Ken Liu

Invisible Planets, edited by multi award-winning writer Ken Liu--translator of the bestselling and Hugo Award-winning novel The Three Body Problem by acclaimed Chinese author Cixin Liu--is his second thought-provoking anthology of Chinese short speculative fiction. Invisible Planets is a groundbreaking anthology of Chinese short speculative fiction. The thirteen stories in this collection, including two by Cixin Liu and the Hugo and Sturgeon award-nominated "Folding Beijing" by Hao Jingfang, add up to a strong and diverse representation of Chinese SF. Some have won awards, some have garnered serioius critical acclaim, some have been selected for Year's Best anthologies, and some are simply Ken Liu's personal favorites. To round out the collection, there are several essays from Chinese scholars and authors, plus an illuminating introduction by Ken Liu. Anyone with an interest in international science fiction will find Invisible Planets an indispensable addition to their collection. For more Chinese SF in translation, check out Broken Stars. Stories: "The Year of the Rat" by Chen Qiufan"The Fist of Lijian" by Chen Qiufan"The Flower of Shazui" by Chen Qiufan"A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" by Xia Jia"Tongtong's Summer" by Xia Jia"Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse" by Xia jia"The City of Silence" by Ma Boyong"Invisible Planets" by Hao Jingfang"Folding Beijing" by Hao Jingfang"Call Girl" by Tang Fei"Grave of the Fireflies" by Cheng Jingbo"The Circle" by Liu Cixin"Taking Care of God" by Liu Cixin Essays: "The Worst of All Possible Universes and the Best of All Possible Earths: Three-Body and Chinese Science Fiction" by Liu Cixin and Ken Liu"The Torn Generation" Chinese Science Fiction in a Culture in Transition" by Chen Qiufan and Ken Liu"What Makes Chinese Science Fiction Chinese?" by Xia Jia and Ken Liu

"It is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea--whether it is to sail or to watch it--we are going back from whence we came."- John F. Kennedy Underwater cities, lost civilizations, crops, climate change, and dead zones.In this collection of ocean-themed stories, twelve of today's top speculative fiction writers explore our morality, our built-in societal restraints, and reflect upon our state of grace.The waves roll in, the waves roll out. "OCEANS: The Anthology" features stories from bestselling authors such as winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards Ken Liu, Rysa Walker (the Chronos series), Daniel Arthur Smith (Tales from the Canyons of the Damned), R.D. Brady (the Belial series), Alex Shvartsman (the Unidentified Funny Objects series), P.K. Tyler (the UnCommon series), plus six more of today's top authors in speculative and science fiction.Daniel Arthur Smith presents OCEANS: THE ANTHOLOGY, book 2 of the 2 book Frontiers of Speculative Fiction series that began with the top-ranking CLONES: The Anthology

One of the Time 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time In the much-anticipated sequel to the "magnificent fantasy epic" (NPR) Grace of Kings, Emperor Kuni Garu is faced with the invasion of an invincible army in his kingdom and must quickly find a way to defeat the intruders. Kuni Garu, now known as Emperor Ragin, runs the archipelago kingdom of Dara, but struggles to maintain progress while serving the demands of the people and his vision. Then an unexpected invading force from the Lyucu empire in the far distant west comes to the shores of Dara--and chaos results. But Emperor Kuni cannot go and lead his kingdom against the threat himself with his recently healed empire fraying at the seams, so he sends the only people he trusts to be Dara's savvy and cunning hopes against the invincible invaders: his children, now grown and ready to make their mark on history.

Featured in the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots Bestselling author Ken Liu selects his multiple award-winning stories for a groundbreaking collection--including a brand-new piece exclusive to this volume. With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. This mesmerizing collection features many of Ken's award-winning and award-finalist stories, including: "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" (Finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Theodore 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 to win the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards). Insightful and stunning stories that plumb the struggle against history and betrayal of relationships in pivotal moments, this collection showcases one of our greatest and original voices.

The first collection of Ken Liu's multi-award-winning science fiction and fantasy short stories.

