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Book Review: The City Trilogy (Kuo)

I was looking for an interesting Taiwanese book to read when I found The City Trilogy by Chang Hsi-Kuo, which seemed perfect. Sci-fi, written by a computer science professor from Pittsburgh, who is seen as the father of modern Chinese science fiction writing. And it would probably be more interesting than reading another dry history book.

It was very interesting to read because it felt quite historical in tone. It did not focus on creating depth in the characters or realistic technology, but instead tried to create a world with political depth that allowed for commenting on the politics involved in China's history.

John Clute's review touches on a lot of interesting ideas, but I was disappointed that none of the reviews I could find online went into detail about the historical parallels of the story beyond "the Shan represent colonial invaders" and "the cult leader is like Mao." The more straightforward reviews complained about the flat characters, the strange mix of technology levels, and the introduction of more supernatural (or at least, not well-explained as technology) elements into the story. Those criticisms are all fair, but I think they miss the underlying theme of the book, which is more of a set of philosophical questions rather than a traditional (western?) novel.

The questions centering around the importance of the individual vs. the group seem to be long-standing issues in Chinese history. It also tries to explore the idea of what is really meant by a culture - is it the symbol of the Bronze statue and the city itself that are important, or is it the beliefs of people in the relationship of mind and un-mind, or is it the day to day actions? Obviously, there is no right answer and the different aspects of culture all influence each other.

I probably need to learn a lot more about Chinese history and culture and literary traditions to be able to intelligently discuss these issues. I also need to be able to read this in the original language to appreciate the linguistic jokes that I suspect are included throughout, including the new language and phrases that are used throughout.

Overall, though, the book did what I think all good science fiction does: it opens a door just a crack to let you see a new world that challenges some of your assumptions and makes you want to open that door even further.

The Long, Twilight Struggle

Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar from Babylon 5) died last week. He was one of the main reasons I became a fan of the show.