The Wandering Earth: Classic Science Fiction Collection

The Wandering Earth movie was based on the open short story of this collection. However, the two are quite different. Both deal with the challenge of moving the earth to a new location to escape the exploding sun. There are also cataclysms and problems with the earth thrusters. There are also a space station overseeing the work. However, the short story paints a much broader picture, while the movie goes into small details of certain events. The short story also extends further into the future, with the earth doing serious wandering, while the movie ends earlier. 

The people in the story story have Chinese sentiments. When encountering a major problem, the hierarchy helps create a unified solution. People drop religion in favor of the science of moving the earth.

However, after the earth starts to move, there are doubters. They see that the sun is still there. A rebel group appears to complain that the sun is not going to die. There was no need to move the earth. They capture those in charge of moving the earth and sentence them to death. However, they then see the helium flash of the sun dying. Oops! We see people move from heroes to villains to heroes again. Now the earth can be on its way. The book has a strong message against mob descent that is totally absent from the movie.

The Mountain begins with the tale of a scientist who never leaves the ship. It turns out he loved climbing mountains. However, on an attempt to scale Everest he sacrificed everyone else so that he could live. Not going on land again is his penance. As they are sailing near the equator, a giant alien ship appears. People are concerned that it will destroy the world. However, in the process, it creates a giant "water mountain". He feels inclined to climb it (as everyone else goes away fearing the end of the earth.) Once there, he talks with the aliens. This begins the main part of the book. The aliens are electro-mechanical lifeforms that came from a hollow world. They had no concept of anything other than vacuum and rock. They struggled through millennia of exploration and politics before finally tunneling through to the surface, where they were killed by water. Eventually they managed to survive it and finally got to the surface. In the process, their theories of the extent of the universe were constantly evolving and changing, often moving backwards before going forwards. They consider the earth "lucky" to have a head start and already be living on the surface. It is a good example of the power of framing the situation. (It is also a case of more challenges encouraging more innovation.)

Of Ants and Dinosaurs is an alternative history of the fall of dinosaurs. They had created a great civilization. However, they had split into two groups. They took mutually assured destruction to the extreme and eventually blew up the world with anti-matter. These seem to be the US and Soviet Union in the cold war. The ants play the role of China. They help to manufacture most of the high technology that the ants invent. They are not nearly as creative, but they are more industrious and creative. The dinos become very dependent on the ants. The two groups work symbiotically to create an advanced civilization. However, the ants tire of the dinosaur fighting and go on strike, and later decide to take down the dinosaurs. Alas, this also stop the "deadman" switch. The contained antimatter obliterates the world and the ants come to the "dark age" of ants. This seems to be a very political message addressed at the Chinese. "You know those other countries are brutes. However, they do have some redeeming qualities. We will be much better keeping together than trying to eliminate them."

The Sun of China is an interesting story of the Chinese villager venturing out - way out. A barely literate peasant goes to the city and gets a job as a window washer. At the same time, China has launched a "reflective sun" to help control the weather. It gets dirty and they need people to clean it. They were going to get astronauts with PHds. However, they were convinced that the window washers had the needed expertise. Eventually, Stephen Hawking goes up there. This country boy brefriends him and learns about space. When it comes time to decommission the "sun station" this former peasant advocates manning it to sail off into the unknown. I wonder if this is how sailors going to the new world would fail. After all, many of those crews never did return. 

The Wages of Humanity centers on a hitman for hire. He is hired by some rich people to gun down some poor people because they refuse to accept money. He is later highered by one of his victims to gun down the rich people. He truly is for hire. The science fiction aspect revolves around aliens that have come to colonize earth. They plan on creating a reservation on Australia (an idea he will use in another book.) The standard of living there will be based on the minimal standard needed by earthlings. Thus, there is a desire to have a high level of equality. It turns out that the invading force comes from a planet where one man had managed to accumulate all resources (even air), and thus all of their residents had sought a new abode.

Curse 5.0. is about 5 iterations of the Curse virus. The author himself makes an appearance and starts the 4th version in a drunken stuper. (This one destroys Taiyuan, China) The 5th version is set to destroy the world. The virus uses AI to manipulate people. And first it was just to hurt Si Ba, but the "handcuffs" were gradually removed.

Micro-Age is a civilization of mini-humans that were created to survive after the sun flared. A big human that came in a ship came back and realized they were better, so he killed off the few remaining embryos. The "small" humans can fly like dust.

The Devourer is a giant space ship that is set to gobble up earth. Humans try an attempt to block it by setting nuclear blasts on the moon. The ship manages to avoid it by accelerating, but is damaged. The devourers want to use humans as food. Those "food" humans are happy, and then they are slaughtered for meat. It turns out that the devourers are dinosaurs that set on a long voyage many years ago.

Take Care of Gods is an allegory of taking care of our seniors. The gods are the original creators of humanity. They have come back and live among the humans, who take car of them. They tried to impart of their great knowledge. However, humanity doesn't have the capacity to understand. Eventually humans tire of taking care of their gods. However, the gods are ready to leave, and impart wisdom that people have "brothers" that have turned out much worse.

