SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY COMPENDIUM: The Paper Menagerie - Ken Liu

Release Date: 08/09/16
Publisher:  Head of Zeus

SYNOPSIS:

Ken Liu is one of the most original, thought-provoking and award-winning short-story writers of his generation. This is the first collection of his work – sixteen stories that invoke the magical within the mundane, by turns profound, beguiling and heartbreaking.

Included here are: The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary (Finalist for Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon Awards), Mono No Aware (Hugo Award winner), The Waves (Nebula Award finalist), The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species (Nebula and Sturgeon award finalists), All the Flavors (Nebula Award finalist), The Litigation Master and the Monkey King (Nebula Award finalist) ,and the most awarded story in the genre's history, The Paper Menagerie (the only story ever to win the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards).


REVIEW:

Whilst I keep up with the various awards and who win's what, there are times when I don't get to read as much as I'd like to. In the case of Ken. I know he's won a lot of awards for his short fiction but hadn't tried them, so when I found out that this book was being released I was pretty excited, counting down the days when the posty would deliver so that I could see what all the fuss was about.

Not that I doubted I'd get wouldn't get something exciting or mind blowing but there are times when I know that some people get awards for confusing the hell out of others in such a way that you feel stupid when you don't see what they're going on about.

What Ken presents here is a book full of adventure, tales full of cracking characters and above all else something different for everyone so that they can see the wide scope that he's become known for.

Not every story was a cracker but that doens't matter, what i loved best was the sheer variety of what I had in store, from time travel, travelling the universe to even virtual space. Its a quirky, eclectic mix and when you throw into the bowl of fantastic fiction an author as talented as Ken, its easy to see how he's won so many awards. They'r eeasy to get into, cracking fun to read and perhaps best of all allow you to take a break from the real world in breathable chunks.

An absolute corker and if you really want something special for that Sci-Fi fan in your life for the holiday period, definteily give this book a go. They won't be disappoointed.