Reviews

Supernova Era by Cixin Liu

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lizlaughlove's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

quarkie's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This book... was not very good. I think it was the author's first book, and it showed. When I read the premise, I immediately thought of Lord of the Flies. It feels like this author just wrote his own version of that story, and then also mixed it with the Hunger Games.

What I liked: The premise was interesting enough to keep me wanting to read it just to find out how things resolved. That said, I think the overall premise was the only redeeming aspect of the book.

What I didn't like:
Similar to Ball Lightning, this book had a somewhat meandering plot and consistently jumped from rail to rail. But in Ball Lightning, each new part of the story had an interesting philosophical question to explore. That was not the case here, making the flow of the plot feel very disjointed, and giving the reader a form of whiplash.
For being a speculative fiction book, I don't think the author does a good job predicting how humanity would react to the extreme positions that they are put in. I think his view of how the humans prepare the children is much too rosy, and his view of the children is much too bleak. He paints this dichotomy between the older children who are hyper responsible, and everyone who takes no part in their own survival, leaving out much of the spectrum that would be in between.
He also juxtaposes the reactions of children from different countries, but relies on sweeping and often unkind generalizations to arrive at his conclusions (US children being violent, Argentinean children loving soccer, Chinese children being studious but also reliant on central authority, etc).
There are parts of the book that are incredible descriptive (such as a rollercoaster ride being described for several very long pages), and other parts where things "just happen" and no detail is given. There are often plot points that come up, that don't play into the later plot, leaving some opportunities unrealized.

Overall, I think even Cixin Liu fans can skip this one. I wouldn't have been sad to not read it.

amelia_lim's review against another edition

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2.0

The premise is pretty interesting, I had a lot of hope reading it until the second half of the book... Unlike a lot of other reviewers, I don't think it's boring. It's just, a lot of things don't make sense anymore, I cannot find the reason why certain event happened, or what motivates the character to do certain things. I don't want to say the hypothesis of the author is wrong, but I want to at least understand where those theories are coming from.
Please note that this is one of the earliest work from the author. His Remembrance of the Earth's past series is one the most amazing series I had ever read. Practise does make things better and I'm very happy to witness that through this author :)

kam14505's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

dkadastra's review against another edition

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2.0

Just didn't live up to expectations after his initial trilogy. The book posits a pretty interesting premise, but I had a hard time believing some of the directions the author took the story. To be fair, who knows what a world run by children would look like, but I wish he has shown more "work" as to why the children made certain decisions, beyond just "we're not adults." There was also an AI deus ex machina near the beginning that didn't really play into the story later on, even as the children debated whether it was a good idea to allow it to save them all. The writing also seemed a bit stilted, but that's most likely due to the effort of translation. I noticed it in the Three Body Problem from time to time, but it seemed more jarring here. Overall, not mad that I read it, but I don't think I'd ever feel a desire to reread it.