From the fantastical inter-dimensional assassins of the title story to the steampunk dystopia of "Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard" skulking through the ruins of a civilisation wiped out by a plague, from Black Mirror-esque tales of blockchain cryptography ("Byzantine Empathy") and Internet trolling ("Thoughts and Prayers") to a three-story hard-SF arc about artificial intelligence and the singularity (" The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories author Ken Liu's status as one of the best short story authors in speculative fiction is confirmed by this collection.