This is a great short story collection with a mix of Asian inspired sci-fi, fantasy and fiction stories. My average star rating is 4.25 ⭐️ The majority of the stories were 5/5 ⭐️ for me and really touched on subjects that moved me. My favorite stories we’re „The Paper Menagerie“ and „The Waves“. For a detailed star rating check my list below. The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species 3.5/5 ⭐️ State Change 5/5 ⭐️ The Perfect Match 5/5 ⭐️ Good Hunting 5/5 ⭐️ The Literomancer 3.5/5 ⭐️ Simulacrum 4/5 ⭐️ The Regular 5/5 ⭐️ The Paper Menagerie 5/5 ⭐️ An Adavnced Readers Picture Book of Comaparative Cognition 3/5 ⭐️ The Waves 5/5⭐️ Mono No Aware 5/5 ⭐️ All the Flavors 4/5 ⭐️ A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel 3/5 ⭐️ The Litigation Master and the Monkey King 3.5/5 ⭐️ The Man Who Ended History No Rating (DNF)

One of the best books I ever read! I was deep inside the stories from the second sentence in almost every single one. The mixture of Fantasy, Sci-Fi, historical fiction and folklore is mesmorising. The stories always come down to basic human needs and show ages old questions of humanity from another perspective. Sometimes the technological/ (astro)physical parts were a bit confusing to me - but maybe that's only because I normally don't read Sci-Fi. Will now definetely dive into his Fantasy-Saga :)

The Bookmaking habits of select species 2/5: This one was a bit too much sci-fi for my taste. The basic idea came across but the conclusion was lacking. How do species record theis. knowledge and their book equivilent. State Change 4.5/5: An idea matching my taste. What if souls are emboddied by various objects that could be consumed but shouldnt be to stay alive? A solid story although lacking at times witha satisfying resolution The perfect match 5/5: Would we want an all-knowing Al to follow us anywhere and suggest our every move? ldea, execution and conclusion are exceptional. Good Hunting 3/5: This one took a bit too long for me to develop the idea. Adjusting to new techology while preserving your craft. Nothing could be more relevant in this day and age but the delivery just took too long. The Literomancer 2/5: A story about mobbing takes a dark turn. did not sign up for this. Except for a lot of historical references that i am not interested in, the topic of literomancing (?) is an interesting but boring one. I greatly disliked the turn of events towards the end. Simulacrum 2/5: The truth of fact, the truth of feeling by ted chiang is constructed similarly but presents it way better. Is it fair to wonder in constructions of past situations? Video? Even better than video that could relive that moment? What about the perception of that moment and the feeling you had. Would it remain the same? This is a poor adaptation of the concept and not a fun one to read. The Regular: 4.5/5 A detective hunts down a killer of a prostute. Mechanical implants, hidden cameras and a common target scheme all lead to an interesting story. The paper menagerie: 4/5 A beautiful and sad story with a magical setup. It reflects the burden to the issue of "fitting in" whereever, whoever you are. If this is the cover story of the book, i'd say ken liu is nothing like ted chiang. His stories are nowhere close to what i have loved about the twists, the ingenuity and novelty of chiang's stories. An Advanced Readers' Picture Book Of Comparative Cognition: 4/5 This story was very technical, even the author notes direct you to three papers explaining the core concepts of the story. didn't read those and that is probably why this story hadn't really an impact on me. I've understood the basic ideas and i commend the author on this story's complexity. How do you remember your memories, and how could we communicate across the universe are the two core ideas, very interesting ones indeed and the perspectives and examples of alien lifeforms exhibiting different types of cognition is quite amazing. The Waves: 4.5/5 What do we strive for? Would pushing our life expectency into the future really be the goal of humanity? Is it really what we want or could we develop ourselves differently? Ireally liked this story, somehow crude and a novelty an the same time. The ending was somewhat presumptious. I suppose the space would run out eventually with these numbers and the argument that at home you could develop faster than on the go doesnt make sense to me. Mono No Aware: 5/5 What a beautiful story with a fantastic scientific idea for a spacecraft. I do enjoy japanese culture so it turned out to be an absolute perfect mix of themes for me. All The Flavors: 2/5 Immigration of chinese men in the late 1800s in Idaho City is the topic of this story that evolves around the chinese taking lodging with another 3 head family that is skeptic of them at first, but gets aquainted better and better and more evolved in their culture thanks to the daughter that has a deep interest in their food. This was nothing special, just the average unfair prejudice against immigrants even if they speak the language of the country. A Brief History of The Trans-Pacific Tunnel: 3/5 A tunnel to connect china, japan and america in 1930 by forcing people to work in inhuman environments for years just to leave them with psychological issues resulting from labor deep beneath the sea. The story displays a nice idea in an unreasonable time with a story thin as paper but still somewhat manages to be intriguing to a degree. The Litigation Master and The Monkey King: 4/5 A likeable protagonist with an interesting and noble profession. am not particularly interested in the partially true history of the story, but the skillful play on words and expectations Tian displays throughout. The Man who Ended History: A Documentary: 2/5 Auschwitz but in japan during the second world war. Based on true historical facts the story explores the idea ofa distructive way to relive the situations in unit 731 and way to make the according states that were involved pay respect to those who suffered. Inspired by ted chiang, ken liu underdelievers greatly and falls short on many of the aspects ted chiang excells at.