by Soji Shimada, translated by David Warren

Red Circle, out now

Every breath you take and every move you make, Every bond you break, every step you take, I’ll be watching you…

The quote from the Police song – which I once had to discourage a couple from having played at their wedding ceremony – is very appropriate to this novella from highly regarded Japanese author Soji Shimada. Set in Beijing at the end of the 21st century, it tells of Xie, whose body and life are put back together after a terrible accident – leaving him seeing women as demons, save for one girl that he spots who looks normal. Desperate to know more about her, he becomes her stalker, only to discover her true identity.

It’s a misogynistic tale – Xie is an unlikeable character, whose near-fatal accident followed a confrontation with his girlfriend after he hit her – and there are very creepy elements to the stalking (given what we learn of Chigusa, accusations of worse are tenable). There’s also an odd extra SF element to it, a voice that only Xie can hear, which seems linked to Benjamin Franklin, as well as links to a Scottish folk song. We don’t really learn that much about future Beijing – the worldbuilding is there at the start and end (to explain the technology briefly) but not much more.

Further research reveals that this was actually originally published in 1988, rather than being something new this year, and seen through that prism, some of the tropes within are more understandable, if no less unpleasant. It’s much nearer in time to Blade Runner than would first appear to be the case, and I’d advise looking at it as a historical piece of science fiction, rather than part of the wave of excellent new fiction deriving from China and Japan in modern times.

Verdict: A problematic short tale. 5/10

Paul Simpson