I like Ken Liu’s own writing, but I love his translations. So when Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang came out about a year ago, I bought it, read the translator’s notes immediately, read the notes to my politely smiling husband, then shelved the book for a later time.
The time has come.
My knowledge of China is piecemealy and Jumpnauts assumes that the reader has a better understanding of the country and its history than I do – which makes sense since the book and its author are from China. This is where Ken Liu explains just enough for you to keep on reading without getting lost or needing to read several wikipedia pages. And if you want more information about ancient emperors, philosophy, or qilin, then he tells you what you need to figure it out yourself.
Translation aside, I had a lot of fun reading Jumpnauts. It’s got a straightforward ancient aliens narrative; the aliens came to Earth, technologied around and left. They did this a few times and in the near-ish future the story is set in they’re coming back for another intervention.
And their spaceship is “literally a loong from the ancient murals come to life. The head of the ship resembled the head of a massive beast with the eyes of a rabbit, the antlers of a stag, the lips and ears of an ox, the skull-shape of a horse, the barbels of a carp, and the mane of a lion. The body was a sinuous serpent, covered in fish scales. The tail was like that of a massive crocodile.”
I wasn’t familiar with “loong,” but I instantly recognized the description as a “Chinese dragon,” and as I read it I realized how different it is from some dragon and why it wasn’t translated as one.
And yes, the ancient aliens are part of human religions and mythologies. Normally I categorize this type of ancient alien theory as racist and insulting, but it didn’t bother me here. Maybe because Hao Jingfang gave humanity so much credit. Or maybe because the alien gods we met were mostly bureaucrats like myself.
The characters were somehow the weakest and strongest part of the book. As a trio of emotionally stunted genius types (and their humanizing chef), I was rooting for them to succeed, but not nearly as much as I wanted them to grow up because they’re too old for a coming of age narrative. I guess that means they were frustrating, which means there’s potential. Stuff that just sucks isn’t frustrating, it just sucks. Stuff that sucks and could easily not be is where frustration enters.
Also, the text went out when the secret to human advancement was revealed. Poor printing or censorship? Probably poor printing, but like with ancient aliens, I know which one is more likely and which one is more fun.
