/lit/ - Literature

>>20329453
Broken Stars - Ken Liu, editor, and translator along with Carmen Yiling Yan (2019)

Even though it says science fiction, this collection skews much more towards speculative fiction, with an emphasis on allegories and twists. The one story that I enjoyed I had read previously before, so this was a definite loss for me overall. Even so, it was an interesting look at an anthology of Chinese fiction and what they represented.

Goodnight, Melancholy - Xia Jia (2015/2017)
A dual perspective story that alternated between a depressed person who had emotional support AI constructs and Alan Turing. This was also a metastory. It was well-done, but I considered it mostly a novelty.
Ok

Moonlight - Liu Cixin (2009/2017)
A guy's future self told him that only he could save the world. Disaster ensues, repeatedly.
Meh

Broken Stars - Tang Fei (2016/2016)
I don't understand why this was the title story. This was senseless, mean-spirited, and dismal. It was a contemporary high school story and the broken stars were metaphorical.
Blah

Submarines - Han Song (2014/2017)
Liu says this author's works are especially dense allegories and I admit that I wasn't able to comprehend them at all. Peasants constructed piecemeal submarines in terrible conditions which eventually caught on fire and couldn't be put out because the physical properties of water betrayed them and then the more prosperous profited from their scraps.
Blah

Salinger and the Koreans - Han Song (2016/2016)
The Cosmic Observer brought J.D. Salinger to McDonalds and then North Korea took over the world.
Blah

Under a Dangling Sky - Cheng Jingbo (2004/2017)
A mixture of greek myths and SF stories about dolphins.
Blah

What Has Passed Shall In Kinder Light Appear - Baoshu (-/2015)
When I first read this story in the March-April 2015 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine I was thoroughly impressed. I've thought of it a lot in the years that followed. There are relatively few works that have had a noticeable impact on my worldview and this was one of them. I read it again and it was even better than I remembered. This lifelong saga of romance and tragedy began in the 2010s and ended in the 1940s. Everyone progresses through life as they normally would, but sociopolitical events occur in reverse chronology. This presentation greatly affected me emotionally and psychologically. I became convinced that what is viewed as progress, in whatever way that's defined, isn't anything more than arbitrary changes from prior events. The development of civilization isn't assured and regression, from my perspective, ever looms. Recent events have made this all the more evident. This wasn't ever published ever in China, and possibly couldn't be due to its content. It's easily my favorite work from China that I've read, though that's rather few, and it's also one of my favorite novellas.
Highly Enjoyable