Authors Kaufman and Spooner were, no doubt, thrilled about the prospect of transcending the characters through new media and considered who to cast as the lead roles with Off the Grid’s Eric Balfour as one of the first picks for Tarver. Things get weird here because before Marlene is killed she gets her personal assistant Annie (Monique Coleman) to come over to the house so Marlene can knock her out and give her a haircut.

I couldn't help but enjoy this chilling glimpse into the psychology of a petty narcissistic vindictive starlet--more than a few real life versions certainly exist--and the folie a deux that she forms with her minion-like landlord.Literature in China – its publication, regulation, and its very creation – has had a difficult ride. Marlene wanted revenge on the boyfriend Nick (Joshua Davis) who raped her so she tells Daryl she wants his capped gold tooth with a diamond in it for a gift.

Unfortunately, to the dismay of many Starbound Trilogy fans, the show never became a reality, and there is little to no current information about its production. My co-translator, Carmen Yiling Yan, and I had a great time figuring out how to recast in English the deliberately playful, jejune tone of a genre that is intentionally self-parodic. In this story, the image of rural workers and their families living in submarines, literally sealed off from the urban residents and treated as exotic animals or aliens, is at once haunting and ambivalent. The very first time I read this story, the whimsical images struck me: singing dolphins, an ear made from a shell that probes the heart of the sea, a spewing fountain that reaches up to the stars, the universe reconceived as an apple … Cheng manages to weave together characteristics of mythology, fairytale, and science fiction so seamlessly here that the sense of wonder seems to be a tangible substance, a material co-equal with the air, land, and water that are used to build the world. The young war hero comes from a humble past, while Lilac is the daughter of the richest man across the universe and heiress to LaRoux Industries.Seven of the stories have never been published before in translation, and almost every story was first published in Chinese in the 2010s. As he grows older, his lust for power also grows, and he goes as far as to tell Yellowfang to give up on trying to save Cloudpelt due to his own desire to become deputy. This really helps the reader delve into the personal motivations and choices of each character on a deeper level—especially since the two couldn’t be more different from one another. Our passion has led us to exclusive interviews with notable figures, early access, and active participation in the industry. While the anthology makes no claim or attempt to be “representative” or “comprehensive,” it demonstrates the vibrancy and diversity of science fiction being written in China at this moment.

When Beetlewhisker refuses to train anymore and threatens to leave the Dark Forest, Brokenstar kills him before the RiverClan cat can encourage the others to do so, with him saying that is what happens if anyone tries to leave the Dark Forest. Brokenpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code, to protect and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your own life?However, even in death, Brokenstar remains hateful and plots to destroy the Clans with other Dark Forest cats. Like Hao Jingfang’s “Invisible Planets” (and Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities before it), as well as Vandana Singh’s “Ambiguity Machines,” Qiufan’s story deftly jumps from one disease to another like a doctor writing clinical narratives of patients with whom he’s quite familiar. Besides stories firmly entrenched in subgenres familiar to Western SFF readers such as hard SF, cyberpunk, science fantasy, and space opera, the anthology also includes stories that showcase deeper ties to Chinese culture: alternate Chinese history, chuanyue time travel, satire with historical and contemporary allusions that are likely unknown to the average Western reader.