Review: The Way Spring Arrives edited by Yu Chen & Regina Kanyu Wang

 

The Way Spring Arrives edited by Yu Chen & Regina Kanyu Wang

Tordotcom

Publication Date: March 8th, 2022

Hardcover. 400 pages.

About The Way Spring Arrives:

"From an award-winning team of authors, editors, and translators comes a groundbreaking short story collection that explores the expanse of Chinese science fiction and fantasy. 

In The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories, you can dine at a restaurant at the end of the universe, cultivate to immortality in the high mountains, watch roses perform Shakespeare, or arrive at the island of the gods on the backs of giant fish to ensure that the world can bloom. 

Written, edited, and translated by a female and nonbinary team, these stories have never before been published in English and represent both the richly complicated past and the vivid future of Chinese science fiction and fantasy. 

Time travel to a winter's day on the West Lake, explore the very boundaries of death itself, and meet old gods and new heroes in this stunning new collection."

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 many stories in this collection, I’ll share my thoughts on a few of my favorites below. 

“The Stars We Raised” by Xiu Xinyu, translated by Judy Yi Zhou: “The Stars We Raised” is the opening story of this collection and I think it was a perfect way to start this collection. It evoked a lot of different emotions from me, from awe to intrigue to even a bit of a melancholy air, and it had such a great sense of imagination that I think captured something really special. 

“Blackbird” by Shen Dacheng, translated by Cara Healey: This was a rather melancholy and somewhat eerie story that I found myself particularly captivated by. This one features a modern setting in an elderly home and is about a young nurse and an elderly woman, the latter of which is not quite ready to move on from life just yet. I thought this one was exceptionally thought-provoking. 

“The Way Spring Arrives” by Wang Nuonuo, translated by R.F. Kuang: This titular story was a beautiful story about the ways in which the earth rotates and how the seasons are changed throughout the year. I think this was a great choice for the title of this collection because it really evoked a sense of freshness that fits well for both the upcoming season and the creativity of this collection. 

“The Portrait” by Chu Xidao, translated by Gigi Chang: This was such an incredibly beautifully written and translated story. The story itself was not necessarily my favorite, but the writing was so elegant and delicately crafted that I couldn’t drag myself away from it. 

“The Woman Carrying a Corpse” by Chi Hui, translated by Judith Huang: This story is about exactly what the title says: a woman carrying a corpse. We encounter a variety of different people that the woman meets on her travels and all of the questions they ask her about the corpse. This is probably one of “weirdest” stories, and I can’t say I know the exact theme or message it was meant to be, but I still feel like I got a lot from this woman’s journey. Definitely an odd one, but one whose format I enjoyed as much as I did the content. 

There are a couple essays sprinkled throughout as well, such as “Translation as Retelling” and “The Future of Gender in Chinese Science Fiction.” I thought these essays were really well written and fascinating/informative and appreciated their inclusion. My only sort of problem is that they felt fairly randomly included and I think made the transition from short story to essay a bit choppy and didn’t flow all that well. 

This is a large collection with over 15 stories, so it’s well worth the read and sure to have at least a couple stories to your taste! Overall, I’ve given The Way Spring Arrives 4 stars.

*I received a copy of The Way Spring Arrives courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Review: Shapeshifting by Michelle Ross

Shapeshifting by Michelle Ross
St. Martin's Press

Publication Date: January 25th, 2022

Hardcover. 240 pages.

About Shapeshifting:

"The fourteen spellbinding stories in Michelle Ross’s second collection invite readers into the shadows of social-media perfectionism and the relentless cult of motherhood. A recovering alcoholic navigates the social landscape of a toddler playdate; a mother of two camps out in a van to secure her son’s spot at a prestigious kindergarten; a young girl forces her friends to play an elaborate, unwinnable game. With unflinching honesty and vivid, lyrical prose, Ross explores the familial ties that bind us together—or, sometimes, tear us apart."

Shapeshifting is a collection of short stories centered around the theme of motherhood, ranging from dry humor to dystopian in nature, but maintaining an overarching layer of authenticity and realism that kept everything grounded. 

I really appreciated how well Ross was able to convey the various traumas and feelings that surround being a mother, becoming a mother, and the ways in which the world around us perceives mothers and motherhood, from all different angles and world views. This collection is at times frightening, hilarious, sobering, tragic, and enlightening, and I found it exceptionally difficult to put down at many different points while reading it. 

There are alway a few stories in any collection of stories that particularly stand out to me, and in Shapeshifting some of these stories were "What Doesn't Kill You," "That Natural Order of Things,"  and "The Pregnancy Game" (though rest assured all of the other stories are just as great!). "What Doesn't Kill You" follows Annabelle, a grandmother who tells of her experiences and relationship with her granddaughter and daughter-in-law while maintaining a very particular yet somewhat morbid obsession that really sets the overall tone for the entire story in the best way possible. I liked the subtle nuances that Ross included in her telling of this story–and in fact it is this nuanced subtlety that is present throughout many of these stories that make them so compelling. In the same way, "The Natural Order of Things" explores meditations on the meanings around age and the certainties of life that plague us through one mother's plane trip next to an overly talkative neighbor.

I myself am not a mother, so can't speak to shared personal experiences, but it very much fits many of the sentiments I've heard from women and their stories, as well as some of my own anxieties around motherhood. I think Shapeshifting is a great feminist insight into the depths of motherhood and all that is encompassed with the expectations and pressures of the society that surrounds us. Overall, I've given this collection four stars!

*I received a copy of Shapeshifters in exchange for an honest review.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Mini-Review: After World by Brittany Miller

After World: Tales of the Post-Apocalyptic by Brittany Miller. Brittany Miller, 2018. Ebook. 66 pages.

To begin, the only reason that I'm labeling this a mini-review is because this collection is only about sixty-six pages long and consists of nine post-apocalyptic flash fiction pieces/short stories. There's only so much I can say about each one without simply retelling each story to you.

I've read only a small handful of post-apocalyptic books, so this is an area that I've been interested in exploring more of and which made me eager to explore this collection. Miller also pitched this book to me as having no zombies, which pretty much sold me because I am just not a huge zombie fan--I just don't get the appeal.

I was really impressed by Miller's writing in these short little stories.She has a talent for saying a lot in a short amount of words, which showcases her deft skill at both word choice and the ability to develop a strong atmosphere. There is a very simplistic, almost austere quality about these stories, which seems to fit well with the post-apocalyptic genre of this collection.

"The Pleasure Earth" and "The Man of Snow" were probably my two favorites for very different reasons."The Pleasure Earth" felt so relevant and so honest, and I loved the bleakness that it ends with. "The Man of Snow" is probably the longest story of the bunch and is packed full of interesting things to ponder--I hesitate to go into any details because it'd be best for you to explore all of these without much knowledge going in.

"She Dreamed of Horses" is one of the shorter, simpler stories one of the bunch, but I have to say that it is also one that has stuck with me. It is about a girl who only wants horses in a world where none are left, and it's subtle emptiness really grabbed me.

Overall, I've given After World four stars! If you like short fiction, want to read more short fiction, or are a fan of post-apocalyptic stories, then I very much recommend After World!

Buy the book: Amazon 

(note: at the time of writing this review, the Kindle edition was only $2.99!)

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