The short story “The Flower of Shazui” by Chen Qiufan was published for the first time in 2012.

Shazui used to be a fishing village until the profound changes in China pushed urbanization with the consequence that many new buildings are under construction all the time there and in other nearby villages. The use of ultra-modern technologies is spreading as well in the area around Shenzhen Bay and a man who is hiding can hide within the growing population of migrants who come to Shazui.

In “The Flower of Shazui”, Chen Qiufan takes us to the China of which he speaks very often in his works, the one of great transformations. In the specific case in a region between Shenzhen Bay and Hong Kong, where China’s economic reforms and openings led to the transformation of fishing villages into cities where new buildings are built all the time, with a number of problems and profound changes.

The short story “The Memcordist” by Lavie Tidhar was published for the first time in 2012.

Pym is a memcordist and that means that all his experiences are recorded and broadcast to his followers. The Narrative of Pym is followed by millions of followers with his trips to various places of the solar system, up to Pluto’s moons, first with his mother and then when he’s traveling on his own and in particular during his relationship with Joy.

The short story “Earthrise” by Lavie Tidhar was published for the first time in 2012.

Sandoval is an artist whose life is wrapped in a number of legends and rumors often impossible to verify. He gained a reputation as a rebel when he got rid of the node that allowed him to remain immersed in the Conversation and managed to erase the information available about him. It0s said that it was obsessed with the Earthrise image.

The short story “The Night Train” by Lavie Tidhar was published for the first time in 2010.

Mulan Rouge – but that’s only an old stage name that got stuck to her – is a former mercenary and now bodyguard of the Old Man, also known as Boss Gui, the head and bigfalla bos of the Kunming Toads. The Old Man has to leave for a train journey and Mulan must check that no other passenger is a danger to him. Being the Old Man’s bodyguard is a dangerous job but for Mulan there’s not only the risk in her life and she thinks of Darwin’s Choice, an Other she had a relationship with.

“Political travails of Time travel” (“Kaalap payana Arasiyal”) by Gouthama Siddarthan was published for the first time in 2018 with the English version translated from the Tamil by Maharathi.

Partly an essay on time travel, partly a commentary on two short stories on the subject by two masters of science fiction such as Ray Bradbury and Alfred Bester with the addition of some touch of fantasy, “Political travails of Time travel” is a unique work for the intertwining of its various parts. Gouthama Siddarthan starts from Stephen Hawking and an Indian folklore story about a tree of time to make some reflection between the serious and the facetious about the nature of time.