416 pages
Published Jan. 12, 2016 by Tor Books.
Within the context of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, a military project sends messages to alien worlds. A nearby alien society receives these messages and makes plans to invade Earth.
I just kept reading to find out what was going on, the book really sucked me into the world and I couldn't stop myself as I had to know what was going on and how this was all connected.
A bunch of interesting ideas, but miles away from a great book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book (and the rest of the trilogy), always worry that I'm missing out with a translation, but I'm a fan of the translator, Ken Liu, an accomplished sci-fi writer in his own right (I would say better, actually). The story is highly imaginitive but still grounded in science, characters are perhaps a bit wooden but distinct, and I was surprised at the harsh depiction of the Cultural Revolution. I'm glad I read this before I read his interview defending the Xinjiang internment/genocide ("They're terrorists! We're giving them job training!"). Now I can barely stand to look at his book covers.
The book starts very strong with a mysterious atmosphere and thrilling scenes. There are large sections where the main character is playing a computer game for some reason and I didn’t enjoy them very much. The characters are a bit shallow with a few exceptions.
There are some very clever ideas about technology and sci-fi ish solutions, although some seemed a bit too crazy to my taste.
I am not sure how I feel about the book. I enjoyed the atmosphere, there were quite a few very good chapters, but I am not sure if I want to continue with the other books of the trilogy.
I thought it started out really strong but became unnecessarily fantastical, which took away from it quite a lot. I also didn't feel the characters motivations were particularly convincing. Lots of cool ideas and interesting thoughts but the great overall concept and story line could have been a lot better.
The book starts strong, but ends with a fizzle.
The book has many cultural revolution analogies that give it an unfamiliar series of allusions for western readers. Overall I didn't find the alien technologies and game theme engaging and struggled to finish it. Haven't read the sequels yet, either.
Es el primer libro cifi que leo y me ha sorprendido gratamente. No esperaba que metiera tantos conceptos físicos en este libro, pero es muy interesante lo que cuentan. Ahora tengo más ganas de leer la continuación que me ha dejado con las ganas de saber más
I feel like the one saving grace for this book was that I went into it completely blind, not knowing anything about it, so was pulled forward by the mystery and wondering what was going on and how it blended into the backdrop of the cultural revolution.
All of the characters felt like two dimensional moving parts just to push the plot forward. I'd describe this book as 'stuff happens' with the only character having any 'depth' being Shi and the first few chapters of Ye.
This book was ok. I enjoyed the story and the characters. The big knock on it for me was the multiple massive time jumps and skips all over the place. That pulled me out of the story every time it happened.
That being said, I'm excited to dig into the next book in the series.
Authors just can't get a slack, can they? He writes an amazing physics sci-fi, and the reader (me) just goes "I don't know, the videogame sounds sus".
This book I tried to rush to finish last year, but didn't manage by about an hour, so I started anew. And it was worth it. I enjoy art so much more if I take my time with it, taking breaks when I start losing interest or need to take time to take something in.
Listening for the second time, the videogame still sounded sus, but it was a guy who doesn't play much games making guesses about how the game works and, I think, getting it wrong. Specifically, the protagonist guessed that some char was a player not an NPC, but if the game was multiplayer it wouldn't make any sense, so I assume it's a single player game. Even so, there's …
Authors just can't get a slack, can they? He writes an amazing physics sci-fi, and the reader (me) just goes "I don't know, the videogame sounds sus".
This book I tried to rush to finish last year, but didn't manage by about an hour, so I started anew. And it was worth it. I enjoy art so much more if I take my time with it, taking breaks when I start losing interest or need to take time to take something in.
Listening for the second time, the videogame still sounded sus, but it was a guy who doesn't play much games making guesses about how the game works and, I think, getting it wrong. Specifically, the protagonist guessed that some char was a player not an NPC, but if the game was multiplayer it wouldn't make any sense, so I assume it's a single player game. Even so, there's very little metagaming among players going on for such an involved game.
I kind of wish I knew the physics that were fantasized about to know how much it was actually fantasy, but at least it was novel fantasy and not wormholes or some such.
But all that is just backdrop to set up a unique "what if" for exploring people and the people aspect was great.
Empecé con muchas ganas este ganador del Premio Hugo de 2015. Ciencia ficción "hard", de una cultura un tanto exótica para mí como la china, y con aplauso unánime de la crítica, prometía mucho. Y no es que sea una mala lectura ni mucho menos, pero me ha acabado decepcionando bastante.
Se dice que el autor está muy influido por Asimov, Clarke y similares, y la verdad es que sí: la trama contiene muchos elementos que podían haber sido originales en los años 60, pero que desde luego hoy en día no lo son, al menos en Occidente. El personaje principal es bastante plano; los secundarios, que tenían mimbres para ser interesantes, acaban resultando estereotípicos; el hecho de que la novela acabe en un "continuará" (es el primer libro de una trilogía) no ayuda tampoco a la redondez de la trama.
En otros aspectos donde se ven influencias de otros …
Empecé con muchas ganas este ganador del Premio Hugo de 2015. Ciencia ficción "hard", de una cultura un tanto exótica para mí como la china, y con aplauso unánime de la crítica, prometía mucho. Y no es que sea una mala lectura ni mucho menos, pero me ha acabado decepcionando bastante.
Se dice que el autor está muy influido por Asimov, Clarke y similares, y la verdad es que sí: la trama contiene muchos elementos que podían haber sido originales en los años 60, pero que desde luego hoy en día no lo son, al menos en Occidente. El personaje principal es bastante plano; los secundarios, que tenían mimbres para ser interesantes, acaban resultando estereotípicos; el hecho de que la novela acabe en un "continuará" (es el primer libro de una trilogía) no ayuda tampoco a la redondez de la trama.
En otros aspectos donde se ven influencias de otros autores, los extraterrestres, lejanos y enigmáticos pero a la vez muy humanos, me recuerdan poderosamente a los de Los Propios Dioses; el juego de realidad virtual no puede menos de sonarnos a Ender... Pero todo ello con menos fuerza que las referencias originales.
Curiosamente, donde me parece que el libro se vuelve más vivo y brillante es en sus regresiones sobre China, la Revolución Cultural y su evolución posterior. Quizás es simplemente por mi desconocimiento sobre el tema, pero los capítulos centrados en ese tema se me hicieron mucho más interesantes.
El libro se lee bien, entretiene y es de lectura ágil, pero esperaba algo más. No sé si continuaré con los otros dos libros de la trilogía, tocará pensarlo.
I had mixed feelings about this one. Some of the plot and conflict I really enjoyed. But the characterization wasn’t working for me and there were some heavy science info dumps that were rough, even for someone who enjoys learning about quantum physics.
Interesting with several physics plot twists. Almost no social commentary, as the author explains in an afterword. Although I found it interesting to read something mostly set in China through the Cultural Revolution and beyond, I found the pages of details on pseudo-physics tedious if ingenious. Glad I read this one, but unlikely to read the sequels.
Pues... venía tan recomendado que me he llevado un ligero chasco. Posiblemente tenga tantas virtudes como defectos: la trama se despliega con cierta elegancia y se cierra con algún chirrido, no demasiado grave; los aspectos científicos parecen bien traídos, pero las motivaciones de los personajes apenas se esbozan, parecen tomar decisiones que cambian vidas por poco menos que ocurrencias de un momento de calentón. Sólo la protagonista aparece definida, el resto son máscaras.
Lo más incómodo para mí ha sido la escala a la que se desarrolla todo, tan cósmica ella y tan difícil de abarcar.
Se lee del tirón, pero se nota demasiado la pincelada gruesa.
