The Hidden Girl and Other Stories: Winner of the 2021 Locus Award

By Ken Liu

From the title story's fantastical inter-dimensional assassins to the steampunk dystopia of "Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard" burrowing through the ruins of a civilisation destroyed by a plague, from Black Mirror-esque tales of blockchain cryptography ("Byzantine Empathy") and Internet trolling ("Thoughts and Prayers") to a three-story hard-SF arc about artificial intelligence and the singularity ("The Gods Will Not Be Chained", "The Gods Will Not Be Slain" and "The Gods Have Not Died In Vain"), here are 17 interlinking visions that explore what it is to be human, and what it is like to abandon or transcend that. This collection confirms Ken Liu, author of the astonishing and multi-award winning The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, as one of speculative fiction's greatest short story writers.

Contents include:
Ghost Days, Maxwell's Demon,The Reborn, Thoughts and Prayers, Byzantine Empathy, The Gods Will Not Be Chained, Staying Behind, Real Artists, The Gods Will Not Be Slain, Altogether Elsewhere Vast Herds of Reindeer, The Gods Have Not Died in Vain, Memories of My Mother, Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit – Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts, Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard, A Chase Beyond the Storms (an excerpt from The Veiled Throne, Book 3 of the Dandelion Dynasty), The Hidden Girl, Seven Birthdays, The Message, Cutting.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Feb 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9781838932077

Ken Liu

Ken Liu is an award-winning American author of speculative fiction. His collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. Liu’s other works include The Grace of Kings, The Wall of Storms, The Veiled Throne, and a second collection The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. He has been involved in multiple media adaptations of his work, including the short story “Good Hunting,” adapted as an episode in Netflix’s animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC’s Pantheon, adapted from an interconnected series of short stories. “The Hidden Girl,” “The Message,” and “The Oracle” have also been optioned for development. Liu previously worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on topics including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, the history of technology, and the value of storytelling. Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.

Reviews for The Hidden Girl and Other Stories

[tuusannuuska-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Loved some stories, some others not so much. I know I shouldn't read short story collections and yet I still do it, on occasion. One of the better ones, though.

[amymacevilly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Really excellent collection of stories. The idea of the Singularity -- human consciousness being hosted by a computer -- figures into many, but not all of the stories. There are three connected stories.

[ladycato · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ken Liu is one of the best short story tellers out there in genre fiction right now. His new collection displays the depth and diversity of his work, though AI is a definite theme threaded throughout. I had read a few of these stories before, but most were new to me. A few didn't quite click for me. Most, however, were fantastic. Stand-outs included "Thoughts and Prayers," "Seven Birthdays," and "The Message." I fully expect to see this book up for awards next year.

[aimeesue-469584 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Having read and loved Ken Liu's first short story collection, The Paper Managerie and Other Stories, several years ago, I was eager to see where his stories went in this new collection. I was not disappointed; his writing and imagination remain as active as ever. The Hidden Girl and Other Stories did take a slightly new direction, however: many of the stories in this book build on one another, without most being dependant on previous stories, so most can be read on their own. This is particularly evident in the "The Gods Will Not Be…" stories which traces the evolution and consequences of uploading individual consciousnesses to the web. Many stories assume this up.lading as a given, so the book feels of a piece - rather than 27 all- new from scratch worlds, Liu presents a more coherent human universe exploring the ramifications of that idea, and individual responses to it. What happens if your wife wants to be uploaded, but you don't? Does your opinion change if your quality of life changes? Should sick or dying people be uploaded? What kind of world will silicon citizens build when they're freed from the material constraints of the physical world? Although set in a completely different context, the title story, "The Hidden Girl," was one of my favorites, centering on the space-bending talents of a young martial artist. Wonderfully done. Because I don't read read fantasy, one story I wasn't really looking forward to Reading was "A Chase Beyond the Storms," which is an excerpt from the third book of Liu's The Dandelion Dynasty, The Veiled Throne. I surprised myself by actually enjoying it and wishing more of the story was included. Overall, a great book of SciFi short stories. Recommended, particularly for those who enjoy pondering what It is, Exactly, that makes us human.

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to this, and it seems to be the 200th title I have listened to. At first it seems to be a set of individual short stories, but as you listen to more of them, it becomes more a series of connected stories, but not in chronological order. Most of them are set in the future, ranging from a not too distant to the far future. A lot of them concern the transfer of human thought from a physical to a digitised form, with the earth having to bear fewer humans as they exist in a purely digital form. There is a danger in this transition and the state of the world after this becomes a recurring theme. There are a couple of stories that don't seem to fit this arc, both seeming to be set in either a past or a fantasy land. They seemed to knock the collection off it's axis, somehow. Overall it was a good, inventive and thought provoking set of stories.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a substantial collection, almost, but not quite, two collections. The majority of the stories take us into a more dystopian future where what it means to be human and what it means to be an individual is given a testing against aliens and technology and of course other humans as is the purpose of being at all. The fantasy stories, which otherwise I might prefer have their own volume touch the same core, though less pointedly.

[bibliovermis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As with most short story collections, there were weak stories and strong ones, however the strong stories in this collection were VERY strong, staying with the reader long after the book is put down. Some of these short scifi tales would be great to read expanded into full novels.

[msf59 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories is easily one of my favorite story collection and his latest offering The Hidden Girl is equally as terrific. A perfect blend of science fiction and fantasy, that is super smart but also quite accessible.

[darthdeverell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ken Liu’s The Hidden Girl and Other Stories collects nineteen of Liu’s short stories examining several topics in a manner possible only through science fiction. The greatest number of stories examine the nature of Singularity, in which human consciousness becomes digital, fundamentally altering humanity’s destiny and relationship with Earth’s biosphere. The stories “The Gods Will Not Be Chained,” “Staying Behind,” “The Gods Will Not Be Slain,” “Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer,” “The Gods Have Not Died in Vain,” and “Seven Birthdays” all touch on some element of Singularity and digitized consciousness. While these stories necessarily engage with the nature of humanity, three stories in particular examine what it means to be human as we are now, focusing on characters’ relationships: “The Reborn, “Memories of My Mother,” and “The Message.” “Thoughts and Prayers” uses grief and the desire to assert power in a powerless situation in order to comment on the impact of mass violence and how the internet currently shapes public debate, transforming people’s grief. Liu examines modern day colonialism caused by resource depletion, the effects of climate change, and wealth inequality through his stories “Byantine Empathy,” “The Gods Have Not Died in Vain,” and “Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit – Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts.” Finally, some stories use fantasy to examine the human condition, such as “Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard” and “The Hidden Girl.” Liu’s book demonstrates the continued importance of science-fiction/fantasy to hold a mirror up to society and pose important questions.