3.5
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories
ByPublisher Description
Includes stories featured in Pantheon—now an animated series on AMC+
“I know this is going to sound hyperbolic, but when I’m reading Ken Liu’s stories, I feel like I’m reading a once-in-a-generation talent. I’m in awe.” —Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author
A “brilliant” (The Chicago Tribune), “extraordinary” (The Washington Post), and “captivating” (BuzzFeed) short story anthology from Ken Liu, the author of The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories.
From stories about time-traveling assassins, to Black Mirror–esque tales of cryptocurrency and internet trolling, to heartbreaking narratives of parent-child relationships, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories is a far-reaching work that explores topical themes from the present and visionary looks at humanity’s future.
This collection includes a selection of Liu’s speculative fiction stories over the past five years—seventeen of his best—plus a new novelette. In addition, it also features an excerpt from The Veiled Throne, the third book in Liu’s epic fantasy series The Dandelion Dynasty.
Stories include:
Ghost Days; Maxwell’s Demon; The Reborn; Thoughts and Prayers; Byzantine Empathy; The Gods Will Not Be Chained; Staying Behind; Real Artists; The Gods Will Not Be Slain; Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer; The Gods Have Not Died in Vain; Memories of My Mother; Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit—Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts; Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard; A Chase Beyond the Storms (an excerpt from The Veiled Throne, Book 3 of the Dandelion Dynasty); The Hidden Girl; Seven Birthdays; The Message; Cutting
“I know this is going to sound hyperbolic, but when I’m reading Ken Liu’s stories, I feel like I’m reading a once-in-a-generation talent. I’m in awe.” —Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author
A “brilliant” (The Chicago Tribune), “extraordinary” (The Washington Post), and “captivating” (BuzzFeed) short story anthology from Ken Liu, the author of The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories.
From stories about time-traveling assassins, to Black Mirror–esque tales of cryptocurrency and internet trolling, to heartbreaking narratives of parent-child relationships, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories is a far-reaching work that explores topical themes from the present and visionary looks at humanity’s future.
This collection includes a selection of Liu’s speculative fiction stories over the past five years—seventeen of his best—plus a new novelette. In addition, it also features an excerpt from The Veiled Throne, the third book in Liu’s epic fantasy series The Dandelion Dynasty.
Stories include:
Ghost Days; Maxwell’s Demon; The Reborn; Thoughts and Prayers; Byzantine Empathy; The Gods Will Not Be Chained; Staying Behind; Real Artists; The Gods Will Not Be Slain; Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer; The Gods Have Not Died in Vain; Memories of My Mother; Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit—Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts; Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard; A Chase Beyond the Storms (an excerpt from The Veiled Throne, Book 3 of the Dandelion Dynasty); The Hidden Girl; Seven Birthdays; The Message; Cutting
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Hidden Girl and Other Stories Reviews
3.5
““You got into this because you wanted to make something beautiful. But it takes time, lots of times to be good at any creative work. The fact that you hate your own work right now so much just means that you have good taste. And great taste is the most valuable tool of a great artist.”
This collection of short stories was not nearly as brutal as some of the stories in The Paper Menagerie, which was a good thing, because I don’t know if I would have been ready for more pain yet when I picked this up.
I was interested in reading this because I loved The Paper Menagerie and I also loved Pantheon, which I recently discovered on Netflix.
I don’t know if it’s simply familiarity bias, but I thought the stories that were adapted into Pantheon were the strongest and I found myself wanting a whole collection dedicated to exploring the characters and concepts that became the show.
The excerpt from the Dandelion Dynasty confused me a bit and I wonder if I would’ve liked it more if I was familiar with the series. The Hidden Girl, the title story of the collection, comes right after it and it definitely pulled me back in.
Overall a pretty solid collection. I think The Paper Menagerie was stronger as a whole, but there were plenty of stories in here that I loved. I was also a bit confused why I think 3 of the stories had a character named Sophia in them who were seemingly different Sophia’s. It made me wonder if they were supposed to be related or just placeholder names or just a coincidence they were all named Sophia.
But as always, I enjoyed the concepts of humanity and science fiction Liu explored in these stories and I am always in awe of his creativity and the care he places in building these nuanced, complicated characters.”
About Ken Liu
Ken Liu is an award-winning American author of speculative fiction. His collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. Liu’s other works include The Grace of Kings, The Wall of Storms, The Veiled Throne, a second collection The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, and the forthcoming Julia Z series. He has been involved in multiple media adaptations of his work, including the short story “Good Hunting,” adapted as an episode in Netflix’s animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC’s Pantheon, adapted from an interconnected series of short stories. “The Hidden Girl,” “The Message,” and “The Oracle” have also been optioned for development. Liu previously worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on topics including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, the history of technology, and the value of storytelling. Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
Other books by Ken Liu
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