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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
7 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
Ken Liu
466 books22k followersKen Liu (http://kenliu.name) is an American author of speculative fiction. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards for his fiction, he has also won top genre honors abroad in Japan, Spain, and France.
Liu’s most characteristic work is the four-volume epic fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty, in which engineers, not wizards, are the heroes of a silkpunk world on the verge of modernity. His debut collection of short fiction, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. A second collection, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, followed. He also penned the Star Wars novel, The Legends of Luke Skywalker. His latest book is All That We See or Seem, a techno-thriller starring an AI-whispering hacker who saves the world.
He’s often involved in media adaptations of his work. Recent projects include “The Regular,” under development as a TV series; “Good Hunting,” adapted as an episode in season one of Netflix’s breakout adult animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC’s Pantheon, with Craig Silverstein as executive producer, adapted from an interconnected series of Liu’s short stories.
Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Liu worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, history of technology, bookmaking, and the mathematics of origami.
In addition to his original fiction, Liu also occasionally publishes literary translations. His most recent work of translation is a new rendition of Laozi’s Dao De Jing.
Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
Liu’s most characteristic work is the four-volume epic fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty, in which engineers, not wizards, are the heroes of a silkpunk world on the verge of modernity. His debut collection of short fiction, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. A second collection, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, followed. He also penned the Star Wars novel, The Legends of Luke Skywalker. His latest book is All That We See or Seem, a techno-thriller starring an AI-whispering hacker who saves the world.
He’s often involved in media adaptations of his work. Recent projects include “The Regular,” under development as a TV series; “Good Hunting,” adapted as an episode in season one of Netflix’s breakout adult animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC’s Pantheon, with Craig Silverstein as executive producer, adapted from an interconnected series of Liu’s short stories.
Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Liu worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, machine-augmented creativity, history of technology, bookmaking, and the mathematics of origami.
In addition to his original fiction, Liu also occasionally publishes literary translations. His most recent work of translation is a new rendition of Laozi’s Dao De Jing.
Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 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.
Read
November 24, 2025First-rate story that will take another reading to sort out. For me a 4-star read. Free copy online: https://reactormag.com/if-a-digitized...
If you are a Ken Liu fan, this is a must-read.
If you are a Ken Liu fan, this is a must-read.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
Read
October 21, 2025I did not finish. It got very confusing.
November 30, 2025
A beautiful story.
November 3, 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 botanium 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 botanium 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).
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews