Book Details
“Hwang’s Billion Brilliant Daughters” by Alice Sola Kim | The Time Traveler’s Almanac collection
Editors: Ann VanderMeer, Jeff VanderMeer
Total Pages in the collection: 960
Published: March 18, 2014 by Tor Books
My Review
With one of our past shorts from this collection, our time traveler could only travel to the past–but in “Hwang’s Brilliant Billion Daughters,” Hwang travels only to the future. He could slip into the next day or week, or be catapulted 170 years into the future.
And for some reason that was fun to me, especially since he always gravitated toward his daughters, grand-daughters, and great-great grand daughters. No matter what future he found himself in, he always tried to check in on his “brilliant daughters” whether to steer them in a certain direction or just be a nagging, caring figure.
And whether or not he chose to reveal his identity while on these trips, the daughters always seemed to recognize something in him, and I thought that was both poignant and interesting. Oh, H.M. Jones, I think you’re rubbing off on me, because this week I was HERE for the characters and dynamics, the human or relational element to the story moreso than the actual time travel itself.
The story did seem a little choppy to me for some reason, which made me take off half a point in my rating, but this was a nice, mellow read, especially after last week.
My Rating:
3.5 out of 5
About The Time Traveler’s Almanac
The Time Traveler’s Almanac is the largest and most definitive collection of time travel stories ever assembled. Gathered into one volume by intrepid chrononauts and world-renowned anthologists Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, this book compiles more than a century’s worth of literary travels into the past and the future that will serve to reacquaint readers with beloved classics of the time travel genre and introduce them to thrilling contemporary innovations.
This marvelous volume includes nearly seventy journeys through time from authors such as Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, William Gibson, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, H. G. Wells, and Connie Willis, as well as helpful non-fiction articles original to this volume (such as Charles Yu’s “Top Ten Tips For Time Travelers”).
The Time Traveler’s Almanac Review Group
This review is part of an on-going review series. We’re trying to review a short story per week from The Time Traveler’s Almanac. Please join us and share your thoughts! My partners in crime on this reading adventure includes the following authors and bloggers. Check out their reviews as well:
I kind of lost that sympathy with Hwang because of how choppy the story. I did read in a interview with Kim, that she made the story feel as sporadic as it was, to give the readers an sense of how Hwang must have felt each time he woke up in a new time. .
And yes, a much more mellow and enjoying read to last week 🙂
Yes, the choppy nature of the story threw me off a bit, but this was otherwise enjoyable!
A little alcohol and swab will take that rubbing off on you right away. 😉 It’s a serious ailment when you catch a case of H.M. Jones. I think we agree on this one, Alesha, for the rating. It was a really enjoyable, mellow read, funny even. It didn’t make a lot of sense, but it wasn’t supposed to, since it wasn’t really a story. I wanted to relate more to it, but I still enjoyed it.
Ha! I caught a case of H.M. Jones for sure 😉 I’m glad we both enjoyed this one!
Well said. I liked it. Good empathy to him and wanting to be with his daughters in spite of his unstoppable time travel curse. And yet in that they still looked over him. Sweet and sad story.
Agreed, Tim. It was touching, and I read another review that spoke of how the story also highlighted the concept of ancestor worship/veneration, which looking back I could see it. He was almost like a guardian spirit watching over his daughters.