China Mountain Zhang and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Search inside this book
Start reading China Mountain Zhang on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

China Mountain Zhang [Paperback]

Maureen F. McHugh (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 21.99
Price: CDN$ 14.40 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 25. Details
You Save: CDN$ 7.59 (35%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.
Want it delivered Friday, May 24? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout.

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition --   CDN $10.99 --
Hardcover --   -- --
Paperback CDN $14.40   -- --
Mass Market Paperback --   -- --

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15 1997
Winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Locus Award for Best First Novel, and a Hugo and Nebula Award nominee.

With this groundbreaking novel, Maureen F. McHugh established herself as one of the decade's best science fiction writers. In its pages, we enter a postrevolution America, moving from the hyperurbanized eastern seaboard to the Arctic bleakness of Baffin Island; from the new Imperial City to an agricultural commune on Mars. The overlapping lives of cyberkite fliers, lonely colonists, illicit neural-pressball players, and organic engineers blend into a powerful, taut story of a young man's journey of discovery. This is a macroscopic world of microscopic intensity, one of the most brilliant visions of modern SF.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Product Details

Product Description

From Amazon

When talking about this book you have to list the awards it's won--the Hugo, the Tiptree, the Lambda, the Locus, a Nebula nomination--after that you can skip the effusive praise from the New York Times and get to the heart of things: This is a book about a future many don't agree with. It's set in a 22nd century dominated by Communist China and the protagonist is a gay man. These aren't the usual tropes of science fiction, and they aren't written in the usual way. But, wow, it's one heck of a story.

Review

"A first novel this good gives every reader a chance to share in the pleasure of discovery; to my mind, Ms. McHugh's achievement recalls the best work of Delany and Robinson without being in the least derivative."--The New York Times

"It's a rare writer who produces a novel this good....I can't think of a book that offers a more lived-in future. The people are impulsive, changeable, and very real. Lovers of fine fiction, SF, and otherwise, will treasure this deeply humane book. Five stars."--Minneapolis Star-Tribune
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
The foreman chatters in Meihua, the beautiful tongue, Singapore English. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
Search inside this book:

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars I've read it twice, so far Sep 8 2005
By J. Ryckborst
Format:Paperback
"China Mountain Zhang" is not another scifi adventure book (which definitely have a place when I want mindless entertainment). It's speculative fiction at its best. The author asks "What if the world were like this...?" and answers the question in such an interesting and believable way.
Other readers posting reviews have objected to the plot, to the society and politics, to the various relationships. I found this book like a series of biographies. What this book lacks is not plot but length. (I want more.) I found the politics, a blended world of socialism, capitalism, and racism, to be very interesting. I found the relationships interesting. A couple deals with homosexuality in their relationship. A single woman deals with disfigurement, internalised self-hatred, and date rape. A couple on Mars have to get past economic issues to further their relationship. Through it all, the author speculates some imaginative technology.
I loved this book when I first read it, and loved it when I re-read it ten years later. Whereas I usually donate my used science fiction to the local library, this is a book that I have hung onto. I hope to reread it in another ten years, or so.
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
4.0 out of 5 stars Plotless but Absorbing Oct 13 2003
By Mark Silcox
Format:Paperback
This book is about a slightly far-fetched, but wonderfully well-envisioned future. Maureen McHugh has the talent of making one feel thoroughly immersed in the main characters' universe without using any of the verbal trickery or shock tactics habitually employed by her contemporaries in the so-called 'cyberpunk' movement. There's a very singular strangeness about the world as she imagines it being run by the communist Chinese, and I found myself puzzled by the end as to whether this came from the fact that such an arrangement normally would seem so unlikely, or from the fact that McHugh made it seem like such a natural development out of present cultural and economic trends.

I can see how the novel's plotlessness and the sense of irresolution that one gets at the end might have been off-putting to some, but I found that Zhang himself was the sort of character to whom this style of narrative was best suited - he's reflective without being particularly deep, and ambitious without being particularly resolute. I did want to know more about him than I'd found out by the end of the book, and about the two fascinating characters who form the book's weirdly free-floating sub-plot (which takes place on Mars). But this can't be considered a weakness of the novel, surely.

Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
5.0 out of 5 stars China Mountain Zhang, by Maureen F. McHugh Jun 11 2003
By JoL
Format:Paperback
While some people have complained of the novel's lack of plot, I feel that it's perfectly balanced and in many ways a plot would get in the way. The book is the story of an engineer named Zhang, or Raphael, in a world were Chinese Communism dominates. Zhang isn't important, or out to save the world. He's merely trying to find himself and at the same time, find someone else.

McHugh's prose is clear and evocative, I found myself pulled deeply into the world of the book and couldn't put it down. Her inventions for the future are fascinating. The technology is never separate or thrown in, the characters interactions with the imagined technology of the future are just as interesting as the characters and the technology alone.

I could go on and on about how wonderful this book was, I enjoyed immensely and it also made me think deeply about human interaction and interaction with their environment. I cannot recommend it strongly enough.

Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
No
Want to see more reviews on this item?
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent characters
While I concur that this book lacks a central, driving plot, I disagree that this lack implies some fault with the book. Read more
Published on Mar 17 2003
5.0 out of 5 stars I cared deeply for these characters
Despite a virtual lack of plot or action, and despite the constant change of location, I thoroughly enjoyed Maureen F. McHugh's vision of the future... Read more
Published on May 21 2002 by Duane Simolke
1.0 out of 5 stars There's nothing engaging or original here
Maureen McHugh's novels had been highly recommended to me before, so I was looking forward to reading this novel for a book discussion group. Read more
Published on May 14 2002 by Michael Rawdon
1.0 out of 5 stars Over-hyped, plotless and ultimately pointless
Harlan Ellison raved about this book on the Sci-Fi channel when it came out, calling it the best book he'd read that decade. Read more
Published on Feb 28 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars A Splendid First Novel By One of SF's Best Young Writers
Maureen McHugh's "China Mountain Zhang", is a stunningly original view of the future. It's also a fine cyberpunk tale, but I wouldn't say that it neatly falls within that... Read more
Published on Nov 5 2001 by John Kwok
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and enjoyable
I'm relatively new to reading science fiction, so I haven't read a lot that I can compare this novel with. Read more
Published on Sep 4 2001 by bostonreader
5.0 out of 5 stars A different view of the future
Wow, this one really has a different view of the future; it really made me think. In McHugh's future, a communist revolution has taken place in America, and China is the dominant... Read more
Published on Dec 17 2000 by "g_williams"
5.0 out of 5 stars China Mountain Zhang
I was wowed by the narrative voice. First person present tense gives it immediacy, while the style has a Zen-like quality, as though directly translated from Chinese -- very... Read more
Published on Nov 28 1999 by Michael Allan Scott
5.0 out of 5 stars SF As High literature
For the first time since I sturted to read SF (20 years and houndreds boks ago), I encounter a book in which the SF is but the media through which the writer expreses. Read more
Published on Nov 27 1999 by Nir Haramati
5.0 out of 5 stars A very Believable & Human extrapolation of the Future
Don't take at all seriously any of the reviewers negative comments -- just remember the bell curve, the average person has only average intellectual capacity, avg. empathy, avg. Read more
Published on July 10 1999
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

    Your Shopping Cart is empty.

    Give it purpose—fill it with books, DVDs, clothes, electronics, and more.

    If you already have an account, sign in.

    View Cart (0 items)

      Listmania!

      Create a Listmania! list

      Look for similar items by category

      Feedback

      Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

      Amazon.ca Privacy Statement Amazon.ca Shipping Information Amazon.ca Returns & Exchanges