The collection "Sinopticon 2021" edited and translated by Xueting Christine Ni contains 13 science fiction tales originally published in China between 1991 and 2021, and recently translated by the editor into British English. I picked up this collection out of an interest in experiencing and better understanding Chinese science fiction. Each story is followed by a brief set of notes from the editor that to explain cultural background as needed. Likewise, to keep the flavor of the original stories, certain words are transliterated as Pinyin in roman letters and marked with footnotes to indicate meaning where necessary.

Since each story is as unique as its author, here are a few thoughts on each:

"The Last Save":
What would happen if technology and quantum physics let people pick "save-points" like video games have?
The premise is an excellent approach to good science fiction. The story is interesting and very readable. As a Western reader, a romance where both of the main characters become estranged until the end of their lives makes me feel rather sad. However, the editor explains this in the notes for one of the other stories that "yearning separation is the bread and butter of Chinese romance".

"Tombs of the Universe"
As humanity expands into the universe, the need for both tombs and ritual surrounding death will be unavoidable. Although each country and culture treats these issues with some variation, there are probably many more similarities. These similarities and differences influences my interpretation of this story about the scholars that investigate the history of "graves and tombs in space", and the culture of the diligent workers in the "Space Emergency And Rescue Corp"s Third Division which has the sole duty of "engineering and construction of graves, tombs, and burial sites." However, in the end, it turns out to be a romance where after a brief time together, the protagonist looks forward to being together again with his love in the afterlife. I have to assume that this too is an example of yearning separation in Chinese romance.

"Qiankun and Alex"
What happens when a logical and quite capable super AI is tasked with learning from a preschooler? Perhaps a mission to send 1300 micro spacecraft to answer fundamental questions about dark matter might not be the first thing that comes to most people, but it is just one of the results in this short story. I leave the other heartwarming results for readers to look forward to.

"Cat's Chance in Hell"
This story is solid scifi military fiction in which the use of technology described makes the reader think twice. What is humanity? What is the definition of a human? What responsibility does humanity have for the humane treatment of nearly identical to human constructs? (Hint: the main character is yearning to be reunited with his family...)

"The Return of Adam"
The use of stasis to enable space travel to and from a distant location is a common trope in science fiction. And, the cultural differences on return to Earth provide fertile ground for story telling. This, coupled with rapid artificial development of human intelligence make for a thought provoking story. Unfortunately, I still don't quite know what to think about the goal of the expedition being to explore the "RX Galaxy, ten light years away." Perhaps, I should say it makes me think about U.S. pulp scifi from the 40's and 50's?

"Rendezvous: 1937"
One of the uses of time travel in Western science fiction is to somehow prevent Hitler from committing the Holocaust. In this story we see time travel technology being used to document the criminal military aggression in Nanjin in 1937 while simultaneously being used by the other side to attempt to prevent this documentation. Of course, the two time travelers on opposite sides fall for each other only to be separated by death. I guess this is the eternal version of yearning separation in romance.

"The Heart of the Museum"
An alien that can simultaneously see present, past, and future who looks after a child that will create a museum to humanity that outlasts the earth. This story felt both artistic and philosophical.

"The Great Migration"
Taking place on Mars while attempting to travel back to the Earth seems like an excellent setting for a science fiction story. This story absolutely delivers for those who like their science fiction to be slightly dystopian. For this story I would suggest reading the editor's notes first, and for U.S. readers to imagine what Thanksgiving might be like if EVERYONE traveled back to their traditional home.... even if they happen to be living off-planet... (So this story also has yearning for reuniting with family.) This was perhaps my second favorite story in the collection.

"Meisje met de Parel"
A time traveling AI interacting with a to-be-famous child in 1937....

"Flowers of the Other Shore"
The zombie apocalypse with a humanizing twist. The author nicely humanizes zombies, hints at a tantalizing potential cure, and demonstrates that some zombies can much more human than some humans. Oh, and the zombie guy and human gal also find themselves in a complicated romantic relationship that naturally can not work out. (More romantically yearning separation...)

