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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I've loved Liu Cixin's writing ever since I devoured "The Three Body Problem" on a flight across the Pacific. "The Wandering Earth" didn't disappoint. It underscores Liu's abilities by highlighting his diverse writing styles. The stories range from tragic to humorous to uplifting, each one keeping me entranced. Unfortunately, the diversity also meant that some stories resonated with me less than others. On the whole I found the book engaging and thought-provoking, and I'm excited to read more of Lui's work.
adventurous
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
This short story collection was phenomenal, I will read anything Cixin Liu writes.
Bold beautiful
Bold beautiful witty big science fiction played out at enormous scale but with a cosmic comicality that keeps it all in flight.
Bold beautiful witty big science fiction played out at enormous scale but with a cosmic comicality that keeps it all in flight.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
3/5 - based on a rating and a review of each story. I have to confess the author has his distinctive style, yet sometimes I found it not very likeable.
1. The Wandering Earth - 2/5
In general it was ok, at times really good. It supposed to be an epic (short) story about the humanity’s ultimate journey of survival, yet it felt rather grotesque and pretentious with many simplifications at the same time.
2. Mountain - 3/5
I liked an idea which the story was based on, yet it seemed to contradict laws of physics without making any assumptions. That’s why it reminded me rather a fantasy parable/fable than a Sci-Fi short story. However, in that role it was good, and also made feasible too human-like mentality of the aliens.
3. On Ants and Dinosaurs - 2/5
A fable about a symbiotic civilization of ants and dinosaurs. In general it was ok, yet the writer kept his benchmark militaristic, warmongering, sombre, pseudo-epic, doomsdayish style. I hope he was sarcastic. This book is getting annoying, need to take a break.
4. Sun of China - 5/5
This is a wonderful story. A style reminded me classical Sci-Fi: technologically detailed and kindly humane at the same time. No politics, wars or ideology involved this time. Well done.
5. The Wages of Humanity - 4/5
A dark and gloomy Sci-Fi/crime short story which I have found a bit satirical yet remarkable. Some ideas could be traced in the Remembrance of the Earth’s past series.
6. Curse 5.0 - 2/5
A very typical story of the author, yet with some bit of self-irony. The series of evens are very predictable.
7. The Micro-Age - 4/5
Although the writer exploited practically the same ideas, this story in my opinion is the best one in the compilation so far. The main idea itself is extremely fascinating, yet it seems like some assumption is required for it to be real. I mean, as real as it could be in the current setting.
8. Devourer 2/5
Another story where a writer exploits pretty much the same ideas over and over again and which feels like a bit naïve simplified fairytale rather than a hard science fiction piece of writing.
9. Taking Care of Gods 2/5
A pretty much insipid fable/fairytale without any plot twists and with a minimal set of characters.
10. With Her Eyes 5/5
Probably the best short story of the book so far. Everything else I add would be a spoiler.
11. The Longest Fall 3/5
A very cool story about a super-Engineering mega project with a reference to another short story presented in this book. The only objection - too dramatic and intense style, yet it is very typical for the writer and I have a suspicion in might be a kind of sarcasm..
1. The Wandering Earth - 2/5
In general it was ok, at times really good. It supposed to be an epic (short) story about the humanity’s ultimate journey of survival, yet it felt rather grotesque and pretentious with many simplifications at the same time.
2. Mountain - 3/5
I liked an idea which the story was based on, yet it seemed to contradict laws of physics without making any assumptions. That’s why it reminded me rather a fantasy parable/fable than a Sci-Fi short story. However, in that role it was good, and also made feasible too human-like mentality of the aliens.
3. On Ants and Dinosaurs - 2/5
A fable about a symbiotic civilization of ants and dinosaurs. In general it was ok, yet the writer kept his benchmark militaristic, warmongering, sombre, pseudo-epic, doomsdayish style. I hope he was sarcastic. This book is getting annoying, need to take a break.
4. Sun of China - 5/5
This is a wonderful story. A style reminded me classical Sci-Fi: technologically detailed and kindly humane at the same time. No politics, wars or ideology involved this time. Well done.
