内容简介

《宛转环》是青年创作者慕明的首部作品，收录了她自2017年创作以来的《宛转环》《涂色世界》等获奖篇目，也有在2020至2022年间创作和重写的《破境》《铸梦》等新篇目。科技前沿的工作背景，跨学科的阅读趣味，使得这些小说具有开阔的视野和严谨的思维方式，而从科幻、推想等类型创作中提炼的方法将思辨与想象共冶一炉，铸成了故事。这些小说既独立成篇，也通过细致深入的线索勾连，编织出了一个丰富隽永的环形时空。从杳冥上古到当代生活再到极远的未来，故事以不同的书写尺度折射出现实的影子，也因此没有被现实压垮，而是以智识再造真实，以灵巧抵达自由。

作者简介

慕明，本名顾从云，女，1988年生，推想小说作者，作品散见于网络、期刊、选集。曾获豆瓣阅读征文大赛奖、未来科幻大师奖、银河奖、全球华语科幻星云奖等。出版有意大利语短篇小说集Colora il mondo（《涂色世界》）。

精彩书评

整篇小说结构非常好，所有层面上的意象都是相互指涉的，建造宫殿、制造人偶、讲故事、射箭、求道、学习等等，这些过程都是同一种过程的不同显化，而小说促使读者在不断培养这样一种思维向度：即不断发现碎片与碎片之间的关联，从而逐渐认识到万物相类的隐秘联系。这种思考向度同样与小说本身分成看似松散的块状和点状部分相互关联，读者同样需要自己去参与进“编织”的工作之中——阅读同样是一种技艺。

——韦用武

作者似乎要把看起来独立的故事，统摄一种叙事程序、或游戏中，就像八个关卡，通关后的奖励，是对“讲故事”本身的反思，这也是一种自指/自反，就好像写下这一切的作者，已经把“幕后”的创作哲学，渗透在了情节中，一个彩蛋不是打开、而是里外翻转，成为这本书，反之亦然。这种虚构的趣味，需要何等的野心和细腻，是令人击节的。

本雅明写过一篇很著名的文章《讲故事的人》，里面将故事作为一种crafts（技艺），凝结的是人类经验，乃至“真理的史诗性”，而慕明的创作中更进一步，把叙事作为一种智能进化的平台/媒介，如果生命如赫拉利说的，是一种算法，那么讲故事/虚构，不仅是有史以来连接人类的核心功能，在她的笔下，也是从今往后，驱动人智能升级、乃至超越碳基肉身的动力。

——saintdump

这真的是我近几年读过的ZUI棒的一本中文短篇小说集，哪怕完全不考虑“科幻”这个类型，作为纯文学仍然很有自己独特的风格和深度。文字非常通透，渲染或留白不仅看得出用了心思，更难得的是有勇气去相信读者的理解能力。所以无论是在思辨的乐趣上，还是在文字的美感和对想象力的激发上，都带来了强烈的超越性的冲击。

如果我没理解错，这整本小说集的每一篇，其实都是在讲述以故事调动人类的深层感受与认知，进而让人（无论在故事中还是故事之外）在意识层面去“照见”超越性的自由。尽管故事之外，这种自由仍然只是一种可能性，但对故事的讲和听，毕竟是一种古老的共同经验，所以对于读懂了的读者，这种“可能”又是非常真切的。这让整本书既是有独特见解的科幻，同时也成为了对文学传统的一场真诚的赞颂（无论是口头文学还是纯文学）。

——子文东

我觉得这个小说真正带给我了一种关于“空”的感受，传统讲故事，可能会有故事开端，发展，高潮，结果这样的一条主线，但在《破境》里，作者好像故意把他们拿掉了。

把这个故事主线比作一棵大树，小说的叙述视角都是缠绕着这棵大树盘旋向上，但最终完成之后，作者让那颗大树消失了。

第一遍看完小说后我躺在床上，关了灯，眼前浮现出高迪圣家族教堂早期的圆形尖塔，（非最近十年用混凝土做的那些）而是那些用砖石叠起来，每一块砖石不是垂直垒起来的，而是在旋转在偏移，红色，黄色，褐色的砖石交叠，缠绕，螺旋向上，最终汇聚成一个指向天空的高塔。高塔是镂空的，镂空是重要的，透进光线和空气，高塔是中空的，因为这样，人才可以进入。

——杨熹

看完之后心情还是很激动的。看到了一座更高的山，所以才会好奇更高处的风景。感觉这是一部能让同辈创作者生出勇气，希望创作出同样精彩内容的作品，读完后真的非常开心，也激发了自己创作的欲望。

