The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

Despite a shaky start — a thoughtful story that's a tad too clinical for my liking — this collection blew me away. Ken Liu talks in the preface about prizing the logic of metaphors and you can see how carefully he prizes that in his stories. Nearly every one works on multiple levels without feeling heavy handed. Some stories he manages to write historical fiction that's somehow science fiction at the same time, others are straight ahead sci-fi thrillers that could easily warrant an entire book.

I tore through the collection and found myself surprised at the risks Liu was willing to take, yet still somehow managed to pull it all off. Magical realism, cultural commentary, steampunk, old-school sci-fi, historical fiction, cyber noir it's all here and all wonderfully done.