Sunday, March 6, 2016

Chimera, by Gu Shi

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(Hard SF) Evan hasn't seen his wife in six years--ever since she left him and their newborn child. But their son needs special medical attention, and she's the world's expert. (17,890 words; Time: 59m)

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Needs Improvement

"," by (translated by S. Qiouyi Lu and Ken Liu, edited by Neil Clarke), appeared in issue 114, published on .

Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)

This story has trouble deciding what it's about. There's the story of getting a kidney for Tony, but there's also the story of what's happening on Eden. Much of the story seems to be there solely to let the author voice her opinions about one or another scientific idea. By the end of it, it's not clear that there was ever a plot at all; things just happen.

The writing itself is very poor. As-you-know-Bob dialogue is frequent, and the rest of the dialogue is highly unnatural. The narration often explains emotions rather than showing them.

Other Reviews: Search Web, Browse Review Sites (Issue 114)

6 comments (may contain spoilers):

  1. I think this podcast read version was pretty good. The story did seem to jump around a bit leaving me confused in the beginning. Overall the story I thought it was very entertaining.

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  2. I think this podcast read version was pretty good. The story did seem to jump around a bit leaving me confused in the beginning. Overall the story I thought it was very entertaining.

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  3. I'm starting to wonder if Chinese science fiction is just not for me. I didn't have a problem with the plot. I thought the two threads referenced each other and came together well enough. My main issue was the flat, undeveloped characters who invoked the "eight deadly words."

    (By the way, from the bio on Clarkesworld, the author is a woman.)

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    1. I think the trouble is that most translated SF doesn't go through the slush pile. An English story goes to the slush pile and 98% of them get rejected. The survivors get paid 10-cents a word (or so). But a translation costs 25-cents a word BEFORE anyone can read it (in English). At that point, even if you decide to reject it, you're still out the 25-cents per word for translating it.

      Of course these are all reprints of things that did get published in China, but I think their standards are a lot lower than current US standards. (More like the quality of the pulps in the US before World War II). I've corresponded with someone who translates Chinese and he told me that in China itself, most adults who read SF prefer to read US stories translated into Chinese and regard the native stories as targeted at children. He said he thought that was starting to change, though, as the locals figure out things like show-don't-tell.

      The big exception is stories tranlated by Ken Liu. He told me that he reads the stories himself and picks ones he likes. Then he does the translation for free and just submits them the same way he would an English story. I asked if he essentially rewrote them, but he said no. He said it must just be that my taste is more like his, but I think the real truth is that he's filtering out only the very best stories, whereas everyone else gets random ones. (At WorldCon in Kansas City, Neal Clarke said that they get a plot summary before they commit to buying a story, but that's all.)

      That said, I think I've seen some improvement just over the past twelve months, so there's hope. I even gave Against the Stream, by A Que four stars this past year, and that's the first (and so far only) time I've given more than three to a Chinese story that Ken Liu didn't have a hand in translating.

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    2. Thanks for all the info! I'll keep trying. :)

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