I thought. 2.5 stars.
● Cutting (2012), https://galli-books.co.uk/2018/08/06/cutting-by-ken-liu/ An odd religious fantasy that I didn’t much care for. All of 500 words, so try it for yourself.

Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for the eARC.

No fluff, here! Ken Liu comes out swinging ... using SF, Speculative fiction and Fantasy as a platform to spin yarns brimming with insight, inspiration and thoughtful commentary on society and the universe. A heady mix of thought provoking narrative and heart rendering sadness. Seventeen hand picked gems ... the best of the best from multi-award winning Ken Liu. This collection will certainly rival the acclaim garnered from his first collection, " The Paper Menagerie " There is no reason to lay out the plot of each story ... simply stated .... the stories transcend the genre and are steeped in both lyrical and poetic prose. He tackles such themes and ideals: the Singularity with dilemmas encountered with the uploading of the human. consciousness .... Artificial intelligence ... vagaries of Reality ... virtual reality .... environmental activism ... fear of death and war ... embracing history of ancestors .... future path of humanity. .... and the multifaceted emotions of mankind: love, hate, courage and wisdom . The individual stories are a mix of 4 and 5 star nuggets ... all accomplished with amazing world building , characterization .... demonstrating his ability to be a master storyteller.
Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for providing an electronic Proof in exchange for an honest review. Ken Liu's releases are always met with great anticipation. ( at. readersremains.com )

Disclaimer: I have no previous knowledge of Ken Liu as an author. I solely requested The Hidden Girl and Other Stories because I kept seeing it pop up all over the internet; Goodreads, Twitter, etc. The cover is also bright and colorful. I knew going in that it was a collection of short stories. I knew that the book was supposed to have a Scifi theme. And yet... for some reason I thought it would be a 'lighter' book. It is actually pretty deep and fantastically written. This author knows their stuff. The stories are well thought out. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for stronger Scifi/Fantasy writing. I will be checking out the author's other works.

Average Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️.9

After really enjoying Ken Liu’s previous short story anthology a lot, there was no way I was letting this ARC go and I jumped at the opportunity to be able to review it. This is another collection of fascinating stories by the author, most of them sci-fi/dystopian but a couple of them are fantasy as well. There are also multiple stories which are interconnected but told in no particular order, so it was fun trying to find the connections between them.

One theme that I found very dominant in this collection is that of climate change, how we are at a precipice and have to do something substantial from right now if we want to save our planet; but also that as the situation gets worse, all the problems we currently have with wealth inequality and refugees and developed countries exploiting resources disproportionately will only get more exacerbated. This also means that many of the stories in this collection are tragic and depressing, so I would definitely recommend reading them when you are in the right mood and also maybe not binge read the whole thing at once. I would definitely recommend it though, because the concepts are very interesting and the writing for the most part is excellent.

Ghost Days

Spanning multiple planets and timelines, this was a nice story about memories and heritage, and how we all carry the legacy of our previous generations within us and why it’s important to preserve their knowledge.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Maxwell’s Demon

Told through a POV of a Japanese American young woman who is sent to Japan as a spy during WWII, this one has a bit of supernatural elements but mostly it’s about the futility of war and how it twists everyone’s morality.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

The Reborn

I really don’t think I have much to say about this story. It was interesting to read and a bit tragic too, but don’t think I can explain it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thoughts and Prayers

CW: mass shooting, online trolling and harassment

As soon as I saw the title of this story, I could guess what it’s about. It’s about the effects of grief on family members of victims, how each person tries to cope in their own ways and how that might drive them apart. There is also some interesting discussion on activism, politicizing grief and the incessant trolling that comes along with it - I’m still not sure if I agree with all the points made but it’s a lot to think about.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Byzantine Empathy

Against a backdrop of a technologically advanced (but current) world with heavy emphasis on VR and cryptocurrencies, this story is all about empathy vs rationality, how do we decide who needs help, and how even being immersed in the pain of others might invoke cynicism in people instead of empathy because we have lost our trust in geopolitics. I can’t really explain the elaborate discussions that happen in this story but it’s very thought provoking and I think everyone should give it a read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Gods Will Not Be Chained

With the concept of digital immortality, this story tries to explore what would happen if corporations tried to digitize the brains of their dead genius employees for profit and these highly technological brains decided to takeover. A very terrifying tale but definitely thought provoking.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Staying Behind

This is almost like a continuation of the previous one, but years later when the technically dead/digitally conscious have taken over (an event called Singularity) and the rest of the living world is just scraping for survival. This was way too depressing and scary to read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Real Artists

Another tale of high technological advancement, this time in the making of movies. I really don’t want to spoil this one at all because I thought the concept was amazing, thought provoking and almost felt like it’s a possible future for us and wouldn’t that be too sad.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Gods Will Not Be Slain

