China Mountain Zhang (Paperback)

by Maureen F. McHugh (Author) "The foreman chatters in Meihua, the beautiful tongue, Singapore English..." (more)
Key Phrases: kite races, lacquer ball, synch numbers, Liu Wen, New York, Foreman Qian (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
When talking about this book you have to list the awards it's won--the Hugo, the Tiptree, the Lambda, the Locus, a Nebula nomination--after that you can skip the effusive praise from the New York Times and get to the heart of things: This is a book about a future many don't agree with. It's set in a 22nd century dominated by Communist China and the protagonist is a gay man. These aren't the usual tropes of science fiction, and they aren't written in the usual way. But, wow, it's one heck of a story.

Review
"A first novel this good gives every reader a chance to share in the pleasure of discovery; to my mind, Ms. McHugh's achievement recalls the best work of Delany and Robinson without being in the least derivative."--The New York Times

"It's a rare writer who produces a novel this good....I can't think of a book that offers a more lived-in future. The people are impulsive, changeable, and very real. Lovers of fine fiction, SF, and otherwise, will treasure this deeply humane book. Five stars."--Minneapolis Star-Tribune
-- Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Orb Books (April 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312860986
• ISBN-13: 978-0312860981
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #547,516 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you're looking for the plot, you've missed the point., September 18, 1998

By	Michael Bulger (Rochester, NY, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A number of the reviewers of this book on this site have commented on this novel's lack of plot. This is unfair. It has plot to spare, just not the sort of simple, follow-the-numbers plotline most of today's TV-raised readers seem to need. As a novel, it reads more as a slice of life (or lives) than a self-contained story, and from the perspective of a science fiction reader, this can serve (and does so here) to make the singular impact of this book one of total immersion in a well-thought-out, self-consistent future world. As an example of science fiction as extrapolation from the present, I can think of few works as good as this. As for this novel being an example of "gay and lesbian" fiction, one of the main characters happens to be gay. It is certainly a defining characteristic, especially in the future presented here, where homosexuality is again driven underground. I think we can gain some perspective on comments like this, however, from the fact that although most of the major characters are Chinese, no one has thought to characterize this novel as "Chinese fiction." All in all, China Mountain Zhang is a fine novel, with a narrative voice startlingly well-developed for a first-time novelist. I give this my highest recommendation--not the stuff of science-fiction adventure, but rewarding for those who care about finely crafted fiction.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I've read it twice, so far, September 8, 2005

By	J. Ryckborst "-=- Jerome" (North of the 49th parallel) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"China Mountain Zhang" is not another scifi adventure book (which definitely have a place when I want mindless entertainment). It's speculative fiction at its best. The author asks "What if the world were like this...?" and answers the question in such an interesting and believable way.
Other readers posting reviews have objected to the plot, to the society and politics, to the various relationships. I found this book like a series of biographies. What this book lacks is not plot but length. (I want more.) I found the politics, a blended world of socialism, capitalism, and racism, to be very interesting. I found the relationships interesting. A couple deals with homosexuality in their relationship. A single woman deals with disfigurement, internalised self-hatred, and date rape. A couple on Mars have to get past economic issues to further their relationship. Through it all, the author speculates some imaginative technology.
I loved this book when I first read it, and loved it when I re-read it ten years later. Whereas I usually donate my used science fiction to the local library, this is a book that I have hung onto. I hope to reread it in another ten years, or so.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life is hard, even in the furture., January 21, 1999

By	flying-monkey (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.) - See all my reviews

China Mountain Zhang is about ordinary people in an extraordinary world. It's all too easy in fiction to concentrate on the unnusual, on the heroes, on the 'big' picture. What is harder is to get inside the lives of those at the bottom, the ordinary people for whom life is not adventurous, but dull, slow and difficult. Zhang is human, not superhuman; his dilemma is not how to change the world or how to save civilization as we know it, but how to find a place for himself. There is plot, and there is resolution (contrary to what some seem to think), but the plot is subtle, and the resolution emotional, not only for Zhang, but also for the reader. This is a book that works as much by getting us to understand Zhang as by inspiring questions and emotions in ourselves. It's political, but the politics are personal, micro-level, those things that impact on everyone. As an evocation of the mundane sadness and suffering, hope and resolution in daily life, this book is not only unequalled in sci-fi, but is also up there with the best writing in any genre.