kay_ness 's review for:

The Wandering Earth by Cixin Liu

3.0

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There are many things wrong with the stories in this short story collection. With most written before Lui’s epic Remembrance of Earth’s Past (The Three Body Problem) trilogy, a number of the stories try out ideas which later reappear there. Most lack well developed characterisation, which is frustrating, and there is a serious lack of female characters in anything other than stereotypical mother/wife roles (with one exception).

So why bother reading it? For two reasons. Firstly because the author has some hugely interesting ideas, always backed up by, as far as possible, real science. It’s just a shame he doesn’t seem able to construct characterisation of matching quality around his ideas. And secondly, because it’s hugely interesting to read science fiction that has a Chinese sense of place and draws on Chinese history and culture. We forget how western-centric most of the genre’s writing is.

So overall 3 star but with some 5 star aspects.