Reviews - To Hold Up the Sky

263 reviews for:

Some of these stories end pretty awkwardly, his character dialogues are laughably stilted but (as it was with the Memory of Earth's Past trilogy) it's the terrific sense of wonder and awe at the universe that makes Liu's stories really stand out for me.

"Cloud of Poems" - with its dinosaur, Li Bai and protagonist- was a delightfully weird and fun story that really stood out!

thisguise's review against another edition

1.0

The worst thing I've ever read, with the exception of The Thinker — and I loved the 3 body trilogy.

Universally awful dialog and characters.

Every story is reverse engineered from a flimsy 'what if' scenario.

Hate-read this to completion to see how ridiculous it would get.

***

The Village Teacher: ★
Unbelievably contrived.
Standout cringe: grieving kids relaying newton's laws verbatim to an alien race who somehow have the ability to remotely create copies of living organisms and converse with them, but can't check for intelligence.

The Time Migration: ★
Nonsensical.
Standout cringe: I'm president of the world and I do what I want.

2018-04-01: ★★
Some interesting ideas, sloppily delivered.
Standout cringe: wHaT iF mOnEy GoT dElEtEd?!

Fire in the Earth: ★★★
Engaging story, 1-dimensional characters.
Standout cringe: "I don't like it, but i'll go along with it" — ground fire expert

Contraction: ★
A flimsy concept wrapped with annoying characters.
Standout Cringe: The big brain consortiums incredulousness at one another's lack of understanding

Mirror: ★★½
Cartoonish characters and corny delivery, but liked the exploration of grey areas in morality/truth/privacy/politics.
Standout cringe:

Ode to Joy: ★★½
More ridiculous dialog, and became too wacky but liked the first-contact angle.
Standout cringe: World leader's not being the narcissistic dumb fucks they are

Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming: ★
Sentimental toy soldier bullshit.
Standout cringe: kid flies spaceship into the sun to save mother Russia with an EMP

Sea of Dreams: ★
Silly AND boring.
Standout cringe: "yo i'ma turn the oceans into ice cubes … because art" — random alien

Cloud ot Poems: ★
Cloud of shit.
Standout cringe: talking dinosaurs on halo that inadvertently hollowed out the earth because they were too arrogant to write poems. cool.

The Thinker: ★★★★
Short and sweet, despite the doctor's incel vibes.

daniellekat's review against another edition

1.5

challenging reflective slow-paced

Loveable characters: No

SO BORING. This was brutal to get through...too many stories were WAY too long and detailed. There were some themes I found interesting but overall this was a slog. A couple of the stories were very similar, and overall I just felt too confused while reading this. I liked Village Teacher, Contraction, and The Thinker.

Content Warnings

scardenas's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

robbiezk's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging inspiring mysterious relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

leili_vee's review against another edition

2.0

I think I didn’t love it because I am ignorant of Chinese culture and all the nuances that might affect the sci fi genre, sadly. This style of writing doesn’t appeal to me at all, but I’m sure it’s just my brain being picky and not because it actually sucks.