A Brilliant Short Story Collection from Charles Yu

One of the most celebrated emerging writers of literary science fiction of our time, Charles Yu’s magnificent “Sorry Please Thank You” is yet another remarkable literary achievement, demonstrating both the ample originality and vitality of his writing. Yu has breathed astonishingly new life into such time-honored fantasy, science fiction and horror tropes as zombies, space opera and Artificial Intelligence into his latest short story collection; one which will resonate strongly with fellow admirers of science fiction and fantasy as well as a more mainstream literary audience which recognizes just how astute and humorous Charles Yu is as an observer of modern society and its emphasis on science and technology. The opening story, “Standard Loneliness Package”, is a witty post-cyberpunk tale of sharing one’s emotions that reads as a hilarious cross between Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash” and Gary Shteyngart’s “Super Sad True Love Story”. It’s followed by the irresistibly funny “First Person Shooter” about a department store clerk thinking how he’ll win the affections of a fellow employee while contending with a zombie obsessed in making her own “fashion statement”; Yu’s zombie tale is the most original one I have stumbled upon in years. “Hero Absorbs Major Damage” chronicles the epic quest of one noble warrior leading a ragtag band of warriors across a desolate, often dangerous, computer-generated landscape. “Yeoman” is a hysterically humorous send-up of “Star Trek”, describing a lowly crewmember’s feelings as he finds himself tempting fate as the “expendable” member of a starship’s “away team” as the starship hurls deeper into the “final frontier”. “Designer Emotion 67” is a gung-ho market research “report” of a new drug developed in the middle of the 21st Century, and one replete with ample wit of some futuristic Madison Avenue advertising executive. While others have compared him with the likes of Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut, Charles Yu is making a most persuasive case as the greatest living satirist in modern American fiction not named Gary Shteyngart; he is most certainly the finest writing in science fiction today.