Paperback, 336 pages
Published April 1, 2021 by Head of Zeus -- an AdAstra Book.
Collection of imaginative science fiction by Cixin Liu, translated from Chinese.
Stories included are:
It's a collection of short stories. An introduction from the author himself is awesome. Read it if you want to feel what science fiction writer feels when he writes.
Each story is pretty little gem. It's not jaw-dropping, epic, mind-bending, but poetic and clean.
I have to say, the one thing that kept bothering me throughout the audiobook was that the spaces between one story and the next were shorter than spaces between words in a sentence as spoken by the narrator at times. I probably could have fixed it somehow by fidgeting with some settings or something, but mostly I like how audible app works with other books, and didn't find in one quick look. So yeah, I started taking breaks from listening after each story ends, so that I could think about the latest story a little bit. With all that, it's the last story that stands out the most to me, even though I don't think it was the most interesting idea or anything. It just had a lot of things I really like. Stars in a little bit magical way, neuro science, slightly sciency pattern art, a connection between people …
I have to say, the one thing that kept bothering me throughout the audiobook was that the spaces between one story and the next were shorter than spaces between words in a sentence as spoken by the narrator at times. I probably could have fixed it somehow by fidgeting with some settings or something, but mostly I like how audible app works with other books, and didn't find in one quick look. So yeah, I started taking breaks from listening after each story ends, so that I could think about the latest story a little bit. With all that, it's the last story that stands out the most to me, even though I don't think it was the most interesting idea or anything. It just had a lot of things I really like. Stars in a little bit magical way, neuro science, slightly sciency pattern art, a connection between people that doesn't require day-to-day upkeep. I hope I remember other stories too, because they were kind of cool too, but "Thinker" won for me.
3.25 Liu was able to hold back on overt sexist commentary until the last story. Detailed dives into narrow points of imagination. He can't conceive of worlds where leaders aren't men, where justice and art thrive together, where god-like entities have more emotional intelligence than insecure, petulant babies.
"The Village Teacher" ★★★½ "The Time Migration" ★★★ "2018-04-01" ★★★ "Fire In The Earth" ★★★ "Contraction" ★★★ "Mirror" ★★★ "Ode To Joy" ★★★ "Full Spectrum Barrage Jamming" ★★½ "Sea of Dreams" ★★★ "Cloud of Poems" ★★★ "The Thinker" ★★½
