Publication: 25th February 2020 – Head of Zeus
From a Tang Dynasty legend of a young girl trained as an assassin with the ability to skip between dimensions on a secluded mountain sanctuary to a space colony called Nova Pacifica that reflects on a post-apocalyptic world of the American Empire and ‘Moonwalker’ Neil Armstrong, award-winning author Ken Liu’s writings are laced with depictions of silkpunk fantasy, Sci-Fi and old Chinese folklore, wrapped up in a mesmerising genre-bending collection of short stories.
Ken Liu is one of the most lauded short story writers of our time. This much anticipated collection includes a selection of his latest science fiction and fantasy stories over the last five years – sixteen of his best – plus a new novelette. In addition to these seventeen selections, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories also features an excerpt from book three in the Dandelion Dynasty series, The Veiled Throne.
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I am delighted to welcome you on my stop for the blog tour of The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, the new book by Ken Liu.
I started reading this collection of short stories completely clueless about what to expect. The reviews online were good so I was looking forward to immersing myself into this book and I wasn’t disappointed. Even though Ken Liu is a well-known and successful writer, this is my first time reading this author. I liked his writing style, simple and to the point. His stories dwell on themes of the destiny of human kind, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, life on another planet, the human effort to be immortal, and global warming.
I liked that most of the protagonists are women, strong and not afraid to speak their own minds. The stories are strong, thought-provoking, and well-written and explore the use of science and technology with a bit of fantasy element. Some of the stories are dark and scary, they gave me the chills and I had to put the book down and take a break. Nevertheless, I went from story to story completely captivated by the characters and the intriguing and engaging plots.
Some of my favourite stories include: Maxwell’s Demon in which an American-born Japanese woman is sent to Japan during World War II as a spy and it has supernatural elements. In Thoughts and Prayers we see the effects of a mass-shooting over the family of one of the victims. Staying Behind in which the author narrates a world where humans upload their consciousness giving up on their physical body in exchange for immortality.
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories is a fantastic collection by an incredible author, perfect for all fans of science fiction.
A huge thank you to Midas PR for inviting me to join the blog tour.
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Ken Liu is an American speculative fiction writer and the winner of the Nebula, Hugo, Locus, World Fantasy, Sidewise, and Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards. The son of a pharmaceutical chemist and a computer engineer, Ken emigrated to the US with his mother and father at the age of 11. He graduated from Harvard with a degree in English Literature and Computer Science and later attended Harvard Law School.
Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Ken worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. His debut novel, The Grace of Kings, is the first volume in a silkpunk epic fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty, in which engineers play the role of wizards. His debut collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen language and his short story Good Hunting was adapted for an episode for Netflix’s science fiction web series Love, Death and Robots.
Book After Book 
I’m not a short story person but this really catches my eye !
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