Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ineffablebob 's review for:
Supernova Era
by Cixin Liu
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
In Supernova Era, by Cixin Liu (of Three Body Problem fame), all adult life on Earth is wiped out by a supernova's radiation burst over approximately a year, leaving just enough time to train children to take over running the world. I'd classify it as a science fairy tale - it's certainly not hard sci-fi, and the addition of actors like a super-powerful quantum computer put it even beyond what I'd consider normal science fiction and into the realm of fairy story. I found it entertaining to follow the events, sort of a Lord of the Flies setup writ large across the entire world, and the way things end up is certainly novel. However, beyond that big-picture progression, there's not much happening. There's no real significant character development - the few characters with major roles are one-dimensional and have little personality, present just enough to push the narrative forward. There's little attention paid to the personal-level struggles of children who lose family, rather focusing on big society-level issues. Even the day-to-day issues of running society are largely pushed the background, as it's largely just assumed that enough kids are working on basic infrastructure like power and transportation, even as much of the rest of society struggles. If that kind of exploration of the premise sounds interesting, you may like this one; but if you're most interested in highly logical extrapolation from the premise or personal stories in such a world, this isn't the book for you.