By Ken Liu

Head of Zeus, out now

A dazzling collection of tales from past, present and future.

That description doesn’t just apply to the settings for the 20 or so stories in Ken Liu’s latest collection, but also to their provenance – the earliest story here comes from 2011, and there’s some previously unpublished material as well as an excerpt from the much-awaited next novel in his Dandelion Dynasty series.

Liu sets out his parameters for short story writing in the preface, presenting his reader with locations into which the reader brings their own baggage and makes the story their own. It’s an interesting take on the topic, which allows for multiple interpretations to co-exist simultaneously – particularly as many of these stories weren’t necessarily written to sit side by side with their peers here. This can cause links to form in the reader’s mind that may come from pure chance (again, something Liu notes in his preface, thanking his editor for creating a “meta-narrative I couldn’t have seen myself”).

Perhaps ironically, the title story is quite unlike the others, with a fantasy world that brings to mind Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; for the most part we have a lot of quite hard SF. My favourite stories are the trilogy featuring Maddie, who’s lost her father at the start of the first tale but discovers something or someone online, but apart from an occasional lapse into characters delivering speeches to each other, there’s not a story in here that won’t grab you.

Verdict: Liu has the gift for creating strong characters with a few words, and if you’ve enjoyed his novels, or his first collection, this is an essential purchase. 9/10

Paul Simpson

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories is available now from Head of Zeus; click here to order from Amazon.co.uk