Unsolicited Rec

So as recent posts may have indicated, I have a lot of feelings about The Three-Body Problem trilogy by Cixin Liu. The translator of 2/3 of the trilogy, Ken Liu (no relation), is also a prolific author in his own right. A few years ago I read his anthology "The Paper Menagerie," and my feelings on it in my notes were "Bleak in parts, but also very funny and allusive." ("State Changes" in particular reimagines a lot of classic poets/novelists in a slightly-fantasy AU of our world.)

Well, I just got through another of his anthologies, "The Hidden Girl," and, uh. "Bleak" is a good word for his style. The relationships among children and parents are angsty, world history is very angsty, posthumanism and different formats of the passage of time are angsty. So it's not something I would give an unqualified rec for if your tastes are shallow like mine.

However, if you are into smallish/not exactly popular media "fandoms" of the kind you might find on this blog, I would recommend "The Message" (originally published in 2012; I think the print version is paywalled but there might be a podfic version here). Unfortunately, I can't really explain why without major spoilers, but context under the cut if you're interested.

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Edit: forgot to mention: Ken Liu is one of the returning guests of honor at virtual Capclave 2020, so I am hoping to "meet" him there!