Ken Liu, Writer

Author of The Grace of Kings and The Paper Menagerie

Blog

Other Half of the Sky TOC

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The Other Half of the Sky, edited by Athena Andreadis and Kay Holt, has announced the TOC.

Melissa Scott, Finders
Alexander Jablokov, Bad Day on Boscobel
Nisi Shawl, In Colors Everywhere
Sue Lange, Mission of Greed
Vandana Singh, Sailing the Antarsa
Joan Slonczewski, Landfall
Terry Boren, This Alakie and the Death of Dima
Aliette de Bodard, The Waiting Stars
Ken Liu, The Shape of Thought
Alex Dally MacFarlane, Under Falna’s Mask
Martha Wells, Mimesis
Kelly Jennings, Velocity’s Ghost
C. W. Johnson, Exit, Interrupted
Cat Rambo, Dagger and Mask
Christine Lucas, Ouroboros
Jack McDevitt, Cathedral

So proud to be in this company. I really hope readers like my contribution.

And here’s a really cool widget provided by Kate Sullivan, our publisher, so that you can read the start of each story.

The Chronicles of European Heroes

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Oh my God. I am reading the coolest book ever.

Ma Boyong, one of my favorite Chinese authors, has written a wuxia novel featuring European elements: The Chronicles of European Heroes (《欧罗巴英雄记》). Yes, this is a wuxia novel in which heroes use the “Templar Crucifix Sword Fighting Technique” and Christian monks heal people by balancing aqueous and igneous humors, a novel with xiake and magic and wandering poets and quotes from books by ancient sages like Hippocrates.

I never would have thought such a thing possible. But here I am, reading it. I feel like a kid on Christmas with a smile on my face the whole time.

This is the most creative thing I’ve ever seen. I wish I had even a little bit of Ma’s brilliance.

The Hugo Rocket

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Since the Hugo rocket is apparently considered a weapon, I couldn’t bring it onto the plane as a carry-on. The base designer, Deb Kosiba, showed us how to take it apart and put the pieces inside a specially designed box. However, the box was so big that it would not fit inside my suitcase. So my only choice was to FedEx it home.

It has finally arrived safely.

Chinese Collection

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《爱的算法》, a collection of thirteen of my short stories in Chinese, is out from SFW Publishing.

I love the cover design and the interior art, and I think the translators all did a fine job. I’m very grateful for the editors and translators for their hard work in making this happen.

(And my friend Chen Qiufan carried a few copies of the book thousands of miles so that I could get them at Chicon. If you’ve ever traveled overseas, when every ounce/cubic centimeter of luggage matters, you’ll realize that only a very good friend would agree to do this as a favor. I’m deeply thankful.)

Chinese collection cover

A few notes for my Chinese readers:

Some of my favorite stories could not be published in this collection, and others had to be edited by the translators for political reasons. I think we all know what these reasons are, and there’s no need for me to go into them here.

I do not know all of the changes/omissions that have been made. Where I was made aware of them, some of the changes were surprising to me, and I wish they did not have to be made. But I was told that without these changes, the stories would be unpublishable.

Would I rather have readers see a story that is edited or have readers not see the story at all? That is not an easy question to answer.

In the end, I decided that I preferred to have readers see my (altered) stories, even if they were now more like those renaissance paintings that had fig leafs painted over them. I think it’s better to have such a painting and ask viewers to exercise their imagination, than to have them stare at a blank wall.

I understand the difficulties of the translators and editors and publisher. I can only hope that someday they and I will not be put in this position where we have to balance the desire to reach readers against the distasteful act of having to perform such alterations. I can only hope that things will change.

Any Chinese reader who wishes to see the original English can email me. I will either point you to the online English edition or email you the relevant section where I know changes have been made.