"The Absolution Experiment"
What happens when a truly heinous and violent criminal is offered a way to escape punishment that actually turns out to be a punishment worthy of the Outer Limits? (Oh, one of the key characters is motivated by romantic separation by death from his wife and child...)

"The Tide of Moon City"
Two scholars living on separate binary planets have a chance to meet at a conference after corresponding for several years. I can not say more about the plot here, but the editor note for this story explains the concept of "yearning separation ... of Chinese romance". The plot includes draconian governments, personal betrayal, and of course romantic separation. This was in my top three favorite stories in this collection.

"Starship: Library"
As a space opera that spans eons, this was my favorite. I don't think this story had direct romantic separation. Although I suppose one could make a case that the robot librarian was estranged from the human race and looking for a chance to again serve humanity....

Overall, these were entertaining stories. It was refreshing to read stories that do not follow the naive story arc I might have predicted, since, as a science fiction fan, I like reading about new ideas and ways of thinking. Finally, I would like to offer my appreciation to the publisher, editor/translator, and authors for kindly providing an electronic review copy of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion Publishing for granting me access to this book's ARC.

A collection of short stories ranging from a zombie apocalypse to the Nanjing (Nanking) massacre to complete and utter outer space, Sinopticon 2021 presents a stunningly-written array of Chinese Sci-Fi that was enlightening and refreshing to read.

First of all, Xueting Christine Ni has done an excellent job of translating so many Chinese stories into such immersive, eloquent prose. I found her added thoughts for each story fascinating, and they really helped me to think about the themes each author was trying to get across. It truly seems as if she has put her heart into translating each story for English speakers as faithfully as possible, whilst still finding ways to help us understand the nuances of Chinese culture that one may not pick up on as a non-native. She has striven to include something for everyone within this single book.

Almost every story has a meaning or hidden message (as is often the case with Sci-Fi). The social commentary and philosophy was very engaging, and it was interesting to move from one story to another knowing that the next would present its case in a wildly different manner to the last. However, I felt that some were... well, in some cases too long, and in other cases too lacking in plot for me to be all that interested (and for this reason I am only rating the collection 4 stars rather than 5).

I felt as though the stories got better as I got further along - or perhaps I was just getting used to the format and ideas behind each one. My absolute favourite story was 'Flower of the Other Shore', which I raced through. A zombie apocalypse story told from the perspective of one of the zombies? Yes please! This story, like several others in the book, was one of the like that I've never read before. It was so well written in every single way, and is possibly my favourite short story of all time.

For Sci-Fi lovers (and people just getting into Sci-Fi!), this collection is well worth a read. It presents a range of unique and thought-provoking stories, all clever in their own ways. Plus, the cover is beautiful!

While I'm not super into sci/fi or even Chinese sci-fi, I found this book informative and enjoyable.

Thank you to Netgalley and Rebellion for the digital ARC.

There are some great stories in here, notably /Qiankun and Alex/, a story about an AI learning from a child's incomprehensible behaviour; /Rendevous: 1937/, a harrowing time travel story taking place during the massacre of Nanking made even stronger by the author's inline notes about the horror they felt at learning about Nanjing; /Flowers of the Other Shore/ which may have been the most beautiful zombie story I have ever read; and /The Tide of Moon City/ about love and betrayal on (cold) warring worlds.

The translation is intellectual and poetic and at the end the editor makes short summaries of the author's life, the themes, and what drew her to choosing these stories. As a selection of science fiction spanning the last 30-40 years, it's a very interesting look and quite surprising to see how many writers, especially early on come from engineering trades (especially nuclear); and I appreciated the gender balance which heightened and gave a much greater depth to the variety of story.