In With Her Eyes a technology allows space travelers to experience the sensory stimuli of somebody wearing special glasses. We learn that the person that experienced them was not in space, but in a vehicle tunnelled deep within the earth. The vehicle accidentally hit the earth's core and lost the engine. The occupant is now stuck there for the rest of her life. The experience with the "eyes" was the last she had before she lost the bandwidth to communicate.

The Longest Fall centers around the experience of a man who wakes up from a quarter-century of sleep to discover the world had changed. The atmosphere is polluted and his recently deceased son is considered a scourge of society. He spent countless sums of money to create a tube through the earth from China to Antarctica. The people throw him in the tube. On the other end, people are alerted to him coming and he is able to exit. He goes to sleep again for another half century. When awakes the the world is in even worse condition and the tube has now been modified to launch people into space. The man's granddaughter is he girl from the previous story.

The book could use a little editing help. There are some obvious typos. However, it is still understandable. The stories have an "East meets west" feeling, with themes borrowed from both China and the west. The stories do explore some of the same ideas from each other (and from his novels.) He does have a tendency to stretch things to universal proportions, with the destruction of the earth happening frequently. 

Death's End (The Three-Body Problem Series, 3)

Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past series seemed to end nicely with Dark Forest. Alas, with Death's End, we see that the "end" was not really an end. This book goes way beyond the worries of our mere instance on earth to explore questions of the universe over time periods of millions of years. 

The book primarily focuses on the experiences of a few key figures. They often enter hibernation only to awake in a time that is very different than what they recall. The shifting mores of society can make the heroes of one time period become the villains of another. The earth is in an uneasy truce with TriSolarans. There is a single person that has the ability to trigger the "message" that can lead to the destruction of the solar system if the "invaders" try too much. The two species have gradually become closer, adopting parts of each other's culture and technology. Meanwhile, humans have become effeminate and light on defense. They seek to bring back the few ships that are at the outer reaches of the galaxy to try them for crimes against humanity. There are also attempts to limit technology due to fears. Alas, it is only through some of these that "slip through the cracks" that humanity is able to continue to exist.

The earthlings finally try to swap out the "man on the button" with somebody new. Alas, she is not as callus as the man that had been their previously and the Trisolarans take the opportunity to wipe at the signal transmission technology. The Trisolarans then show their "compassion" by given humanity one year to transfer everybody to Australia. Seems an obvious parallel to the "reservations" that conquerors have consigned native populations to. These humans must live a  primitive life with no technology. Due to severe overcrowding, they are also expected to fight each other to the death in order to survive. A few select people are part of a military force that rounds up stragglers on the other parts of the earth. 

Things look bleak for humanity. Luckily one of the ships that was flying away happened to be outside the realm of the Trisolarans communication mechanisms. They see they are about to be overtaken and send out the message, telling the world about the TriSolaran home world (and identify earth.) The TriSolarans immediately give up their hopes of earth. Humanity is given a reprieve. The people that had been "lucky" enough to be on the police force are now tried for crimes against humanity. (This seems to be a recurring theme.)

Now humanity is in a race to build technology to survive after an impending attack. Luckily they get a communication from a human that is embedded with the Trisolarans. He tells a story with hints of requisite plans told a few levels deep in a story. They attempt to decipher it and use it to work on some technology development. However, concepts of slowing light speed or building light-speed travel are shunned in favor of bunkering people near Jupiter. Alas, the attack comes via a different means than expected and light speed travel is the only solution. Luckily, some technology was created (even after it was prohibited.) A few humans escape.

Things jump forward millions of years. We learn that some  people are hidden behind a "Slow light" world that makes them safe, but eliminates outside contact. Beings have been fighting using the laws of physics that ultimately will lead to the destruction of the universe. The dimension-shrinking weapons are used to eliminate threats. Alas, these will eventually shrink the entire universe to smaller dimensions, leading to the destruction of the entire universe. This end seems to be rushed, as it quickly changes the scale of problems.

The underlying assumption is that the universe is a cruel place. Species would rather inhiliate others than attempt to peacefully interact. Humans are also prone to focus on the moment. Long term planning is difficult and politics often force dumb decisions to be made. People are also very prone to judge people of the past, applying standards of today to very different situations in the past. Identity frequently shifts based on needs. When at peace, people splinter off to individual subgroups. When there is a big conflict, people unify. (Though for some reason, hibernating people are still supported through these great upheavals.) Human existence is ephemeral. It is hardly a blip on universal or geological time. Should we be concerned of out lasting legacy?

Ball Lightning

Ball Lightning is a rarely seen, not very well understood form of lightning-look power. In the book, Cixin Liu creates his own explanation of it. The novel starts with the protagonist's parents getting vaporized before his eyes. This drives him to explore ball lightning. He meets up with others that have interest in the subject. One woman is keen an using in as a weapon. A scientist has an understanding of the phenomenon as in the quantum realm. Those incinerated by ball lightning live in a state of being neither dead nor alive. The whole concept is not understood with our current understanding of physics. The ball lightning effects can be used to wipe out electronics, vaporize specific things or control tornados. Various parts of the research are used as both offense and defense in a war that breaks out. In the end some research foreshadows "others" watching the earth (in the three body problem.) The author has a nice afterward where he explains how he was influenced by other science fiction writers to create this novel. The novel has a fairly "young" feel to it - at times it feels almost like a young adult sci-fi novel. Then it bounces to more detailed scientific explanation. There is warfare and destruction, but it feels like it is more at a distance. It is interesting that there is a progression from the child-focused Supernova Era to the young adult Ball Lightning and then the more dark adult Three Body Problem. 

