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Look what came in the mail! Legions in Time is an anthology of science fiction stories in Chinese created by publishing company Shanghai Gaotan Culture Co., Ltd.
The anthology was named after my story, "Legions in Time," which is within. I will not pretend that this doesn't delight me. Particularly since Ray Bradbury's classic, "A Sound of Thunder" is published there as well.
(Right here I was tempted to pretend to gloat over one-upping Bradbury. But I won't. Because there are at least twenty people on the Internet today who cannot understand a jape.)
As always, when such a thing happens, I think of the translator and hope they did a good job. I think of the readers and hope they like the story. And then I start daydreaming about China and all the wonderful things I've seen and admirable people I've met.
Then I wonder how "Time criminals of the Dawn Era--listen and obey!" sounds in Chinese?
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Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteGloating would be impolitic and indecorous, sure. But Bradbury's 'The Sound of Thunder' was a story that made a now well-established point. Whereas a writer who in the 21st century understands the power of 'Van Vogtian-ism' -- for lack of a better term for whatever that crazy man was doing -- and can channel a working version of it is a rarer, more necessary thing.
Especially for the Chinese SF scene; Liu Cixin's stuff delivers some of the same kind of can-you-top-this eyeball kicks but without quite the same wildness. "Time criminals of the Dawn Era--listen and obey!" was made for Mandarin.
My admiration for Liu Cixin is vast. Anyone who can start a story with a schoolteacher, a dinosaur and the poet Li Bai on a boat on the oceans of Mars really does have the stuff!
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