5. The Wages of Humanity - 4/5
A dark and gloomy Sci-Fi/crime short story which I have found a bit satirical yet remarkable. Some ideas could be traced in the Remembrance of the Earth’s past series.
6. Curse 5.0 - 2/5
A very typical story of the author, yet with some bit of self-irony. The series of evens are very predictable.
7. The Micro-Age - 4/5
Although the writer exploited practically the same ideas, this story in my opinion is the best one in the compilation so far. The main idea itself is extremely fascinating, yet it seems like some assumption is required for it to be real. I mean, as real as it could be in the current setting.
8. Devourer 2/5
Another story where a writer exploits pretty much the same ideas over and over again and which feels like a bit naïve simplified fairytale rather than a hard science fiction piece of writing.
9. Taking Care of Gods 2/5
A pretty much insipid fable/fairytale without any plot twists and with a minimal set of characters.
10. With Her Eyes 5/5
Probably the best short story of the book so far. Everything else I add would be a spoiler.
11. The Longest Fall 3/5
A very cool story about a super-Engineering mega project with a reference to another short story presented in this book. The only objection - too dramatic and intense style, yet it is very typical for the writer and I have a suspicion in might be a kind of sarcasm..
adventurous
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
(I think this entry in Goodreads is just for the novella and not the similarly-titled short story collection. I couldn’t find a separate entry for the collection, so my overall review will be here as well as the story itself.)
When I saw that this collection had multiple translators, I initially assumed that my favorites had been translated by Ken Liu and the others by Holger Nahm. Based on the info in Goodreads, this does not appear to be the case. Still, there was a very wide variation in quality of writing, and I have a hard time believing that’s not related to the translation. (Since my assumption was wrong, this is probably also an unfair conclusion.)
I remember reading a very interesting afterward by Ken Liu in one of the Three Body Problem books about the difficulty of translating a book: it’s not just a translation of words but sometimes also ideas, ways of thinking, histories, things that one culture takes for granted without explanation but then fall flat for another. I don’t get a sense that these stories benefited as much from historical knowledge of China as his trilogy, but maybe there’s some of that going on here too.
Overall, I thought this was a fine collection but would probably not recommend it to most people.
On to the specific story!
I would also give “The Wandering Earth” itself 3-stars. I read this after having watched the movie that was (very) loosely based on it. It’s a cool idea, but I don’t feel like the story went anywhere interesting with it. I was often confused about how much time they were spending on the surface, but the story may have glossed over the protective measures they had to take for the sake of brevity. *shrug*
The bit near the end where the one faction was proven right felt like a really abrupt and cheaty way to end the story. I guess the author was going for feels, but I did not feel them.
When I saw that this collection had multiple translators, I initially assumed that my favorites had been translated by Ken Liu and the others by Holger Nahm. Based on the info in Goodreads, this does not appear to be the case. Still, there was a very wide variation in quality of writing, and I have a hard time believing that’s not related to the translation. (Since my assumption was wrong, this is probably also an unfair conclusion.)
I remember reading a very interesting afterward by Ken Liu in one of the Three Body Problem books about the difficulty of translating a book: it’s not just a translation of words but sometimes also ideas, ways of thinking, histories, things that one culture takes for granted without explanation but then fall flat for another. I don’t get a sense that these stories benefited as much from historical knowledge of China as his trilogy, but maybe there’s some of that going on here too.
Overall, I thought this was a fine collection but would probably not recommend it to most people.
On to the specific story!
I would also give “The Wandering Earth” itself 3-stars. I read this after having watched the movie that was (very) loosely based on it. It’s a cool idea, but I don’t feel like the story went anywhere interesting with it. I was often confused about how much time they were spending on the surface, but the story may have glossed over the protective measures they had to take for the sake of brevity. *shrug*
The bit near the end where the one faction was proven right felt like a really abrupt and cheaty way to end the story. I guess the author was going for feels, but I did not feel them.