China Mountain Zhang
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| China Mountain Zhang | |
 Cover of 1993 Tor paperback edition |
|
| Author | Maureen F. McHugh |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Tor Books |
| Publication date | March 1992 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback ) |
| Pages | 313 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-312-85271-1 |
China Mountain Zhang is the title of a 1992 novel by science fiction author Maureen F. McHugh. The novel is made up of several stories loosely intertwined.
[edit] Plot summary
The main story involves a gay man's maturation in a future dominated by China. A side story concerns a self-reliant Martian farmer who ends up with an unexpected family. There are also stories involving an unattractive woman who pays a terrible price on becoming beautiful and a short man who engages in a kind of human kite flying. These stories never fully interconnect in the normal manner of a novel, nor does it seem necessary for them to so given that the book seems rather to be a snapshot of life in a strange future than a conventional SF novel.
[edit] Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
The backdrop is a 22nd century in which the Chinese Communist regime rather inexplicably dominates the world. The novel is slightly unusual for science fiction in that it would seem none of the characters cause any significant change in the world around them. The New York Times said of the book when it first appeared: "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 Samuel R. Delany and Kim Stanley Robinson without being in the least derivative."
[edit] Awards and nominations
The novel was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel while also winning the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award for best first novel, and the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.
