I’m already adding to the book haul. I think I have literature problem. Actually I’ve been meaning to get this book for a long time and it slipped my mind when I bought this round, so I always meant to include it! It’s not an extra book so much as it is a misplaced book. Or so I tell myself.

It’s called ‘The Hidden Girl and Other Stories’ by Ken Liu. Fitting with this haul’s theme, it’s a sci-fi anthology with seventeen stories! I’m most excited to read ‘The Gods Will Not Be Chained’ series. I’ve never seen a trilogy of short stories before, so I’m excited to see how the structure works. I never considered writing multiple short stories in series because I just figured you would write a novel instead if you wanted to do that. A while back I watched an animated adaptation of this trilogy, a show called ‘Pantheon’ that I’ve reviewed before, but I’ve read that the stories themselves are very different from the show. If they’re half as entertaining, I’ll be happy with my purchase.

I went ahead and read the first story ‘Ghost Days’ (though I’m still working on ‘Blood Over Bright Haven’) and what I found most striking was (again) the structure. It starts in the future and traces the path of an old bronze antique deep into the past and all the way back again through a series of vignettes that feature the object. I can’t help but wonder if this story was originally based on some kind of prompt or exercise because of how uniquely organized it is. The prose is here and there and I think some of the dialogue can be a little clunky, but the story itself is so interesting that it doesn’t make much of a difference. I’m hoping they only get better as I continue.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley