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A review by nickedkins
Ball Lightning by Cixin Liu
4.0
What Cixin Liu does best is describing the way unknown or impossible objects and forces act upon the real world. His descriptions of people turning to ash after touching ball lightning, or of the way it moves, or even of the various weapons systems in the book (which would normally elicit revulsion from me) are concrete and beautiful.
His weakest point is his characters and their interactions, which are usually either heavy-handed exposition or annoying Murakami-style examples of enigmatic people failing to connect (unless we're told they connect, despite no evidence of it on the page). What lifted [b:The Three-Body Problem|20518872|The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1)|Liu Cixin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1415428227s/20518872.jpg|25696480] beyond this was the Trisolarans, the alien antagonists who were genuinely surprising and interesting in their tactical and emotional range. Ball Lightning lacks this extra spark, but it does everything else right, and unrealistic characters aren't exactly a deal-breaker for me in science fiction.
His weakest point is his characters and their interactions, which are usually either heavy-handed exposition or annoying Murakami-style examples of enigmatic people failing to connect (unless we're told they connect, despite no evidence of it on the page). What lifted [b:The Three-Body Problem|20518872|The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1)|Liu Cixin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1415428227s/20518872.jpg|25696480] beyond this was the Trisolarans, the alien antagonists who were genuinely surprising and interesting in their tactical and emotional range. Ball Lightning lacks this extra spark, but it does everything else right, and unrealistic characters aren't exactly a deal-breaker for me in science fiction.