China

Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu. I read a first edition hardback, published by Head of Zeus in 2020. This science-fiction novel was originally published in its original Chinese in 2016.

It was striking that although this novel was written by a woman and set mostly on Mars in 2201 all of the leaders of the society in this story were male. The book revolves around a young woman, an orphaned protagonist, trying to process her experience of moving between two planets with huge cultural differences. It could be classified as a coming of age novel, as readily as a science fiction novel. It was an easy read but a much heftier book than my previous two reads. I enjoyed it but found the male power of the 23rd century grating, particularly because the protagonist never noticed it and the author never addressed it.

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