This is a direct continuation of the story “The gods will not be chained” and it’s such a scary and plausible story, what can happen if digital sentiences decide that they want to burn down humanity and plunge it into war, how fragile geopolitics is and how everyone is literally on the brink of war while sitting on a mass pile of nuclear weapons. Really brings some of what’s happening in our current world into perspective.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer

Years after Singularity where only digital beings seem to be existent on our planet, this is the story of how relationships develop even among them, and also how different a three dimensional earth might seem like to a digital being who has never been a human before. Fascinating story.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Gods Have Not Died in Vain

This story a sequel of “The gods will not be slain” is more about how the idea of singularity came to be, how the incessant wars and scarcity of resources may have led people to decide that giving up the body to live digitally might be the only way to survive. There are a lot of interesting points made in the story that leave us with more questions about life.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Memories of My Mother

This was a very very short story about a mother’s love for her child and to what lengths she will go to get the little time to spend with her daughter. It could have been more emotional but I wasn’t feeling it.

⭐️⭐️.5

Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit—Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts

In a world centuries after climate change has destroyed most of it, where successful countries have managed to migrate to other planets but the poorer people try to survive in ever harsh environments on the ravaged earth - this story is almost like a scary mirror of what our future might be if we don’t start taking decisive action from now on.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard

Set in a dystopian fantasy world, this was a tale about how power and greed corrupts, leading to the protectors becoming predators themselves - which in turn means that those who are poor or considered prey must rise up in arms and protect themselves. This was a fascinating read and one that I felt could make a bigger story.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Chase Beyond the Storms - An excerpt from The Veiled Throne, The Dandelion Dynasty, book three

Not reviewing this excerpt because I haven’t read this series yet.

The Hidden Girl

Set in a fantasy world inspired by 8th century China, this is a story of a young female assassin who’s been trained to kill but starts questioning if her loyalty to her Teacher must supersede her own morality. A lovely read but what made it special were the action sequences which reminded me a lot of the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Seven Birthdays

Another story interconnected to the previous ones related to Singularity, this is about one woman’s mission to find a solution to humanity’s problems, but ultimately just be able to spend more time with her mother. I can’t say I understood much of the story in the second half.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Message

A story about legacy, how even dead civilizations leave messages for anyone who might come eons later; also a tale of a father finally getting to know his daughter - this story was beautiful and emotional but also tragic.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Cutting

I’m not sure I can explain exactly what this story was about - but it was something about looking through the unnecessary stuff and finding the truth underneath.

⭐️⭐️.5

Thought provoking, and often chilling, collection of soft sci-fi, with many stories examining the unintended and even unimaginable ramifications of technological advancements spun out of control. A number of stories revolve around the concept of uploaded human consciousness, AKA the "Singularity", whereby human minds are fully digitized, no longer requiring physical bodies. The three linked "The Gods.." stories in particular are fascinating looks at this, with the absolutely riveting story "Staying Behind" as a kind of CODA to these. Together these seemingly make up the heart of this collection and were certainly among my favorites.

While not completely dark, the messages here are clearly ominous to some extent - humanity's belief that we can keep transformational, and potentially devastating, technologies bottled up is almost certainly a fallacy.

Thoughts on some of the individual stories -

The Reborn (4.5) - Chilling story of alien invaders who constantly shed their memories and remake themselves, and can "rebirth" humans by radically manipulating their memories, which they do to eliminate resistance to their presence. Liu uses the story to examine the connection between memory and identity, as well as to the perception of self and reality. If you've read Octavia E. Butler's classic Xenogenesis series, the symbiotic yet parasitic alien-human relationships depicted here will feel familiar.

The Gods Will Not Be Chained (4.0) - Examines the "pursuit of digital immortality, the fusion of man and machine, the Singularity" and the futility of trying to keep the genie of uploaded consciousnesses in a bottle.

Staying Behind (5.0) - A kind of final chapter in the "The Gods.." series of stories. A riveting look at the post apocalyptic world left to the few scraps of humanity who holdout from uploading to the Singularity. In my opinion, this should be read after the three "The Gods.." stories, rather than in the order presented.

Real Artists (4.0) - A kind of chilling look at the transformation of art into engineering and what that means for the role of the "artist". Creativity and artistic inspiration supplanted by big data and algorithms.

The Gods Will Not Be Slain (4.0) - A sequel to The Gods Will Not Be Chained , examining the conflicts and disastrous consequences on the world of the unleashing of the uploaded digital consciousnesses.

The Gods Have Not Died in Vain (4.0) - A sequel to The Gods Will Not Be Slain where we see a post apocalyptic society trying to pick up the pieces in the wake of devastation and chaos.

Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit - Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts (3.5) - Hundreds of years in the future, after the climate changed induced flooding of the Earth and man's settling of other parts of the solar system, a philosopher of sorts visits the flooded ancient ruins of Boston and ponders the wisdom of destroying Earth's new habitats while attempting to rollback the changes wrought by humanity.

Although I'm quite familiar with Ken Liu's name, this book was my first time reading a collection of his short fiction. Two things stuck out to me as I read: the incredibly imaginative worlds and concepts each story explores and Mr. Liu's amazing ability to grab the reader's attention and pull them in within a sentence or two. I felt more attached to some of these characters within a paragraph than I've felt with protagonists in a few novels even after several chapters. The opening of "Byzantine Empathy" stood out in particular with its use of second person. I've read plenty of short fiction in second person before, but it rarely clicks with me or lets me get fully immersed. Often it has the effect of making some part of my brain stand up in defiance and say, "No, I am not the person you are describing. No, I'm not in that situation. No, that is the complete opposite what I would do even if the last two things were true." But in this case, there's a sense of disorientation that allows for the reader to step into the character being described, as if the narrative is saying, "I know this isn't you. But how would you feel if it suddenly were?"

Speculative fiction is so open in its possibilities of what characters could be or how they could live, and these stories explore that to its fullest. From a race of nearly immortal aliens that habitually forgets their own past to a fascinating take of combining the supernatural with the historical events of World War II, so many of the unique ideas and settings in this collection would feel right at home serving as backdrops for a full-length novel. I certainly wouldn't complain if they were some day.

The only caveat I would add with this book is that there are scenes of extreme violence involving very young children--to the extent that I had to mentally yank myself away from the story's world, put the book down, and take a break from reading for a while. It is not to say that these scenes were unearned or gratuitous or a cheap attempt to get a quick emotional reaction from the audience. The fact that they were grounded in worlds that felt so real is what made me have to step away at times. (And for whatever it is worth, I had to step away after select scenes in George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" for similar reasons, even though I would also count that series as very well written.) The extent to which any one person is able to tolerate this is of course a personal thing, but it seems worth noting nonetheless.

Overall, this collection is well worth a read.

I was a huge fan of Ken Liu’s first collection of short stories, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, giving it a five out of five and placing on my “best of” list that year. His newest collection, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories unfortunately didn’t hit the high notes as consistently as the first, though there are still several gems in the group.

Many of the stories are set in a time leading up to or following the singularity, where humans upload their consciousness to the cloud and become disembodied. Three are a direct mini-series following the same characters in linear fashion and the others change characters and shift in time (sometimes moving way forward). While the stories themselves varied in quality, and there was some repetitiveness, I quite liked the way Liu kept coming back to the premise; all together they form something like a novella of linked stories.

Thoughts on the specific stories:
“Ghost Days” A lovely story about colonists stranded on a planet across the galaxy and how their children (particularly the main character, a young girl named Ona) engineered to adapt to the planet, struggle with why they have to learn all the history of the human race, which they no longer belong to. As Ona says of the older colonists early in the story, “They cling to their past like rotten glue-lichen.” Thanks to events in the story, Ona finds herself in the multi-generational memories of a Chinese family. One memory is set in the late 80s after Fred Ho’s family had immigrated to America, the other in 1905 Hong Kong involves Fred’s grandfather and great-grandfather. In both, Fred and his grandfather have to deal with arrogant, bigoted white men. From these two memories Ona shifts into a scene set on her home planet where she observes the planet’s long-vanished inhabitants. Her experiences give her new insight into both the older colonists and the value of history.

“Maxwell’s Demon”
A sometimes brutal story set in WWII that follows Takako, an Okinawan woman who is removed from her internment camp by the US government and forced into spying for them on a secret project the Japanese are working on. Takako ends up having to face a choice of evils, leading to a dark ending that will linger for some time in the reader’s mind.

“The Reborn”
Another grim tale, this one set on Earth after it has been conquered by the Tawnin, an alien species who take the idea of “compartmentalization” to extremes. As one alien explains it: “The unified individual is a fallacy of traditional human philosophy . . . A criminal, for example, is but one person inhabiting a shared body with many others . . a good father, husband, brother, son.” The Tawnin are nearly eternal and so as not to be overwhelmed by memories, they keep some and “shed” the others, including their memory of how aggressive they were in conquering humanity. The “cast off those aggressive layers of their mind . . . and became the gentlest rulers imaginable.” Given that, the Tawnin view the human legal system with horror, as humans condemn an entire person for the action of a “part” of them. Instead, the Tawnin “excise” that part, removing the memories, say, of those resistance fighters they capture. The story centers on a human who is in a relationship with a Tawnin and who is also trying to track down the human perpetrators of a terrorist act of resistance. There’s a bit too much explanation at the end, but the close is a bit of chillingly beautiful writing.

