Adventures in Space
Patrick Parrinder, Yao Haijun, Leah Cypess, Ronald Ferguson, Russell James, Alex Shvartsman, Amdi Silvestri, Allen Stroud, Eleanor Wood, Bao Shu, Zhao Haihong
I bought Adventures in Space because it includes English translations of three Chinese finalists for 2024 Hugo awards: the novellas Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet, by 何夕 = He Xi, and Seeds of Mercury, by 康著 王 = Wang Jinkang and the short story "Answerless Journey", by Han Song. I am very sorry to report that they all stink. Also, I suspect the translations are poor. I don't read Chinese, so my basis for that final statement is just that the English translation reads awkwardly.
"Answerless Journey" is the worst of the three. "Answerless Journey" is not an inaccurate title, but "Confusing, Painful, and Pointless Journey" would be more precise. It felt like a new version of Waiting for Godot, except that I once saw a video performance of Waiting for Godot, and it was funny. "Answerless Journey" is not that.
Seeds of Mercury is a stretched nanotechnology science fiction story that doesn't really make a lot of sense or portray any interesting characters.
Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet is the best of the three, but it is fatally wounded by its dependence on an utterly idiotic premise for its main conflict. In this story it is "The Iron Law of Nature" that a species must eradicate any different species. Hello! Look out your window. Do you see birds and squirrels and foxes? Is anyone trying to eradicate them? This is so extraordinarily stupid that I have to guess I or the translator misunderstood.
I am open to the possibility that there is some deep Chinese literary reason why I am failing to get these stories. Whether or no, I definitely do NOT get them.
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