One of the Time 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time Two men rebel together against tyranny--and then become rivals--in this first sweeping book of an epic fantasy series from Ken Liu, recipient of Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards. Hailed as one of the best books of 2015 by NPR. Wily, charming Kuni Garu, a bandit, and stern, fearless Mata Zyndu, the son of a deposed duke, seem like polar opposites. Yet, in the uprising against the emperor, the two quickly become the best of friends after a series of adventures fighting against vast conscripted armies, silk-draped airships, and shapeshifting gods. Once the emperor has been overthrown, however, they each find themselves the leader of separate factions--two sides with very different ideas about how the world should be run and the meaning of justice. Fans of intrigue, intimate plots, and action will find a new series to embrace in the Dandelion Dynasty.

Emperor Mapidere was the first to unite the island kingdoms of Dara under a single banner. But now the emperor is on his deathbed, his people are exhausted by his vast, conscriptive engineering projects and his counsellors conspire only for their own gain. Even the gods themselves are restless. A wily, charismatic bandit and the vengeance-sworn son of a deposed duke cross paths as they each lead their own rebellion against the emperor's brutal regime. Together, they will journey to the heart of the empire; witnessing the clash of armies, fleets of silk-draped airships, magical books and shapeshifting gods. Their unlikely friendship will drastically change the balance of power in Dara... but at what price? THE GRACE OF KINGS is the debut novel by Hugo-, Nebula- and World Fantasy Award-winner Ken Liu and the first in an monumental new epic fantasy series.

Clarkesworld is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month they bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art.Our January 2014 issue contains: Original Fiction by Ken Liu ("The Clockwork Soldier"), Cheng Jingbo ("Grave of the Fireflies") and Yoon Ha Lee ("Wine").Classic stories by Aliette de Bodard ("Ship's Brother") and Robert Charles Wilson ("Utriusque Cosmi").Non-fiction by Carl Abbott ("Distributed Cities"), an interview with Pat Cadigan, an Another Word column by Craig DeLancey, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

Laozi’s Dao De Jing was written around 400 BC by a compassionate soul in a world torn by hatred and ambition, dominated by those that yearned for apocalyptic confrontations and prized ideology over experience. By speaking out against the cleverness of elites and the arrogance of the learned, Laozi upheld the wisdom of the concrete, the humble, the quotidian, the everyday individual dismissed by the great powers of the world. Earthy, playful, and defiant, Laozi’s words gave solace to souls back then, and offer comfort today. Now, this beautifully designed new edition serves as both an accessible new translation of an ancient Chinese classic and a fascinating account of renowned novelist Ken Liu’s transformative experience while wrestling with the classic text. Throughout this translation, Liu takes us through his own struggles to capture the meaning in Laozi’s text in a series of thoughtful and provocative interstitial entries. Unlike traditional notes that purport to be objective, these entries are explicitly personal and unapologetically subjective. Gradually, as Liu learns that true wisdom cannot be pinned down in words, the notes grow sparser until they fade away entirely. His journey suggests the only way out of struggle is to engage with texts that have survived the millennia, wrestling with ideas that gesture at something eternal, in hopes that we might eventually reach that moment of transcendent joy. Liu’s translation, by eschewing cleverness, paradoxically reveals the slipperiness of Laozi’s original. The Dao De Jing has been translated countless times and will be translated countless times in the future. In that constant change and flow, we finally find our home in Dao, the eternal principle that allows us, finite beings in time and space, to reckon and reconcile with the infinite.

This Side of the Divide: New Lore of the American West is the second entry in the Divide anthology series attempting to capture the newness, vastness, territoriality, and sense of transience alive in the American West. In this collection legends, myths, tales, omens, folk horror, and science fiction explore the fantastical, the apocalyptic, the bizarre, the unknown, and the apocryphal origins and conclusions of life on the occidental side of the Continental Divide. In this collection, after the ‘what is’ comes the ‘what will be’, as acclaimed authors and emerging voices weave tales that push the boundaries of imagination: Ken Liu takes us to the frontiers of America and China in a stark tale of perseverance; Kate Bernheimer immerses us in the fairytale lands of modern celebrity; Benjamin Percy takes us hunting for deer and connection in eastern Oregon; Yuri Herrera grants us insight on our future overlords; Tessa Fontaine places us in-between with a monster and a question; Dominique Dickey chases familiar ghosts; and Willy Vlautin takes us on the wild ride that is a winning streak. Accompanied by a foreword from This Side of the Divide alum, and author of The Forbidden City, Vanessa Hua, these twenty-five pieces of new lore excavate the beauty, the uncertainty, the longing, the bitter interactions and stark truths; the strong people and vivid places that have shaped, and will continue to shape the West until the end of days.

