Watchlist Countdown, Day 22: “Ether” by Zhang Ran

      “The finger-talking gathering welcomes you, friend.”

          from “Ether” by Zhang Ran

Zhjang Ran’s story in the Watchlist anthology reminds me of 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, with its alternate universes and shadowy doppelgängers. “Ether” is set in the future (maybe 30 or 40 years?), in an age after “the Internet degenerated into senselessness and everyone tossed aside their complicated smartphones for basic phones that could only make calls.“ T...