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If a Digitized Tree Falls
As humanity moves to the stars, a young woman attempts to preserve the magical forest she fell in love with as a child.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
35 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 10, 2025
80 people want to read
About the author
Ken Liu
464 books21.9k followersKen Liu (http://kenliu.name) is an American author of speculative fiction. He has won the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards, as well as top genre honors in Japan, Spain, and France, among other places.
Ken's debut novel, The Grace of Kings, is the first volume in a silkpunk epic fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty, in which engineers play the role of wizards. His debut collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. He also wrote the Star Wars novel, The Legends of Luke Skywalker.
He has been involved in multiple media adaptations of his work. The most recent projects include “The Message,” under development by 21 Laps and FilmNation Entertainment; “Good Hunting,” adapted as an episode of Netflix's breakout adult animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC's Pantheon, which Craig Silverstein will executive produce, adapted from an interconnected series of short stories by Ken.
Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Ken worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. Ken frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, cryptocurrency, history of technology, bookmaking, the mathematics of origami, and other subjects of his expertise.
Ken is also the translator for Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem, Hao Jingfang's Vagabonds, Chen Qiufan's Waste Tide, as well as the editor of Invisible Planets and Broken Stars, anthologies of contemporary Chinese science fiction.
He lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
Ken's debut novel, The Grace of Kings, is the first volume in a silkpunk epic fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty, in which engineers play the role of wizards. His debut collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. He also wrote the Star Wars novel, The Legends of Luke Skywalker.
He has been involved in multiple media adaptations of his work. The most recent projects include “The Message,” under development by 21 Laps and FilmNation Entertainment; “Good Hunting,” adapted as an episode of Netflix's breakout adult animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC's Pantheon, which Craig Silverstein will executive produce, adapted from an interconnected series of short stories by Ken.
Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Ken worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. Ken frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, cryptocurrency, history of technology, bookmaking, the mathematics of origami, and other subjects of his expertise.
Ken is also the translator for Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem, Hao Jingfang's Vagabonds, Chen Qiufan's Waste Tide, as well as the editor of Invisible Planets and Broken Stars, anthologies of contemporary Chinese science fiction.
He lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 2, 2025
هفتمین داستان از مجموعه داستان کوتاه بی‌کران:
این داستان مثل سفری ذهنی به مرز باریک میان واقعیت و بازنمایی است؛ جایی که طبیعت، فناوری و حافظه در هم تنیده می‌شوند و پرسش‌های تازه‌ای درباره معنای «بودن» پیش می‌کشند. روایت با زبانی هم‌زمان شاعرانه و علمی، جهانی را می‌سازد که در آن مرز میان شبیه‌سازی و حقیقت چندان شفاف نیست و شخصیت‌ها بیش از هر چیز با پرسش‌های وجودی خود دست‌وپنجه نرم می‌کنند.
آن‌چه این داستان را متمایز می‌کند، توانایی نویسنده در خلق فضایی است که هم فلسفی و اندیشمندانه است و هم به‌طرزی شگفت‌انگیز ملموس. تصاویر و جزئیات به گونه‌ای ترسیم شده‌اند که خواننده نه تنها صحنه‌ها را تصور می‌کند، بلکه آنها را زندگی می‌کند؛ از عظمت طبیعت گرفته تا پیچیدگی‌های شبکه‌های دیجیتال. در این میان، بارها به یاد می‌آوریم که تکنولوژی نه تنها ابزار شناخت ما از جهان است، بلکه آینه‌ای است که هویت و جایگاه خودمان را در این جهان بازتاب می‌دهد.
خواندن این اثر تجربه‌ای است که ذهن را به پرسش وامی‌دارد، قلب را درگیر می‌کند و پس از پایان نیز مدام در ذهن طنین می‌اندازد. داستانی که می‌تواند هم هشدار باشد و هم دعوت به تأمل؛ هم تصویری از آینده‌ای محتمل و هم تلاشی برای کشف معنای ماندگار بودن در جهانی که مدام دگرگون می‌شود.
این داستان مثل سفری ذهنی به مرز باریک میان واقعیت و بازنمایی است؛ جایی که طبیعت، فناوری و حافظه در هم تنیده می‌شوند و پرسش‌های تازه‌ای درباره معنای «بودن» پیش می‌کشند. روایت با زبانی هم‌زمان شاعرانه و علمی، جهانی را می‌سازد که در آن مرز میان شبیه‌سازی و حقیقت چندان شفاف نیست و شخصیت‌ها بیش از هر چیز با پرسش‌های وجودی خود دست‌وپنجه نرم می‌کنند.
