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The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

Ken Liu

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Bookshelf Nominations

* Bookshelf Nominations: NUMBERS [now online]
By Ruby , Mistress of Chaos · 4 posts · 85 views

last updated Dec 03, 2017 09:15AM

* Bookshelf Nominations: IN THE TROPICS
By Ruby , Mistress of Chaos · 24 posts · 45 views

last updated Feb 19, 2014 10:16PM

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What Members Thought

Dec 20, 2022 Bradley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, sci-fi, 2022-shelf, 2020-shelf, dystopia-yes-pls

I'm filled with shame for not having read these fantastic short stories earlier. Instead, I just focused on reading Ken Liu's translations of Cixin Liu, and Ken Liu's own enormous epic fantasy, ignoring, (wrongly-so) his award-winning short fiction.

*rubs hands together and gets to work*

I was delighted by almost all the short, sometimes strange, fiction that filled the first pages.

The Bookmaking Species of Select Species tickled all my librophile instincts.

State Change made me change tracks HAR ...more

51 likes · Like · see review

Mar 04, 2012 Traveller rated it it was amazing

Shelves: short-fiction

This is a short story.

Incredibly sad... I started crying halfway through and was bawling by the end. It felt so true and I love Liu's voice. I'll definitely be looking out for more Liu in the future. ...more

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Jan 21, 2017 Gertie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Wow. Not a word I used often in describing books, but this one rightfully earned it. (Last year's Wow book. )

I didn't actually enjoy this book throughout - in fact, some parts were quite painful, and I had to take breaks between listenings (I got the audiobook from "Larry"). This is a great example of books that have value that goes beyond enjoyment. You can respect and appreciate, sometimes while you're hating every word.

Let's start with the variety of stories. Typically anthologies have a com Wow. Not a word I used often in describing books, but this one rightfully earned it. (Last year's Wow book. )

I didn't actually enjoy this book throughout - in fact, some parts were quite painful, and I had to take breaks between listenings (I got the audiobook from "Larry"). This is a great example of books that have value that goes beyond enjoyment. You can respect and appreciate, sometimes while you're hating every word.

Let's start with the variety of stories. Typically anthologies have a common theme - genre, a topic, a character. In this case, it's a rather unusual collection of highly imaginative science-fiction, and what I would call historical fiction. Many are a mix of both. The other theme that seems to tie the stories together is the numerous Asian references. Ken Liu is a Chinese-born American, and his Asian heritage seeps into every story in different ways. Not only are there Chinese references, but also Japanese, Filipino, Korean, and more. Personally, for me this was both a benefit and a downside. On one hand, there are historical and cultural references that I am not familiar with, on the other hand, I feel like I gained at least a smidgen of insight into some things I am ignorant about.

Many of these can be found individually online; I highly recommend you seek them out.

The title story is of a boy raised in the U.S. by an American father and a Chinese mother who speaks very little English. It's really a rather heart-wrenching story, his coldness, her suffering, but also quite touching as well.
The most impactful story is difficult to write about. I'm actually tearing up right now. "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" was... heartbreaking, depressing, terrifying. Also, important. This story focuses on the atrocities committed during WWII by Japan in "Unit 731" in experimentation to create biological weapons and learn about the human body, in the worse ways possible. The victims were mostly Chinese, and also Korean, Russian, Mongolian, and Allied prisoners of war. This was the first I have heard of the "Asian Auschwitz". As a 46 year old reasonably intelligent woman who doesn't completely hide from the world, how the hell did I not know about this? Not only did these events occur, the doctors were never charged with war crimes, and in fact, the United States was complicit in the matter, by granting immunity in exchange for the ill-gained medical data. Sadly there were other experimentation sites as well.
The story has a time travel element to it, but that's mainly a device to give us a glimpse into the past, although tangentially the time travel concept is interesting on its own, with so many potential avenues to explore. But in this story, the focus is on the war crimes. I'm going to call them that. There are such graphic descriptions of acts so horrific I had hoped they weren't true. But they are. I'm not sure what to say about it honestly. It's the sort of behavior that frankly boggles my mind, but we've seen over and over that humans are capable of atrocities. Regular people who have families, friends, hobbies; people who smile and open the door for others, and consider things like civic duty. It's difficult to reconcile the Janus aspect of this, the two extremely different sides of a person, and the story tries to address this in some fashion, though I still just can't even make any sense of it.
Off the top of my head, I really enjoyed a few of the sci-fi stories, which were so impressively creative and imaginative. The first story is about how different civilizations (aliens) approach "books". Another story features characters whose souls are kept outside their bodies in physical objects, which of course has some potential issues, especially if your soul is an ice cube.
One tale of people traveling through space and deciding whether to be immortal and keep their kids young forever, or to die and let their kids grow up, goes in very interesting directions and is more well fleshed-out than I'd expect a short story to be, thankfully.

Overall, it's a diverse, fascinating, well-written set of stories that will certainly get a reaction out of you, and is very worth reading. This one goes at the top of my 2017 recommendations list. ...more

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Apr 19, 2021 Alexander Veee rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, magical-realism, science-fiction, unclassifiable-speculative-fiction, fantasy, short-fiction, read-2021

"Look up at the stars, and we are bombarded by light generated on the day the last victim at Pingfang died, the day the last train arrived at Auschwitz, the day the last Cherokee walked out of Georgia. And we know that the inhabitants of those distant worlds, if they are watching, will see those moments, in time, as they stream from here to there at the speed of light. It is not possible to capture all of those photons, to erase all of those images. They are our permanent record, the testimony o

...more

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Dec 13, 2015 Barrita rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, speculative-fiction, fantasy, science-fiction, reviewed, 5-star, male-authors, barrilibros, online, 2016waitinglist

<3

Ya había leído la mayoría de los cuentos, que habían sido publicados en varias revistas de ciencia ficción y ficción especulativa, y me había fascinado el estilo y las temáticas (diversas y variadas) que elige Ken Liu. Cuando leí su novela The Grace of Kings me volví una gran admiradora y ahora estoy encantada que todos estos cuentos estén juntos publicados de manera formal. Aunque sabía que me iba a gustar el libro, es raro poder decir que todas las historias de una colección me gustaron tant ...more

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Dec 28, 2023 Marie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: t-sci-fi, t-anthology-collection, author-bipoc

Excellent short story collection featuring themes of differing cultures and the beauty of impermanence.

Most exciting: The Regular.

Most philosophical: The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary.

Hardest to read (in a gripping way): The Literomancer.

Saddest: Mono No Aware and The Paper Ménagerie.

Wildest SF concepts: An Advanced Reader’s Picture Book of Comparative Cognition and The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species.

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