ThReads Must Roll: the new, improved rolling fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction &c. thread

ok so i finally cracked open exhalation by ted chiang and that first story (merchant and the alchemist’s gate)...holy shit

^^^

That was the first story of his I read. Still my favourite tbh. So good.

All of his stories are great but yeah that one's special.

He can do no wrong

Am reading Broken Stars, an anthology of Chinese SF/F. Not that I want the same old western pabulum but a lot of the stories are a bit too reliant on knowledge of Chinese history and culture (others here might get more out of them!) The best one so far is enjoyable with only a broad grasp, it's an alternate history story where time goes forward as usual but historical events are reversed - Gorbachev gets elected president of Russia and creates the USSR, China moves from a market to a planned economy. At one point our hero travels to America where he sees the sequel to Star Wars episodes I-III: episode IV A New Hope. He bemoans the basic story and amateurish effects, blaming the downturn in the US economy.

Yeah, like I said upthread, I was disappointed in a lot of those---but the title story is amazing, and will check some of them again (although already did a fair amount of re-reading the first time through).

Found your post in among the other 5000, maybe time for a new thread. Agree with you on the editorial/lecturing aspect, and the "wtf oh well" nature of many the stories (for me including the title story, the magical realism/horror vibe just didn't do it for me) - though in my experience that's par for the course for almost any sf anthology. I abandoned the 'connecticut yankee' story after just a few pages.

If you want to be the next ThReadroller, feel free and go ahead, you have my blessing.

ThReadRoller

Thread of Wonder, the next 5000 posts: sci-fi, fantasy, speculative fiction 2021 and beyond