“Thoughts and Prayers”
Liu uses multiple points of view to show the aftermath of a mass shooting on a single family, especially after the mother agrees to allow her slain daughter’s images/movies/life be used to try and push forward political change. What follows is a horrifying tale of trolling (Liu includes a POV from one of the trolls) and attack/counter-attack.

“Byzantine Empathy”
Two competing ways of trying to effect change through donations conflict. One is the traditional method of big not-for-profits directing their collected funds toward goals and methods they deem “worthy.” The other is an upstart program started by Tang Jianwen that decentralizes/democratizes giving via cryptocurrency and the power of VR. An interesting concept that got bogged down in the details and some speechifying.

“The Gods Will Not Be Chained”
The first of the singularity trilogy involving a young girl named Maddie and her father, uploaded consciousnesses, and the looming risk of hostile AIs. Liu plays around with the use of emoticons throughout, and the intimacy of the father-daughter relationship is a nice touch, but I can’t say there was a lot fresh here to a well-worn topic.

“Staying Behind”
Perhaps my favorite story in the collection. I loved it from its opening lines: “After the Singularity, most people chose to die. The dead pity us and call us the left behind . . . And so year after year, relentlessly, the dead try to steal our children.” The first-personal narrator shifts in time between his memories of his parents’ conflict about uploading and his present-day fears that his own child will choose to go down the path of disembodiment despite all his efforts. A poignant, painful, haunting story.

“Real Artists”
A slight, old style sort of near-future story centered on the depressing impact of AI (or near-AI) on the creative arts. This one was a bit too much “telling” for me and felt more than a little predicable.

“The Gods Will Not Be Slain”
Continues on with the Maddie/AI storyline. A solid enough story but didn’t do much for me.

“Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer”
Set after the Singularity, it’s told by a first-person narrator whose mother is “An Ancient, from before the Singularity . . . [who] lived in the flesh for twenty-six years before uploading.” The two try to bridge the gap between them, with the child trying to understand her mother’s attachment to the tangible world as well as her desire to travel to a nearby star to explore — a one-way trip. There are some beautiful descriptive passages in this story and a rewarding close.

“The Gods Have Not Died in Vain”
The third AI story, after the AI wars that killed millions. Somewhat similarly to the prior story, this one deals with the gulf of understanding between an embodied (Maddie of the earlier stories) and a disembodied (her “sister” Mist, created in the cloud by their father). In its exploration of how the first uploaded consciousnesses had trouble due to nostalgia for “the real world,” while their “children” lack that weakness, it also hearkens back to the first story where one generation hopes the ensuing one will do better via adaptation to a different world/way of life. I found this strongest of the three “Gods” stories thanks to the description of Earth, the changing relationship between Maddie and Mist, and the thoughtful exploration of AI linked to intimate characterization.

“Memories of My Mother”
A brief vignette-series story about a mother whose diagnosis of a terminal disease sees her using relativity to slow her experienced time and allow herself to visit her daughter at ages ten, seventeen, thirty-eight, and eighty. A neat premise, but the brevity of the story and its tone/formatting left it surprisingly emotionally distant.

“Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit — Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts”
A “drowned world” story post climate change whose plot and characterization were wanting, but still provided some beautiful descriptive passages.

“Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard”
A mix of cute and grim, this tale is set in a world where some people can change shape into drakes, leopards, or, much to her shame for the main characters, a small grey rabbit. It turns out though that a rabbit can have heart and be both brave and fierce. It’s an interesting story that was a bit blunt in its points and went on longer than I thought it needed to.

“A Chase Beyond the Storms”
Not really a story but an excerpt from Liu’s upcoming novel, The Veiled Throne. I’m not sure it works in a collection.

“The Hidden Girl”
The title story follows a young girl plucked from her life and trained to be a supernatural assassin whose first assignment goes in an unexpected direction. The story moves along smoothly enough but the plotting was pretty basic and the storyline predicable.

“Seven Birthdays”
A mix of themes from prior stories: climate change, parent-child relationships, and uploaded consciousness. The future paths humanity takes in Liu’s vision is fascinating and filled with the poetry of science.

“The Message”
A daughter whose mother just died is taken in by her archaeologist father who has been absent from her entire life (her mother had never told him about her pregnancy) and is forced to tag along as he explores the ruins of a dead planet. It was hard to buy into the relationship between the two (more precisely the change in the relationship) and so lacked the emotional punch the story seemed to be straining to achieve.

“Cutting”
A brief story-poem that nicely closes out the collection in evocative fashion

If I’m honest, I have to say this collection was disappointing, but that’s mostly due to how much I loved Liu’s first anthology of stories. A few of these felt slight or flat, or felt to be making their points a bit too overtly, but most were certainly solid enough. The standouts for me were “Ghost Days” and “Staying Behind” thanks to their aching levels of poignancy/emotionality.