HUGO AWARD-WINNING SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY MAGAZINE
Staying Behind
Our first piece of audio fiction for October is "Staying Behind" written by Ken Liu and read by Kate Baker.
Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 61 - Staying Behind by Ken Liu [38:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (33495)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ken Liu is an author and translator of speculative fiction, as well as a lawyer and programmer. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards, he has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's, Analog, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Strange Horizons, among other places.
Ken's debut novel, The Grace of Kings (2015), is the first volume in a silkpunk epic fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty. It won the Locus Best First Novel Award and was a Nebula finalist. He subsequently published the second volume in the series, The Wall of Storms (2016) as well as a collection of short stories, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories (2016).
In addition to his original fiction, Ken is also the translator of numerous literary and genre works from Chinese to English. His translation of The Three-Body Problem, by Liu Cixin, won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015, the first translated novel ever to receive that honor. He also translated the third volume in Liu Cixin's series, Death's End (2016) and edited the first English-language anthology of contemporary Chinese science fiction, Invisible Planets (2016).
He lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
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ISSN 1937-7843 Clarkesworld Magazine © 2006-2020 Wyrm Publishing. Robot illustration by Serj Iulian.
Citizen Ash wrote on November 26th, 2011 at 3:56 pm:
My first exposure to Clarkesworld. Very impressive indeed. Good enough, in fact, to make me sign up for citizenship in appreciation.
Staying Behind was compelling both as a story and as, amongst other things, an examination of some of the emotional and cultural issues raised by the possibilities of posthumanism. It will stay with me for a long time.
Like Kate and some of the other posters, I found the unaddressed questions of the Svalbard singularity's infrastructure, maintenance and longevity - and, more importantly, the Dead's attitude towards this remaining physical vulnerability - to be rather niggling, but certainly not enough to detract from the considerable power of the whole. All in all, excellent stuff, and I immediately looked for more by Ken.
Praise for Kate Baker, too. Wonderful voice and reading. What can I say? I'm hooked.
Oh and my choice was to join the Dead. These, sadly, are the comments of a brain-pulped ghost. Wooooooooooooooo.
Camilleon wrote on January 28th, 2012 at 2:40 pm:
Another magnificent tale by Ken Liu! In answer to your question, Kate...I think I would remain human. As a painter, an aerialist and a swordswoman, too many of of my passions are rooted in the physical world. While I respect the idea that creating such a virtual existence for humans would eliminate our negative impact on the environment, I would rather see humans learn to live harmoniously with our ecosystem than to leave Earth entirely behind. This is why I believe that any notion of immortality, such as an after-life, contributes to the lazy, apathetic and uncaring attitude towards our planet that is so prevalent. Why take care of this world if something better is supposed to come afterward? I think some aspects of science, especially the idea of space travel, are also guilty of creating this dangerous illusion. If we realized that this Earth were the only place for us and that we had only one life to live, then perhaps we would treasure it, cherish it and act more responsible.
el barto wrote on May 7th, 2012 at 12:06 am:
I found this one interesting in part because of the use of language and how the story showed off how many people argue by using words that are argumentative and assume their own conclusion.
For example, in this story one of the characters says you're having your "brain turning into a bloody pulp," but I suspect the character saying that would not feel differently about the procedure if it left brains intact but dead.
The main question to me in this story (and genre) is whether, upon uploading, one's sense of self is literally transferred -- meaning that consciousness really continues there -- or is the uploaded version just a "copy."
This is a fascinating question because as much as I want to live for many thousands of years, would the me that I know I am right now continue to exist and think? Or would there just be a computer program acting like me and claiming to be me?
I wonder if we will ever know.
Jo wrote on December 11th, 2013 at 12:38 am:
Sorry this may contain spoilers.
This story has me completely whelmed. I was also jealous as a writer myself envious of really complex beautifully put together stories. For me the story was about choice. The character's mother's choice was taken away and in a weird aspect so was his wife's. The character made an impossible choice in a hard situation. I feel for him.
I am city girl but the idea of destroying my body to continue in "the cloud" or "the matrix" is eeww. I will have to learn to farm, hunt and gather and remain human. In fact I would learn to live without the perks of technology just b/c the dead are creepily trying to lure everyone in.