آن‌چه این داستان را متمایز می‌کند، توانایی نویسنده در خلق فضایی است که هم فلسفی و اندیشمندانه است و هم به‌طرزی شگفت‌انگیز ملموس. تصاویر و جزئیات به گونه‌ای ترسیم شده‌اند که خواننده نه تنها صحنه‌ها را تصور می‌کند، بلکه آنها را زندگی می‌کند؛ از عظمت طبیعت گرفته تا پیچیدگی‌های شبکه‌های دیجیتال. در این میان، بارها به یاد می‌آوریم که تکنولوژی نه تنها ابزار شناخت ما از جهان است، بلکه آینه‌ای است که هویت و جایگاه خودمان را در این جهان بازتاب می‌دهد.
خواندن این اثر تجربه‌ای است که ذهن را به پرسش وامی‌دارد، قلب را درگیر می‌کند و پس از پایان نیز مدام در ذهن طنین می‌اندازد. داستانی که می‌تواند هم هشدار باشد و هم دعوت به تأمل؛ هم تصویری از آینده‌ای محتمل و هم تلاشی برای کشف معنای ماندگار بودن در جهانی که مدام دگرگون می‌شود.
September 13, 2025
Really enjoyed this story even though it went in a direction I didn't expect. It was more a series of short stories that are related than one long work in feel, but the over arching relation was pretty epic.
September 21, 2025
AI and climate change. Ken Liu sure knows what to talk about.
Can't say I understood all of it. Was lost for quite a bit of it. Similar to Pantheon (a show he wrote). I understood enough to appreciate what he was saying and was impressed with how cool all that was.
It's a novelette with only 8000 words. So give it a read on the website to get a taste of Ken Liu's writing.
Can't say I understood all of it. Was lost for quite a bit of it. Similar to Pantheon (a show he wrote). I understood enough to appreciate what he was saying and was impressed with how cool all that was.
It's a novelette with only 8000 words. So give it a read on the website to get a taste of Ken Liu's writing.
October 14, 2025
An interesting short story with a glimpse into a potential future?
I liked the ideas around AI and false projections/predictions, similar to how sometimes AI's dream up things that don't exist and the dangers associated with them. I also found the concept of the "maigcal forest" that gives you access to live data of a place, although I'm not sure how something like that would make people more attentive to what's happening in that ecosystem (maybe by putting it in front of our eyes - The way I see it is like having an advanced camera/system pointed to it while you have a sort of holografic bontanium in your living room that is updated every second so you literally see and can even feel what is happening in that place trough AR/VR tech -sounds far fetched but not too far fetched -idk if a market would exist for this though).
I liked the ideas around AI and false projections/predictions, similar to how sometimes AI's dream up things that don't exist and the dangers associated with them. I also found the concept of the "maigcal forest" that gives you access to live data of a place, although I'm not sure how something like that would make people more attentive to what's happening in that ecosystem (maybe by putting it in front of our eyes - The way I see it is like having an advanced camera/system pointed to it while you have a sort of holografic bontanium in your living room that is updated every second so you literally see and can even feel what is happening in that place trough AR/VR tech -sounds far fetched but not too far fetched -idk if a market would exist for this though).
September 16, 2025
This was a strange story for me, because I was soon lost after the two girls were discovered hiding and the story transformed into one of those girls, 30 years later and still possessing the snow globe digital copy of the forest they had visited. I was completely lost when the girl seemingly transformed into an AI herself. I have always thought they should be called Digital Intelligence, instead of Artificial, anyway. The concept of becoming "immortal" through transference of our minds into computers is a very old one, and I believe this story was at least partially based on this. People more intelligent than I am should enjoy this story quite well.
September 15, 2025
I'm already terrified of what the future holds for this planet but this felt too real even if I've felt like I didn't really understand the second half
September 25, 2025
Not much of a story here. First 40% was alright but the rest of the book is just gibberish sci-fi futuristic talk.
September 25, 2025
I really liked this one, it did a good job of taking some current tech we have and trying to extrapolate it out into a far future.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews