521 reviews for:

The Wandering Earth

Cixin Liu

4.03 AVERAGE

adventurous emotional sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
slow-paced
adventurous dark informative inspiring mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous dark hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
adventurous mysterious reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot

This collection of short stories is my first time reading from Cixin Liu of The Three Body Problem fame, and I can see why his writing is so well-known in the science fiction world. Although the titular first short story "The Wandering Earth" is the collection's namesake and has a movie adaptation, it was actually one of my least favorites in the book and I thought that it wasn't super interesting other than a couple nice quotes. The best short story in the collection for me was "Devourer" and it had the most memorable plot, most interesting ideas presented, and best execution. Although not all the short stories were a hit for me, as usual in short story collections, this book was a solid intro to Liu's works and it motivated me even more get around to reading his more famous work. 

My rankings for each short story:
The Wandering Earth - 3
Mountain - 4
Son of China - 3
For the Benefit of Mankind - 4
Curse 5.0 - 3
The Micro-Era - 4.5
Devourer - 5
Taking Care of God - 3
With Her Eyes - 3.5
Cannonball - 3.5

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

It is impossible for me to give this book less than five stars. It is another tour de force of imagination and creativity. While I prefer some of his other books, such as the three body problem and Ball, Lightning, this was still a fantastic ride!
adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad 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: Complicated
adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated