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Invisible Planets
400 pages
A kaleidoscopic journey through surreal futures and alternate realities that holds a mirror up to the complexities of modern society.
What it feels like
Reading this collection feels like stepping through a series of portals into wildly different, yet deeply resonant, futures. The pace is steady, inviting you to linger over each distinct vision before moving to the next. You will find yourself immersed in atmospheres that range from the quietly melancholic and surreal to the sharply satirical and awe-inspiring. The prose, unified by elegant translation, shifts seamlessly between lyrical myth-making and hard, precise technological speculation. It is an emotionally expansive experience that moves from intimate portraits of urban alienation to dizzying cosmic scales. This anthology will delight readers who love speculative fiction that uses the strange and the futuristic to ask profound, lingering questions about history, society, and what it means to be human.
- Mood
- expansive
- surreal
- contemplative
- uncanny
- Tone
- philosophical
- satirical
- melancholic
- visionary
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- technological alienation · societal transformation · the weight of history · humanity's place in the cosmos · cultural memory
- The writing
- The language shifts seamlessly between lyrical myth-making and sharp, precise technological speculation, unified by an elegant and thoughtful translation.
- The arc
- The journey shifts from quiet, intimate reflections on human connection to dizzying, awe-inspiring confrontations with the vastness of the universe.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave speculative fiction that uses futuristic or surreal premises to explore deep sociological, political, and philosophical questions will devour this.
Content notes
- state surveillance
- class inequality
- existential dread
- violence
About the book
"Thirteen intriguing visions of the future from China"--Cover.
"Readers at Tor and around the SF world have recently become familiar with Ken Liu and his Chinese translation work via the bestselling and award nominated novel The Three-Body Problem, by acclaimed Chinese author Cixin Liu. Readers who have developed a taste and excitement for Chinese SF by these means will be excited to hear that Ken Liu, the translator of that volume is assembling, translating, and editing an anthology of Chinese science fiction short stories.The thirteen stories in this collection are a strong and diverse representation of Chinese science fiction, including two by Liu Cixin. Some have won awards in translation, some have garnered serious critical acclaim, some have been selected for Year's Best anthologies, and some are simply Ken Liu's personal favorites.To round out the collection, there are several essays from Chinese scholars and authors, plus an illuminating introduction by Ken Liu."--Syndetics
"A Tom Doherty Associates book."
Description from Open Library.
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