China Mountain Zhang

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Harrison Evans Salisbury: China Mountain Zhang (1997, Orb Books)

Paperback, 320 pages

English language

Published April 12, 1997 by Orb Books.

ISBN:
978-0-312-86098-1
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4 stars (1 review)

Winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award for Best First Novel, and a Hugo and Nebula Award nominee.

With this groundbreaking novel, Maureen F. McHugh established herself as one of the decade's best science fiction writers. In its pages, we enter a postrevolution America, moving from the hyperurbanized eastern seaboard to the Arctic bleakness of Baffin Island; from the new Imperial City to an agricultural commune on Mars. The overlapping lives of cyberkite fliers, lonely colonists, illicit neural-pressball players, and organic engineers blend into a powerful, taut story of a young man's journey of discovery. This is a macroscopic world of microscopic intensity, one of the most brilliant visions of modern SF.

5 editions

Fascinating stories

4 stars

In retrospect, this novel is a highly fascinating collection of stories with a common thread, the titular China Mountain Zhang appearing in most of the stories.

Set in a future where China is the dominant world power, Rafael aka China Mountain Zhang lives in New York, half-Chinese, half-Latino American and queer to boot. Early on, he loses his job, because he does not want to marry the daughter of his Chinese foreman at work, which really is problematic, because ultimately he wants to live the dream of going to university in China. Rafael is the red thread here, and has the most impactful stories, about loneliness at the polar circle, queer experience in China, etc. Subjects are tough, there's suicide, rape, depression.

Interesting cast, vastly differing stories all coming together in the end. A bit bleak, and in the beginning tough to get into because Zhang is not exactly likeable. …

Subjects

  • Science Fiction
  • Science Fiction - General
  • Fiction / Science Fiction / General
  • Fiction
  • Fiction - Science Fiction