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• Much better shape than I expected.

  This book was presented as used. But it LOOKS and FEELS new! The spine is not bent or cracked, the book cover is perfect, with square corners. Excellent! How to tell it is an older copy: smell the pages. If they smell musty, like old paper, it's an old book. If it smells like ink, it is newer. That's the only way I can tell this is an older copy. It smells like an old book.

• A story about living between the cracks.

  There are five point-of-view characters in China Mountain Zhang who live in America and on Mars. Zhang is the main character, a young man who spends his life passing as something else and feels as if he must exist between the cracks of society. Set in the future after a climate disaster, where China is the world power and America is a Communist satellite state, we follow Zhang from New York to the Arctic Circle to China and then back to New York. He passes as American Born Chinese thanks to genetic manipulation, but his mother is Hispanic, and he must hide his sexuality, being homosexual is illegal, but somehow he leads a rich life full of friends, love, and work, although not without tragedy. The POV characters lead very different lives within the regime, although all their stories are at least tangentially linked. One flies kites over New York, one breeds goats and bees on Mars, and one is born ugly but finds that her corrective surgery simply leads to a different kind of unwanted attention. It’s very much a story about workers getting by and is a remarkable read, a debut novel that was short-listed for both the Hugo and Nebula Prize.

• Toller Roman, schöne Ausgabe.

  Eigentlich wollte ich das Buch verschenken, aber ich selbst habe es nur auf deutsch und das englische Cover ist so hübsch - da habe ich es behalten. Es ist einer meiner Lieblingsromane überhaupt - ganz unabhängig vom Genre ein ganz großartiges Stück Literatur.

• Intriguing & compelling

  Intriguing & compelling tale of an alternative future. Exceptionally well writtten.

• A futuristic Chinese hegemon

  Maureen F McHugh's China Mountain Zhang is a "topic" (not dys or u) future where China is the global superpower. The US collapsed in on itself as a result of debt burden (much speculation at the time of publication) and is considered a '2nd' world nation. The tale follows a part Chinese (an ABC - American Born Chinese) twenty something as he struggles establishing himself. There are also vignettes of others, kite fliers (the X games equivalent of the times), a fledgling Martian colony/commune, etc.), who all intersect with the main character. His travels and adventures take him to the Arctic, China itself, less developed parts of the US, in addition to his main stomping grounds in New York City. The reader observes his struggles with an unforgiving economy and societal intolerance towards homosexuality. There's no grand revelation or world turning pivotal event; rather, this is an unredacted tale of one individual's journey to find himself in a unique, alternative future. While the sci-fi elements are throughout, they are largely muted relative to the story itself. Colonization of Mars is discussed, but only in the struggle, not so much for survival, but rather for sustainability against a global governance that see Mars as a place to send excess Earth humans, a kinda of safety valve. Global warming has had its impact, but life goes on. Perhaps the most intriguing element is William Gibson-like element of jacking in to AI-like computer systems for engineering designs that Zhang uses extensively. While this seems a concept with lots of potential, there is little application beyond engineering and computer program debugging. Finally, the political and societal evolution has remained firmly in the socialist/communism realm, including addressing individuals as comrade. There is also a conservative stance with regards to homosexuality that suggests Chinese values and perceptions have changed little over time. Overall, this is less a coming of age tale and more a finding your place story in a future that is a unique situation.

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