Ken Liu, Writer

Author of The Grace of Kings and The Paper Menagerie

paper menagerie

LeVar Burton Reads “The Paper Menagerie”

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LeVar Burton (Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Reading Rainbow) is a hero of mine. TNG is my favorite Trek, and Geordi was the greatest engineer in the galaxy. (Remember, my silkpunk epic fantasy series is all about engineers as magicians and poets.)

LeVar Burton Reads podcast

He has a new podcast, “LeVar Burton Reads” (alternate iTunes link), in which he narrates pieces of short fiction.

He’s already performed works by Neil Gaiman, Haruki Murakami, Daisy Johnson, among others. And this week’s selection is “The Paper Menagerie”. Go ahead and give it a listen. It’s an amazing performance.

Sometimes my life is unbelievable.

A Favorable Review of the Paper Menagerie

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One of the nicest things in the life of a writer must be hearing from a reader who really got what you were trying to do.

I saw this review of “The Paper Menagerie” in the F&SF forums:

Liu manages to create emotions so subtly you almost miss how they’re creeping up on you. Thus, when the climax of the story comes, it delivers a surprisingly strong emotional punch.

Thank you, Geoff Hart. I’m lucky that GVG took a chance on this story and got it in front of some great readers.

Now I have to go and try harder.