soft and sharp. brutally creative. perhaps occasionally over-exact (see especially Simulacra, The Regular), tho not fatally so. many of the works in various ways explore what one night call traumatic optimism: in such explorations. pride of place is afforded to an intensely compelling ambivalence, which for many writers often devolves into to the fetishization of a kind of false moral neutrality, a self satisfaction that passes itself off as wisdom—not so in Liu's case (here The Man Who Ended History and The Literomancer are clearest examples). by turns sui generis—see the titular work especially. brilliant, of course. heartbreaking.

First published May 26, 2021.