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polarcubby's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-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
2.0
_tomeraider's review against another edition
challenging
funny
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I'm going to be completely honest and admit that a lot of the scientific jargon and some of the philosophizing went completely over my head, but beneath all that is the bare bones of a pretty good story.
We have a cast of four characters who are brought together in the midst of a brewing war between two opposing factions. One of the members of the group, Yun Fan, is looking to finish the work started by her grandfather and to make contact with an alien civilization.
So starts this journey where our characters end up on an alien spacecraft and come across and actual alien.
Like I mentioned previously, there were some parts that had me a bit confused and as a result, felt a bit dense. However, I really did enjoy our little ragtag group of characters and how they each played off each other. I also really enjoyed the blend of science mixed with Chinese mythology and history.
There were so many unique concepts in this book and the aliens weren't your typical aliens that pop in your mind when you think of them.
I loved how each character had to come to terms with their different behaviors and learned how important it is to form relationships. Chang Tian was definitely the most wholesome character that really was the glue of the group.
Overall, although there parts of the book I didn't 100% understand (which may be a result of things lost in translation) I really did feel this was a solid scifi and I'd be interested in reading more from this author.
<< Thank you to Netgalley and Saga Press for sending me an E-Arc in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. >>
We have a cast of four characters who are brought together in the midst of a brewing war between two opposing factions. One of the members of the group, Yun Fan, is looking to finish the work started by her grandfather and to make contact with an alien civilization.
So starts this journey where our characters end up on an alien spacecraft and come across and actual alien.
Like I mentioned previously, there were some parts that had me a bit confused and as a result, felt a bit dense. However, I really did enjoy our little ragtag group of characters and how they each played off each other. I also really enjoyed the blend of science mixed with Chinese mythology and history.
There were so many unique concepts in this book and the aliens weren't your typical aliens that pop in your mind when you think of them.
I loved how each character had to come to terms with their different behaviors and learned how important it is to form relationships. Chang Tian was definitely the most wholesome character that really was the glue of the group.
Overall, although there parts of the book I didn't 100% understand (which may be a result of things lost in translation) I really did feel this was a solid scifi and I'd be interested in reading more from this author.
<< Thank you to Netgalley and Saga Press for sending me an E-Arc in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. >>
armamix's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
Really disappointed, as I liked Vagabonds and Folding Beijing a lot. This felt preachy and slow. Too much exposition and way way too detailed explaining of characters feelings. Dialogues feel artificial too.
Also, is this supposed to be the late 21st century? And we are still at the 2020 level of debate on the use of block chains and machine learning?
Also, is this supposed to be the late 21st century? And we are still at the 2020 level of debate on the use of block chains and machine learning?
crothe77's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I was given an ARC by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang is a Chinese sci-fi story about four people learning about how aliens have helped advance human civilizations. The four are Yun Fan, Qi Fei, and Chang Tian who are childhood friends and Jiang Liu who is romantically pursuing Yun Fan and is rivals with Qi Fei. The world has been divided into the Pacific vs the Atlantic, fighting against each other for control.
What I liked was the questions asked about civilization. My favorite question was ‘if an ancient society technically still continues through it’s people, language, and culture, but the government changed, did it actually end?’ in relation to Greece, China, and several other ancient societies. It’s a great question and there is no clear cut answer provided, referencing how morality and values change and that could be a key factor.
The novel explores ancient Chinese philosophy, utilizes Chinese history and folklore/mythology, and imagines a universe where aliens have helped civilizations on Earth to advance while also exploring cosmology, how societies in different universes would view time differently, and of symbiotic relationships between societies. I really loved the use of qilin and loong as they are two of my favorites in Chinese folklore.
Qi Fei, Yun Fan, Jiang Liu, and Chang Tian all felt very distinct with very different personalities and each dynamic was different as a result. My favorite dynamic was Qi Fei and Jiang Liu’s with Jiang Liu and Yun Fan’s a close second. Yun Fan was perhaps my favorite character.
The translator, Ken Liu, provided some footnotes to help readers unfamiliar with concepts in Chinese philosophy or classics in the Chinese literary canon. While I was familiar with most of it, I still found the footnotes useful when I couldn’t remember a detail or if the information was new to me.
I would recommend this to fans of sci-fi exploring the relationship between aliens and society, readers looking for sci-fi in translation, and lovers of Chinese philosophy used in the sci-fi and fantasy space.
lprongs's review against another edition
Realized I was forcing myself to keep picking this book up. I was totally hooked by the premise, but the writing style and characters annoy me. It feels a lot like "men writing women" despite being written by a woman. I also thought it was gonna be more like The Expanse with East vs West philosophies for first contact, but so far it's just "no ancient civilization could have been possible without aliens!" ancientaliens.gif. Odd mix of harder scifi with alien conspiracies.
