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The Way Spring Arrives is a fascinating collection of Chinese SFF in translation that also includes several essays from the translators. Everyone who worked on this project is female or non-binary and from the essays we come to understand the major significance of centering female and NB voices in Chinese literature where traditionally they had little to no representation. As with any anthology, some of the stories were stronger than others, though every one of the non-fiction essays was excelle...
Average Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.4After enjoying quite a few translated collections of Chinese SFF short stories, I was very very excited for this one since it was first announced. And I was ecstatic when I got the arc to read. This was definitely more fun among all the collections I’ve read before and I loved how we got a mix of genres like hard sci-fi, a bit of fantasy, some contemporary, thoughtful dystopia, a historical lens and even some xianxia influences. I think the only thing I missed was havin...
rf kuang translated the cover story and contributed an essay and the cover is just drop-dead GORGEOUS. anyways, y'all can have my soul.tor calls this anthology "a collection of Chinese sff, written, edited, & translated by women & nonbinary creators."
We’re getting two different collections of translated short story collections within a single year! What a blessed time to be Chinese diaspora. The Way Spring Arrives covers a broad array of topics, from hard sci-fi stories like ‘A Brief History of Beinakan Disasters as Told in a Sinitic Language’, more traditional xianxia style works like ‘The Tale of Wude’s Heavenly Tribulation’, and stories that seamlessly blend the two together.My personal favorites of this collection both fall under the las...
Y’ALL.
*ARC received in exchange for an honest review*This is a brilliant collection of short stories and essays, unlike anything I’ve read before. I was drawn to the stunning cover and incredible subtitle (a visionary team of female and non-binary creators, heck yes!!), and having previously only read one of the authors, R.F. Kuang, I was excited to discover some new contemporary fantasy/sci-fi writers. Throughout the 22 chapters, I was taken on poignant and existential journeys through new planets an...
I won an ARC from the publisher, but this does not impact my review. I'm going to DNF, after pushing myself to keep reading. This collection had some interesting concepts and thought provoking essays. However there are stories I didn't understand, which could be because I'm unfamiliar with Chinese sci-fi literature. This was different then the kind of sci-fi I'm used to reading. Ultimately I couldn't relate to the characters or find something in the writing to make me want to read more.I would r...
I enjoyed every story and essay in this collection. Full RTC
4.5 stars ROUNDED UP ASIAN FEMALE AND NONBINARY CREATORS ARE THE RIGHTFUL HEIRS TO THE SCI-FI/FANTASY THRONE. THE WAY SPRING ARRIVES IS THEIR CORONATION CEREMONY. Thank you to all the folks who contributed to this collection of short stories and essays. As part of the Asian diaspora, this is the kind of book I demand more of and find the greatest joy in reading. My notes on each short story/essay: The Stars We Raise: - ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5- Captivating and strangely beautiful. Baby star-creatures that grow in...
Find this review at Forever Lost in Literature!The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories: A Collection of Chinese Science Fiction and Fantasy in Translation from a Visionary Team of Female and Nonbinary Creators is an imaginative and incredibly creative collection of stories from a fantastic array of Chinese authors. This is a magical, enlightening, and entertaining collection of stories that have so much heart in them and that are simply filled to the brim with imagination. Since there are so ma...
4.5 STARSGeneral thoughts first, content warnings are included in each short story or essay's mini review. This anthology includes stories about so many different themes and topics, so many different approaches to story telling and accentuating various aspects. I'm sure there is something for everybody within this collection, which also includes some very insightful essays on translation and female and nonbinary Chinese writers in general. A few stories were inspired by folklore and Chinese myth...
As the subtitle states, The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories is a short story anthology of speculative fiction stories translated from Chinese "From a Visionary Team of Female and Nonbinary Creators". The stories span a wide variety of speculative from myth retellings to science fiction. As with such anthologies often the case, there were some stories I liked more than others but all stories had me throughout engaged and introduced me to writers I had not read before.But what I really loved
I won this book in a goodreads drawing.It's a nice collection of speculative fiction by Chinese authors. Some of them were pretty good, but several of them I just didn't get. If you're looking for something different, this might be for you.
