Story Recommendations – November 2020

Some of you might’ve noticed that my short story recommendations for October never went up, and for that I’m sorry. The good news are that I missed putting up the recommendations because my wife gave birth to our daughter.

So, yeah, I’ve been more than busy trying to keep the little devil alive and happy, my daughter that is, not my wife. Yeah, the dad jokes are already sneaking up on me. Sorry about that.

Right, on to the stories.

This month is a bit different. Without me meaning for it to happen, it turned into an author special on one of the very best short story writers out there, not just within fantasy and science fiction but across all genres.

I loved Ken Liu’s stories ever since I first read Paper Menagerie. However, it was only when I read through his short story collection “Paper Menagerie and Other Stories” that I realized just how great a writer Liu is. So this month all the story recommendations come from “Paper Menagerie and Other Stories”.

The Perfect Match by Ken Liu (Lightspeed): Mass surveillance and AI’s controlling every part of our society have become somewhat overused tropes in the last decade, especially as real life technology is moving closer and closer to this scenario. Still, Liu manages to create something original out of the tropes, a high-stakes story that shows both the good and bad of such a world but also how ignorant most people are of the world that surrounds them and what shapes it.

The story’s protagonist is part of the ignorant masses until he gradually realizes just how much of his life is controlled by the AI in the story. He becomes part of the rebellion, sort of, giving the story a thriller feel.

On top of that the story manages to show both the pros and cons of mass surveillance and data gathering, letting the reader make a more informed decision on whether this societal development is really what we want. And, finally, the story shows, that if we don’t want that, we need to act now or it’ll be too late.
That’s a lot to back into a short story, yet Liu does it brilliantly and keeps the entertainment value high all throughout. That’s why you should definitely read The Perfect Match.

Good Hunting by Ken Liu (Strange Horizons): Once again, Liu shows he’s a master of coming up with original speculative ideas. Here, he’s mixing traditional Far Eastern folklore with steampunk and the historical events of the British occupation of parts of China.

What sets Liu’s best stories apart, though, (and Good Hunting is definitely one of them) is the emotional impact. There’s no big revelation, no emotional gut punch at the end as in Paper Menagerie. Instead, there’s the continual build-up of sorrow and apathy as the Chinese people are suffering under the occupation of the British colonial power, their culture and magic slowly dying in the process. It’s truly heart-wrenching.

Also, there’s an excellent episode of Netflix’s anthology series “Love, Death + Robots” based on the story.

The Literomancer by Ken Liu (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction): Compared to most other of Liu’s stories, the speculative element in this one is very light, barely more than tacked on, but it has everything else that makes up a great Liu story: The Chinese-American cultural blend, strong sentence level writing, and, of course, the emotional gut punch. The emotions especially is what makes this story so great.

The story follows of the ups and downs of an American expat in Taiwan during the Chinese civil war where she befriends an old literomancer and his grandson. Their relationship is the focus of most of the story, and the plot only really takes off towards the end, where the protagonist’s father, a CIA agent, comes into conflict with the literomancer. Though, the ending is more than strong enough to make up for the slow pace and at times meandering plot.

The Regular by Ken Liu (Upgraded anthology / Years Best Science Fiction: 32nd edition): This Nebula, Locus, and Sturgeon award nominated story (yes, it’s that good) is a near perfect blend of science fiction and mystery/thriller. It’s a classical cat and mouse story, depicting the game between a private detective and the criminal that is her prey, and it’s mixed with plenty of strong SF elements and Liu’s usual blend of American and Chinese cultural settings.

The story centres on a man killing prostitutes in order to use their hidden surveillance to expose the Chinese officials sleeping with them in a long game to bring about democracy in China. Chasing the killer is a former police officer with a personal connection to the mother of the latest victim. And at the heart of the story is the Regulators, implants that stabilizes the carrier’s mood and behaviour.

At times, the story reads a bit too much like a cliché crime thriller, mainly because of the detectives bleak past, a trope that feels forced into the story. Other than that, though, this is an exciting, fast paced story with the best of both the crime and science fiction genres neatly pressed into a piece of short fiction.

And of course there’s the title story of the short story collection, Paper Menagerie, which won both the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award. No matter how many times I read it, it still remains one of my all time favourite short stories. No review of mine can do it justice. Just go read.