Ball Lightning Cixin Liu Review

It s a quieter book than the three body problem but but no less potent a reminder that cixin liu is a vital singular voice in modern science fiction.

Ball lightning cixin liu review. Once ball lightning gets rolling this sci fi mind bender shines the novel is chinese writer cixin liu s first in english since his remembrance of earth s past trilogy. Cixin liu s ball lightning opens with a young chen witnessing his parents being incinerated by an unexplained sphere of energy and then follows chen as he delves ever deeper into the mysteries surrounding this inscrutable atmospheric phenomenon. Ball lightning is liu s fourth book in english the first three having comprised a hard science fiction. In the afterword to ball lightning cixin liu locates his novel within the genre of the invention story p.

Ball lightning is available august 14. I m a fan of cixin liu s remembrance of earth past trilogy. Multiple award winning chinese science fiction author cixin liu is having a moment in the anglophone world. This in part explains the narrowness of focus as liu follows certain conventions that the reader may not be aware of.

The theory liu about which he writes is not only speculative but incredibly inventive and this carries the reader through the book as fast as one is able to read. A new science fiction venture from the award winning chinese author of the brilliant alien contact trilogy concluded with death s end 2016 whose readers hopefully learned to expect the unexpected. His obsession leads him into top secret laboratories and culminates in the accidental realization of a new form of military deterrence. And that series.

When chen s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning he devotes his life to cracking the. The story plays on advanced physics. As a boy chen we re offered no other name watches in helpless horror as ball lightning engendered by a powerful electrical storm incinerates his parents. The second book in that series the dark forest remains in my personal top three sci fi novels of all time and will most likely stay there for a very long time.

Plus the fact that ball lightning is translated by joel. Ball lightning makes an antagonist out of atmospheric phenomena and finds moments of unbelievable suspense in scientific research. Ball lightning the newest book to appear in english from the bestselling chinese science fiction author cixin liu was actually written over a decade ago at about the same time as this writer s famous three body trilogy it appears now in part thanks to the success of that trilogy and dovetails nicely with the other books in terms of both tenor and some key background plot elements. From the new york times bestselling author of the three body trilogy cixin liu s ball lightning is the story of what happens when the beauty of scientific inquiry runs up against the drive to harness new discoveries with no consideration of their possible consequences.