May pick back up later and see if it improves, but probably not. Too many other books, too little time.
Did learn a lot about Chinese history though, and I liked Ken Liu's choice to leave a lot of transliterated Chinese concepts instead of directly translating them, as well as the footnotes.
May pick back up later and see if it improves, but probably not. Too many other books, too little time.
Did learn a lot about Chinese history though, and I liked Ken Liu's choice to leave a lot of transliterated Chinese concepts instead of directly translating them, as well as the footnotes.
michela_wilson's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
3.0
If you ever enjoyed those late-night History Channel "documentaries" that try to prove aliens were the reason for humanity's progress you are going to absolutely love Jumpnauts!
In this futuristic version of Earth, we follow of group of four unlikely friends who find out aliens are coming to Earth and they might be friendly. However, they live in an era of a cold war between two major factions who both want the aliens' power for themselves. These four have to find the aliens first and convince them and themselves that humanity is worth helping and trusting in.
I had an incredible time reading this book. The beginning was a little melodramatic and the science was a bit funky, but I really enjoyed the characters and all of their quirks, which began to shine in the second half of the novel. The latter half of this book starts to get deeper into each character's motivation for being who they are. They each have to dissect their past and what they want their future to be. In fact, this book's best feature is the deep conversations about the importance of community and individuality in humanity and whether there is hope for the future.
The main issue I had when reading Jumpnauts was the amount of loredumping there was in the beginning. Now I am a big sci-fi and fantasy reader and I understand the need for a lore drop now and again, but there were times I felt like I was reading a textbook, which was not a fun time. I think this may have been because of the translation of the book from Maderian to English. I believe the translator may have felt the need to overexplain some details, but I did not like how it ended up in the final work. There was no trust put in the reader to figure out how the world operated because it was straight-up told to you, but the lore dumping is not as bad in the latter half of the book.
I am very excited to see more of this world and I had a wonderful time escaping into this futuristic alien universe.
Thank you to Netgalley and Hao Jingfang for giving me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
In this futuristic version of Earth, we follow of group of four unlikely friends who find out aliens are coming to Earth and they might be friendly. However, they live in an era of a cold war between two major factions who both want the aliens' power for themselves. These four have to find the aliens first and convince them and themselves that humanity is worth helping and trusting in.
I had an incredible time reading this book. The beginning was a little melodramatic and the science was a bit funky, but I really enjoyed the characters and all of their quirks, which began to shine in the second half of the novel. The latter half of this book starts to get deeper into each character's motivation for being who they are. They each have to dissect their past and what they want their future to be. In fact, this book's best feature is the deep conversations about the importance of community and individuality in humanity and whether there is hope for the future.
The main issue I had when reading Jumpnauts was the amount of loredumping there was in the beginning. Now I am a big sci-fi and fantasy reader and I understand the need for a lore drop now and again, but there were times I felt like I was reading a textbook, which was not a fun time. I think this may have been because of the translation of the book from Maderian to English. I believe the translator may have felt the need to overexplain some details, but I did not like how it ended up in the final work. There was no trust put in the reader to figure out how the world operated because it was straight-up told to you, but the lore dumping is not as bad in the latter half of the book.
I am very excited to see more of this world and I had a wonderful time escaping into this futuristic alien universe.
Thank you to Netgalley and Hao Jingfang for giving me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Minor: War and Misogyny
adam_penny's review against another edition
challenging
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
jessicanb93's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I love first contact sci-fi books so I was so excited when I was approved for an eARC by NetGalley and Saga Press. Jumpnauts had a lot more philosophy in it than I was expecting and some of it was a bit hard for me to get through. There were certain speaking passages that were a page long (on my Kindle Paperwhite) and it felt dense at times.
I did like the 4 main characters but wish we had gotten a bit more depth to them. I have heard this is planned to be a six book series so I'm sure we will get a lot of character growth in upcoming books but I do wish there had been more exploring in this book. The ending of the book left me curious about what the rest of the series will bring.
I loved Ken Liu's translator note at the beginning of the book as well as his footnotes throughout the book.
I did like the 4 main characters but wish we had gotten a bit more depth to them. I have heard this is planned to be a six book series so I'm sure we will get a lot of character growth in upcoming books but I do wish there had been more exploring in this book. The ending of the book left me curious about what the rest of the series will bring.
I loved Ken Liu's translator note at the beginning of the book as well as his footnotes throughout the book.
the_m_lor's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0