——曹白宇

Content introduction

As a young creator Mu Ming's first work, "As a Ring" includes her award-winning titles such as "As a Ring" and "Coloring the World" since her creation in 2017, as well as new titles such as "Breaking the Environment" and "Casting Dreams" created and rewritten between 2020 and 2022. The cutting-edge background of science and technology and the interdisciplinary interest in reading make these novels have a broad vision and a rigorous way of thinking, and the methods refined from science fiction, conjecture and other types of creation combine speculation and imagination into stories. These novels are not only independent, but also weave a rich and meaningful ring time and space through detailed and in-depth clues. From ancient times to contemporary life to the very distant future, the story reflects the shadow of reality at different scales of writing, so it is not overwhelmed by reality, but recreates reality with intelligence and achieves freedom with dexterity.

About the author

Mu Ming, real name Gu Congyun, female, born in 1988, author of imaginative novels, works scattered on the Internet, periodicals, anthologies. He has won the Douban Reading Essay Contest Award, the Future Science Fiction Master Award, the Galaxy Award, and the Global Chinese Science Fiction Nebula Award. He published a collection of short stories in Italian, Colora il mondo (Coloring the World).

Wonderful book review

The whole novel has a very good structure, and the images on all levels refer to each other. Building palaces, making figures, telling stories, archery, seeking the way, learning, etc., all of these processes are different manifestations of the same process, and the novel encourages readers to constantly cultivate such a kind of thinking dimension: That is, constantly discover the relationship between fragments and fragments, and gradually realize the secret connection of all things alike. This dimension of thinking is also related to the fact that the novel itself is divided into seemingly loose chunks and dots, and the reader is also required to participate in the work of "weaving" - reading is also a craft.

-- Wei Yongwu

It seems that the author wants to integrate the seemingly independent story into a narrative program or game, just like eight levels, and the reward after completing the completion is a reflection on "storytelling" itself, which is also a self-referential/reflexive, as if the author who wrote all this has infiltrated the "behind the scenes" creative philosophy into the plot, an egg is not opened, but turned inside and out. Become the book and vice versa. It is striking how ambitious and delicate this imaginary interest requires.

Benjamin has written a famous article "Storyteller", in which story is regarded as a kind of crafts (skills), condensing human experience, and even "the poetic nature of truth", while Muming's creation goes further, taking narrative as a platform/medium for intelligent evolution. If life is an algorithm, as Harari said, then story telling/fiction. Not only is it the core function that has connected humans since the beginning of time, but in her writing, it is also the power that will drive human intelligence to upgrade and even transcend the carbon-based body from now on.

——saintdump

This is really the best collection of Chinese short stories I have read in recent years, even if the "science fiction" genre is completely ignored, it still has its own unique style and depth as pure literature. The text is very transparent, rendering or white space not only can see the use of thought, but more rare is the courage to trust the reader's understanding ability. Therefore, whether it is in the fun of speculation, or in the beauty of the text and the stimulation of the imagination, it has brought a strong transcendental impact.

If I understand correctly, each piece of this entire collection is actually about the use of stories to mobilize deep human feelings and cognition, so that people (whether in the story or outside the story) can "see" the transcendental freedom at the level of consciousness. Although this freedom is still only a possibility outside of the story, the telling and hearing of the story is, after all, an ancient common experience, so that for the reader who understands it, this "possibility" is very real. This makes the whole book both insightful science fiction and a sincere celebration of literary tradition (oral and pure).

-- Zi Wendong

I think this novel really brings me a feeling of "emptiness". In traditional storytelling, there may be a main line of story beginning, development, climax and result, but in "Breaking Through", the author seems to deliberately remove them.

Compare this storyline to a big tree, the narrative Angle of the novel is wrapped around the tree spiral upward, but finally finished, the author let the tree disappear.

As I lay in bed after reading the novel for the first time, and turned off the light, I saw the early round spires of the Sagrada Familia in Gaudi (not the ones made of concrete in the last decade), but those stacked with bricks, each one not stacked vertically, but rotating and shifting, with red, yellow and brown bricks overlapping, twisting and spiraling upward, Eventually, it coalesced into a tower pointing skyward. The tower is hollow, hollow is important, let in light and air, the tower is hollow, because in this way, people can enter.

-- Yang Xi

After reading the mood is still very excited. I saw a higher mountain, so I was curious about the higher scenery. I feel that this is a work that can give birth to the courage of peers and hope to create the same wonderful content, and I am really happy after reading it, and I also inspired my desire to create.

-- Cao Baiyu