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This collection is stunning. I can think of no better anthology to read during the month of March, as we welcome spring in the northern hemisphere and celebrate Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day. Seventeen speculative fiction short stories and five essays, all written, translated, and curated by women and nonbinary authors challenging gender norms in Chinese science fiction. It’s always hard to review an anthology with so many valuable pieces. As with any anthology, there were
The Stars we raised by Xiu Xinyu, Tr - Judy Yi Zhou:A magical realism telling of stars and their cultivation to star dust. Amidst this short story lies in humility of humans in the vast of unknown, of friendships and the continuing exploitation and commodifying of even the fantastical for a profit. The tale of Wude's Heavenly tribulation by Count E, Tr - Mel "etvolare" Lee:A classic story of gods, cultivation and immortality with a slight twist. A very post modern take on fable like story. What
a very fun collection! a very wide sampling of fantasy and sci-fi concepts from contemporary chinese authors (all, i believe, are 21st century publications). 'dragonslaying' stands out for being conceptually meatier than some of its peers, but even seemingly simple ones ('the woman carrying a corpse,' 'the way spring arrives') are often very delightful. i think for the intended audience of this collection, the essays are a very solid add and a great introduction to thinking about translation and...
This is a great collection of SFF by women and nonbinary writers translated by women and nonbinary translators. I'm so glad necessary books like this are being translated into English. Stories vary quite a bit, from contemporary fantasies where stars are pets to ancient mythological worlds of shapeshifting foxes to alien invasions and dystopias where dragons are slaughtered. I love the variety and vastness of the selection, though sometimes it was overwhelming to listen to on audio back to back,...
A really amazing collection of translated short stories and essays. I was pleasantly surprised to see the variation through this collection. I expected it to be mostly science fiction but it was actually a mix of sci-fi, literary essays, translation essays, and fantasy. Rather than assuming the readers had a background in the subject, the books took the time to intertwine theory with practice. Overall, a really engaging read!
Read some and listened to some on audio. A mixed bag of stories with a handful of essays tossed in. Standouts: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, The Way Spring Arrives, and Dragonslaying
3.5 as an overall collection because of a few stories that didn’t catch my interest at all, but most the individual stories get 4 stars from me.
I wish all short story collections could be assembled with this much care and enthusiasm.Is every story perfect? Perhaps not, but the overall curation is excellent.
**I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.**It felt impossible to me, after reading the first three or so stories of this collection, that I would continue to enjoy this book as much the whole way through - because it's all different authors who might have styles I didn't jibe with, because those opening stories seemed too good to be true - and yet: I did. I really, really did. Every single story here is a stunner - or, at the very least, is very interesting. I really have to hand it to th...
4.5 starsThe Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories is a collection of translated Chinese SFF from female and nonbinary creators. I was really looking forward to picking this one up and was in no way disappointed. The prose throughout this collection was stunning; you can tell that every bit of it was carefully considered. The audiobook was also well-done and I particularly appreciated hearing the pronunciation of the Chinese words used, such as in the essays on translation. Speaking of which, the...
5/5 starsRecommended for people who like: anthologies, short stories, Chinese literature, language and linguistics, gender, translationBig thanks to NetGalley and Tordotcom for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!The Stars We Raised: Xiu Xinyu, transl. Judy Yi Zhou4/5 starsI thought the idea of stars just hanging around on earth was interesting. I liked that the children did what children do best and made a game out of it. I thought that aspect made it more realistic, and I like...
Full review on melinas.blogThe Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories is a collection of Chinese science fiction and fantasy stories and essays written, translated and edited by a team of female and nonbinary creators. The stories are quite varied, ranging from soft fantasy featuring fox cultivators, to magical realism starring immortal grandmas, to innovative futuristic end-of-the-world science fiction. There are over twenty stories and essays in this collection and I have a lot to say about each...
I sincerely believe that The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories Anthology is the biggest work of love and passion I've seen in quite some time. This anthology collects nineteen short stories exploring Chinese science fiction and fantasy. The thing I love the most about The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories Anthology, other than the obvious (it is a brilliant collection of stories), is that the creative team is all either female or nonbinary. I love this representation. More, please! Callin
As a reader, I have a comfort zone. It’s sci-fi/fantasy, it’s murder mysteries, it’s books about America, or 20th century Hollywood or Victorian England. I haven’t read anything in translation since I finished undergrad years ago. Reading The Way Spring Arrives was like jumping in and out of my comfort zone repeatedly. It’s a genre I’m used to, but from a culture I know pathetically little about. There’s some top notch, will-recommend-to-my-short-story-book-club-later, sci-fi and fantasy in here...
Thank you to the publisher Macmillan Audio for providing an audiobook ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.With a title like “The Way Spring Arrives” and a cover done in earthy tones and a floral motif, at a first glance everything about this anthology calls to mind the blossoming advent of the season of rebirth. But this collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy short stories is a much darker take on speculative fiction than would seem on the surface. Nonetheless, while not necessarily as upl...
*Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Tordotcom for providing me with this Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review!*Sum It Up: The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories is a collection of Chinese fantasy stories from female and non-binary creators exploring the extent of the Asian dispora across universes of the past, present and future. Never before published in English, this award-winning team of authors, editors, and translators have compiled this anthology to “r...