Ms. Hen reviews The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

 

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

Ken Liu

Saga Press

2016

Ms. Hen decided to read this collection of short stories, because she looked up a list of the best science fiction books, and this book appeared, so she decided to give it a try.

This collection of short stories encapsulates many different spheres. Ms. Hen was astounded how each story seemed to be an entire world. Great worldbuilding exists in these stories, and Ms. Hen was sad when each one was over. She thinks that a lot of them could be novels unto themselves.

"The Regular," is a sci-fi detective story about a young woman who is murdered and how solving the mystery unfolds. "All the Flavors," is historical fiction about Chinese men who travel to the United States, ending up in Idaho, and make a life there. "A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel," is alternate history about a tunnel dug underneath the Pacific Ocean, that brought the United States out of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

The story, "The Paper Menagerie," is about a young boy whose mother makes him origami animals that come to life. He becomes ashamed of his mother when he gets older, but the he finds the animals again, discovering his mother wrote him a note on one of them. "The Man Who Ended History: a Documentary," will haunt Ms. Hen for a long time with its graphic descriptions of the Japanese torturing the Chinese during WWII. This story is depressing, but it cheered Ms. Hen up because it made her realize that her life isn't really that bad...

Ms. Hen thinks this book is fantastic, and it took her a long time to read. The print is very small, and she's glad it took time to read it, so she could live in each world for a time.

Some chickens and hens appeared in this book, which Ms. Hen always enjoys. Her favorite moment with a chicken is in the story, "All the Flavors," when Obee and Logan are in court, and Logan wants Obee to dip his hand in the blood of a hen to make an oath to swear the truth, "The blood of the hen dripped into the bowl until the hen stopped kicking in Ah Yan's hands." Ms. Hen thinks this is the perfect way to make a vow.

Ms. Hen loved this book. She thinks it's a great way to start her year. The world is weird, and it keeps getting weirder, and books like this help Ms. Hen feel better about her place in the wild, weird world.