“The Hidden Girl and Other Stories” by Ken Liu
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Rating: 4/5 Stars.
A fascinating collection of stories by a writer concerned with the impact of AI technology, and how cultures and other races are often overlooked or looked down upon by those in the west. Some stories here are standalone, while some form part of a series or are related to each other thematically as a form of ‘future history’.
- “Ghost Days” (2013): a story told in different times and different places: a genetically modified human living on an alien world, a possibly illegal refugee in the USA, and the refugee’s grandparents in China. What ties them together is an object passed down from person to person in the story, and a shared feeling about not belonging to the place. ISFDB Title Record # 1644630
- “Maxwell’s Demon” (2012): a Japanese-American in an internment camp during the war is sent to Japan on a mission to find information on possible Japanese war research. She discovers that her skill at seeing ghosts might be used as part of the war effort. She then helps some ghosts to escape, but she herself may not be able to escape the ongoing conflict and go home. ISFDB Title Record # 1371576
- “The Reborn” (2014): aliens have conquered Earth and now live with humans. Xenophobes cause an event that leads to an investigation. But a lead investigator finds clues that lead back to memories of his old life: memories that have been stripped away by the aliens in an attempt to make a better personality. ISFDB Title Record # 2696871
- “Thoughts and Prayers” (2019): when a family loses a daughter to a mass shooter, the mother decides to use her death as a rallying call for change. But internet trolls abuse the images of her daughter, until the family realize the only way to remember her daughter is not to remember her at all. ISFDB Title Record # 2695661
- “Byzantine Empathy” (2018): in a future where the blockchain (the technology that ensures transactions like cryptocurrencies are recorded and distributed) is ubiquitous, one person attempts to sidestep non-profit charities by directly ensuring cryptocurrency payments go directly to refugees and other recipients. But that turns out only to be the first part of her plan to draw attention towards a conflict at the border of Myanmar that the rest of the world would rather forget about, as too much attention could cause a wider conflict. ISFDB Title Record # 2382612
- “The Gods Will Not Be Chained” (2014): The story starts out with a girl being bullied on-line. Then, she gets help from an unknown person who only uses emojis to communicate. As the story progresses, a link develops between the person, her father, and a project her father was involved in at his company that involved copying his skill at seeing patterns. ISFDB Title Record # 1705930
- “Staying Behind” (2011): the Singularity has arrived, with many people uploading their consciousness into machines. Among those who choose not to upload, life has become hard as civilization breaks down in the ‘real world’. One father strives to keep his daughter rooted in the ‘real world’. But in the end, he has to live with his daughter’s choices. ISFDB Title Record # 1332556
- “Real Artists” (2011): a film-maker gets the chance to work at her favourite animated film studio. But then she discovers how the films are made (which do not meet her preconceptions) and her own role in the studio. Now she has to decide whether she really wants to work there as an artist. ISFDB Title Record # 1343233
- “The Gods Will Not Be Slain” (2014): continuing the story of “The Gods Will Not Be Chained”, semi-sentient programs now roam the world’s system. But not is all well, for some programs want to destroy humanity, while others, including the girl’s father, work to come to an accommodation with humans. In the end, a global crisis develops that can only be partially resolved. ISFDB Title Record # 1842947
- “Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer” (2011): in a future after the Singularity, humanity has moved into virtual space. One day, the mother of a girl comes to say goodbye, for she will be making a physical one way journey. To make the girl understand just what it might be like, they go on one final journey together. ISFDB Title Record # 1281117
- “The Gods Have Not Died in Vain” (2015): continuing the story from “The Gods Will Not Be Slain”, the girl discovers she has a ‘sister’ in the digital realm. But that is not all. A movement is starting that would bring about the Singularity, but one that may be able to accommodate humanity. ISFDB Title Record # 1854011
- “Memories of My Mother” (2012): a mother of a young girl has only two years to live. She stretches it out by going on relativity trips, returning every seven years to see her daughter. In their brief meetings together, they fight, make up and learn to live a life together, despite the separation in years. ISFDB Title Record # 1417268
- “Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit - Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts” (2016): the story follows an ultrarich person who has abandoned her riches on the other planets to live on an Earth that has undergone severe climate change and is now much hotter. She travels the world to see the changes, the drowned cities and the people struggling to live; for change is coming in the form of geoengineering to cool the planet. But is it wise or kind to do so to a world some people have now called home? ISFDB Title Record # 2029346
- “Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard” (2019): on a much changed world, a sister struggles to make a living off the remnants of the technological past. But when her brother goes missing, it would need all her skill, and her abilities in a changed form, to try to rescue him, along with two other people who have their own abilities. ISFDB Title Record # 2695671
- “A Chase Beyond the Storms”: An excerpt from “The Veiled Throne”, Book 3 of the Dandelion Dynasty (2020): a group of ships, having survived the wall of storms that surrounds their lands, is confronted by a larger ship. Using deception to fend off one attack, they now prepare for the next battle with an unusual plan. ISFDB Title Record # 2695672
- “The Hidden Girl” (2017): a girl is stolen from her palace and becomes the student of a monk, who teaches her how to use hidden spaces: vital as her training as an assassin. But on her first assassination attempt, she gets a change of heart. And now she has to fend off her fellow assassin sisters sent to finish what her job. ISFDB Title Record # 2257203
- “Seven Birthdays” (2016): on seven birthdays of a person that spans immense time and space. But despite the huge changes that have occurred, getting together to celebrate a birthday may never change. ISFDB Title Record # 2073472
- “The Message” (2012): an explorer and his daughter explore an enigma: an alien city in the middle of nowhere with a message written on it. When the father eventually deciphers the message and realizes what it means, it might be too late for the daughter, who has decided to explore the city on her own. ISFDB Title Record # 1507995
- “Cutting” (2012): monks on a mountain search for meaning in a book by gradually cutting away the extra words. ISFDB Title Record # 1684429
Book read from 2025/08/06 to 2025/08/06.