Single spies

[desperance]

So I'm reading Ken Liu's collection "The Paper Menagerie" over First Coffee in the morning. At first I thought there was something unexpectedly old-fashioned about the stories; they invoke memories of reading Bradbury or Sturgeon in the '70s. I think that's an expression of craft, a shared understanding of the shape a story takes. Another voice joining in the conversation.

I like this; but I think I need something else to read with Second Coffee. I really only want to read one Liu at a time, and then dwell upon it for a while. And I want something robust, something rambunctious, to set against that perfect crystalline quality, the stillness of the rose. I want battalions.