Invisible Planets

Ken Liu

“Award-winning translator and author Ken Liu presents a collection of short speculative fiction from China. Some stories have won awards (including Hao Jingfang’s Hugo-winning novella, Folding Beijing); some have been included in various ‘Year’s Best’ anthologies; some have been well reviewed by critics and readers; and some are simply Ken’s personal favorites. Many of the authors collected here (with the obvious exception of New York Times bestseller Liu Cixin’s two stories) belong to the younger generation of ‘rising stars’. In addition, three essays at the end of the book explore Chinese science fiction. Liu Cixin’s essay, The Worst of All Possible Universes and The Best of All Possible Earths, gives a historical overview of SF in China and situates his own rise to prominence as the premier Chinese author within that context. Chen Qiufan’s The Torn Generation gives the view of a younger generation of authors trying to come to terms with the tumultuous transformations around them. Finally, Xia Jia, who holds the first Ph.D. issued for the study of Chinese SF, asks What Makes Chinese Science Fiction Chinese?”

Just like the club’s first book, we’re doing another anthology, this time with a collection of short stories and essays collected by renowned translator and author Ken Liu. Some of you may already be familiar with Liu from his work on translating the “Three Body Problem”, a Hugo award winning hard sci-fi novel that made its debut in the English-speaking world last year. Chinese sci-fi offers a very unique perspective on the speculative future. A country that is modernizing at breakneck speed, transforming into a high-tech society almost overnight, is certain to inspire some interesting ideas for fiction.

Book Details

Month August 2017
Meetup Date Saturday August 12 2017 18:00:00
Meetup Location XION
Referer zanneth
Amazon Link http://a.co/jcwZYrx

Bonus Material

Oblivion is a Crease Left by Memory

A short story by Chen Qiufan about art and memory, also translated by Ken Liu who was the same translator for Invisible Planets. The Seat 14C collection of short stories has a lot of other great works uploaded as well.