It also won’t be apologetic about using Malaysian culture Zen Cho is herself Malaysian, and the stories here all draw to a greater or lesser extent on that cultural heritage, without feeling a need to justify that. Primarily, it will use dialect and non-English terms, it will not translate them (though it does transliterate), and it will not italicise them that leads to a smoother, more integrated reading experience in stories that are intentionally, in many cases, cross-cultural. Spirits Abroad is a Fixi Novo book, and that means a few things. I feel a little guilty, therefore, that it has taken me this long to get around to reading it, having scored myself a copy after the cons… I first knowingly ran across Zen Cho at some point during Nineworlds, and then again at LonCon, in part through discussion of how fast copies of this collection had sold in the dealers’ room. Straddling the worlds of the mundane and the magical, Spirits Abroad collects 10 science fiction and fantasy stories with a distinctively Malaysian flavour. An earth spirit gets entangled in protracted negotiations with an annoying landlord, and Chang E spins off into outer space, the ultimate metaphor for the Chinese diaspora. A teenage pontianak struggles to balance homework, bossy aunties, first love, and eating people. A Datin recalls her romance with an orang bunian.
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