So why three stars instead of five for something I enjoyed? Throughout reading these stories, I was not enjoying them as much as I thought I should have been; I had this nagging feeling in the back of my head that there was something wrong with the translation. And at the end of /The Tide of Moon City/, in her notes, Xueting mentions that thematically in the original Chinsese, the characters for the planets Bizhe and He'lin would have been clear about their interdependence that didn't translate to English.

I can't entirely fault Xueting, as translation is hard enough, let alone the myriad of writers' different voices she had to jump between. But I did notice and it did detract that little details like this that would have been very clear to Chinese readers were not given to us in some way. I have read many translations over the years, and there are many ways that this could have been done, with a line or two added to narration, endnotes (which Xueting does use for other less important references!), or even with her very useful conclusion notes used as introductions instead.

In spite of this problem, I do want to reiterate that the language used, the translation itself, is beautiful, deep, and rich; there are lines and turns of phrase in here that will stay with me for a long time. It's a very good collection, and I do recommend that if you enjoy or are interested in expanding the breadth of your science fiction library, you pick this up.

It's always difficult to rate anthologies because there are many stories instead of one. I liked some of these, mainly the newer ones and the ones written by women. The very first story was my favorite

I have love, love, loved this book. It is refreshing and wonderful to read works that are simultaneously new and familiar. At a culturally homogeneous school, works like this are essential.

Like most short story collections, this has some good and some bad. This one has mostly good, however! It reminded me of some of Clarkesworlds' Chinese collections. If you're interested in reading more Asian SFF, definitely consider giving this one a try!

There's much to enjoy from the many authors who present work in Sinopticon 2021. An exploration of the science fiction medium from skilled voices.

Collections of foreign stories are usually hit or miss, and this collection is no exception. If you're willing to make allowances for that in order to experience something new, this is a good place to start. The first story is excellent, others are up and down, and the Chinese POV is good to see. I especially like all the pro China comments sprinkled throughout. One story is called "Cat's Chance In Hell", which must be what they in China instead of "Chinaman's Chance".

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

First off, as a reader of Chinese descent (but who can't read Chinese), I am so happy to see an anthology of Chinese authors being translated into English. I've read and enjoyed Ken Liu's works. In fact, Invisible Planets, his first collection of translated sci-fi stories, is one of my favorite short story collections. I was excited to get approved to read this book, and I am proud to support the publication of works that have been translated from Chinese into English. Thank you again to the publisher for this opportunity!

Sinopicon 2021 is a bold and daring anthology of sci-fi stories that have been translated from Chinese into English. This has rarely been done before, and I applaud the publisher for taking this risk. The stories themselves are amazing, and to think that they would have never reached English-reading audiences if not for this book! The themes of the stories revolve around time travel, space travel, and robots. Although these themes are familiar to Western science fiction fans, there is still a unique Chinese-ness to the stories, as exemplified through the names of the characters, among other things.

Here is an excerpt from one of my favorite stories in the collection, Tombs of the Universe by Han Song:

"When I was ten, my father decided that I was fit for space travel. That year, the whole family went to Orion on a flight with Interstellar Travel. On our way back, the ship broke down, and we had to stop off on Mars to catch another flight back to Earth.
We landed near the Martian north pole. With everyone feeling anxious and apprehensive, the flight attendant arranged for us to get into spacesuits and take a stroll outside. Our landing point was surrounded by ruins from the old Human Era, announced the captain; remnants of the First Age of Space Exploration. I remember very clearly: we had stopped in front of a section of a metal wall several kilometres long, and happened upon some unexpected things.
We now know that those things were called gravestones, but back then, I was simply transfixed by their awesome grandeur."

Imagine somebody going to another planet on vacation, instead of going to Disney World! The possibilities for the future are endless, and this book presents infinite possibilities to the reader. Overall, Sinopticon 2021 is a groundbreaking anthology of science fiction that will appeal to readers of Ken Liu's anthologies Invisible Planets and Broken Stars. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above or if you're a fan of the science fiction genre, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in November!