The battle continues in this silkpunk fantasy as science and destiny collide against the will of the gods in this final installment in the epic Dandelion Dynasty series from the "genius" (Elizabeth Bear, Hugo Award--winning author of the Eternal Sky series) Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-winning author Ken Liu. The concluding book of The Dandelion Dynasty begins immediately after the events of The Veiled Throne, in the middle of two wars on two lands among three people separated by an ocean yet held together by the invisible strands of love. Harried by Lyucu pursuers, Princess Th ra and P kyu Takval try to reestablish an ancestral dream even as their hearts grow in doubt. The people of Dara continue to struggle against the genocidal Lyucu as both nations vacillate between starkly contrasting visions for their futures. Even the gods cannot see through the Wall of Storms, for only mortal hearts can decide mortal fates. Award-winning author Ken Liu fulfills the covenants first laid out a decade ago in a series delving deep into the connection between national myths and national constitutions in this "magnificent fantasy epic" (NPR).

A chilling horror anthology of 18 stories about the terrifying fears of isolation, from the modern masters of horror. Featuring Tim Lebbon, Paul Tremblay, Joe R. Lansdale, M.R. Carey, Ken Liu and many more. Lost in the wilderness, or shunned from society, it remains one of our deepest held fears. This horror anthology calls on leading horror writers to confront the dark moments, the challenges that we must face alone: hikers lost in the woods; astronauts adrift in the silence of deep space; the quiet voice trapped in a crowd; the prisoner, with no hope of escape. Experience the chilling terrors of Isolation. Featuring Paul Tremblay, Joe R. Lansdale, Ken Liu, M.R. Carey, Jonathan Maberry, Tim Lebbon, Lisa Tuttle, Michael Marshall Smith, Ramsey Campbell, Nina Allan, Laird Barron, A.G. Slatter, Mark Morris, Alison Littlewood, Owl Goingback, Brian Evenson, Marian Womack, Gwendolyn Kiste, Lynda E. Rucker and Chikodili Emelumadu.

From the title story's fantastical inter-dimensional assassins to the steampunk dystopia of "Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard" burrowing through the ruins of a civilisation destroyed by a plague, from Black Mirror-esque tales of blockchain cryptography ("Byzantine Empathy") and Internet trolling ("Thoughts and Prayers") to a three-story hard-SF arc about artificial intelligence and the singularity ("The Gods Will Not Be Chained", "The Gods Will Not Be Slain" and "The Gods Have Not Died In Vain"), here are 17 interlinking visions that explore what it is to be human, and what it is like to abandon or transcend that. This collection confirms Ken Liu, author of the astonishing and multi-award winning The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, as one of speculative fiction's greatest short story writers. Contents 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.

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 "Captivating." --BuzzFeed "Extraordinary." --The Washington Post "Brilliant." --The Chicago Tribune With the release of The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Ken Liu's short fiction has resonated with a generation of readers. 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 a visionary look 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

Finalist for the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine. Celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of cutting-edge science fiction from the hit podcast, Escape Pod. Escape Pod has been bringing the finest short fiction to millions of ears all over the world, at the forefront of a new fiction revolution. This anthology gathers together fifteen stories, including new and exclusive work from writers such as from Cory Doctorow, Ken Liu, Mary Robinette Kowal, T. Kingfisher and more. From editors Mur Laffterty and S.B. Divya comes the science fiction collection of the year, bringing together bestselling authors in celebration of the publishing phenomenon that is, Escape Pod.

Dopo aver distrutto il mondo migliaia di volte, ipotizzato bizzarre utopie, trasformazioni postumane e derive tecnocratiche, ecco emergere - da pi parti del mondo e dalle discipline pi disparate - un piccolo nucleo di storie, di genere solarpunk, che sfidano l'ineluttabile concretezza del presente: racconti che spaziano dall'economia circolare alla sostenibilit ambientale, dalla critica al capitalismo predatorio alla costruzione di reti off-grid, dall'uso di risorse rinnovabili all'inclusivit radicale; racconti che riprendendo l'estetica dell'Art Nouveau rielaborano in chiave moderna i canoni dell'arte africana ed asiatica, che usano il biomimetismo di forme e funzioni organiche per migliorare prodotti ed esperienze e che immaginano vie d'uscita, pratiche e percorribili, sia dall'antropocene, intesa come era geologica indotta dal comportamento umano, che dal capitalocene, sua deriva economica.Che si tratti del singolo o di un gruppo, nel solarpunk i protagonisti non rinunciano alla lotta di riappropriazione degli spazi abbandonati dal capitalismo o dall'inefficienza statale, ma affrontano il conflitto in nome di un'esigenza umana, di un principio condiviso dalle comunit resilienti in lotta contro la gentrificazione, l'espropriazione, l'abuso e la perdita d'identit , partendo da un quartiere per abbracciare il mondo interno.Il solarpunk traccia un sentiero, accidentato e tortuoso, verso un cambiamento percepito ormai da molti come necessario. Nessuno ci regaler il futuro - sembrano dire questi 15 racconti provenienti da Brasile, Argentina, Stati Uniti, Cina, Australia, Francia e Spagna - e star a noi fare le scelte giuste per ottenerlo.

Nel nostro futuro non ci sono omini verdi, n raggi laser o viaggi nel tempo, non ci sono flotte spaziali o teletrasporti: noi, figli del futuro, ragazze e ragazzi del nuovo millennio viviamo gi tra assistenti virtuali, intelligenze artificiali, cambiamenti climatici, Big Data, droni, stampanti 3D, social network e nanotecnologia.Se ignoriamo cosa sia un maniscalco - il gommista moderno - lo cerchiamo online con un motore di ricerca, ma sappiamo che domani le auto si guideranno e ripareranno da sole e che quel lavoro, come molti altri, potrebbe non esistere pi .E allora che mestiere faremo noi? E qual la vita che ci aspetta visto il ritmo dell'accelerazione tecnologica?In questa antologia troverete molte risposte. Undici storie provenienti da sette paesi diversi raccontano di giovani promesse del basket futuro, di ragazze innamorate di bolle di sapone potenziate dalla nanotecnologia, e ancora di bambini in fuga dal cambiamento climatico e di anziani che vedono la loro vita migliorare grazie ai nipoti e agli androidi che si prendono cura di loro.I figli del futuro sono gi nati, sono gi qui tra voi, ascoltate le nostre storie. INDICEIntroduzione di Francesco VersoReticolato di Richard Larson (Canada/Niger)L'estate di Tongtong di Xia Jia (Cina)L'altra mamma di Michalis Manolios (Grecia)Cervello di maiale di Ekaterina Sedia (Russia)La nave verde di Francesco Verso (Italia)Le bolle di Yuanyuan di Liu Cixin (Cina)Mono no aware di Ken Liu (U.S.A.)Il ritorno di Richard Larson (Canada/Niger)Amore che non pu parlare di Fan Yilun (Cina)MeccanicaMente di Carme Torras (Spagna)La consistenza delle idee di Clelia Farris (Italia)

Clarkesworld is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art.Our November 2014 issue contains: Original Fiction by Matthew Kressel ("Cameron Rhyder's Legs"), Robert Reed ("Pernicious Romance"), and Ken Liu ("The Long Haul From the ANNALS OF TRANSPORTATION, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009").Classic stories by Pat Cadigan ("Cody") and Ken MacLeod ("The Vorkuta Event").Non-fiction by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (Drugs in Science Fiction), an interview with Jo Walton, an Another Word column by Wesley Chu, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.