To Hold Up the Sky

To Hold Up the Sky is a collection of short stories written between 1999 and 2017 and recently translated to English. The audiobook is narrated by various narrators and very well down. The stories include:
"Contraction"
"Full Spectrum Barrage Jamming"
"The Village Teacher"
"Fire in the Earth"
"Time Migration"
"Ode to Joy"
"Mirror"
"Sea of Dreams"
"Cloud of Poems"
"The Thinker"

The stories explore some interesting science fiction scenarios. In one story, the a village teacher hopes to impart some knowledge to students in a remote Chinese village. Right before he dies, he teaches them Newton's laws. A group of aliens grabs a sample of life forms from earth to determine if they are sentient. It just so happens that the students are chosen and some of the questions are on basic mechanics. Their correct answers save the earth.

Another story has the expansion of the universe turn to a contraction. This leads to time running backwards. (However, it just seems "normal" to people living there.)

There are plenty of interesting things to think about in the stories. In general, the stories are fairly "hard" science fiction, dealing with scientific concepts. The author clearly has experience with western science fiction. Sometimes it feels as if he is an American writer that has set his science fiction in China. However, he does delve just a little deeper into the Chinese culture than would a western writer.

Supernova Era

A distant store has gone supernova. This has sent particles to earth that cause chromosome damage. All adults will die within a year. However, children are able to repair their chromosomes and will continue to live. The earth needs to plan for children quickly taking over.

The adults detonate all the nuclear warheads and plan for themselves to drive out to caves and remote areas to end their lives and launch the children-led era of utopia.

The utopia is short lived. Immediately after the adults leave, many of the little children start freaking out. The leadership command center is inundated with calls. They eventually get things under control. The climate also causes issues. Sea levels rise, flooding some land.

The US leadership decides the world needs to play a "real" wargame. The other countries think this is a bad idea, but they play along. The games will take place in Antarctica. This begins the "Lord of Flies" phase of the book. (It even acknowledges "Lord of the Flies".) Eventually, the USA keeps upping the ante, settling on nuclear warheads. They seem to have a small stash that were not destroyed. Nobody comes to China's aid. However, it turns out some special observers had codes for the Chinese nuclear missile. The games finally end as the missile is launched. A large number of children do still remain on Antarctica, however, they need to vacate once the earth rapidly cools back to a more "normal" temperature.

As a final action, the USA and China agree to switch land. The book then ends with an epilogue.

It is an interesting story, though it feels somewhat underdeveloped. It is an interesting concept of the children being fully in control that would have a lot of ways to explore. The implication is that they managed to continue a society, but we just see a few small glimpses of what happened. 

The Dark Forest

The population of earth now knows that the Tri-Solarans are approaching and will arrive within a few centuries. Some people initially plan on fleeing. However, that plan is quashed. The earth instead is focussing on plans to battle the invaders. Many of these plans rely on the people of earth taking advantage of not-yet-invented technology. The Tri-Solarans have sophons on earth that allow instant access to all human communications. However, their society doesn't have a difference between "thinking" and "saying". Can this help the humans?

Part of the plan is to have "wallfacers" who are given the power to do whatever they want. The hope is that they can create some plans to defeat the aliens without communicating it out loud. The Tri-solaran allies have "wall-breakers" that attempt to find the wallfacer plan. The wallfacers come up with some interesting plans - sometimes based on their particular interests.

The novel focusses primarily on a few periods of time. One is shortly after the earth knew about the impending invasion. Many of the main characters then enter hibernation and come back over a hundred years later. The earth has gone through a great catastrophe. However, now everyone is much more optimistic about the prospects of humankind. There is a large space fleet that humanity thinks will easily dispose of the invading force. Alas, things do not go according to plan and humanity becomes pessimistic. (We also wonder the role of a wallfacer innovation that can "imprint" beliefs on people - even something like "water is bad" can become a deeply held belief.)

In the end, it is social science that becomes the deciding factor. One planet is "cursed" and then later found to be destroyed. While this appeared to be magical, it just took advantage of interplanetary sociology. Social relationships also contribute to the fall of the Earth space fleet and the eventual fate of the earth. The vast amount of technology have their role, but without the understanding of how beings work together, they are of minimal use.

The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem is a "hard" science fiction book from Chinese Author 刘慈欣 and the first book in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. The novel alternates from a few different time periods. It begins with the cultural revolution in China and the fate of some scientists that dare espouse modern scientific thought. Most of the novel takes place today. There is also some parts where we hear the internals of the nearby "Three Body" world. Some of this is directly told, while others are told indirectly through a game.

The Three Body civilization occupies a single planet caught in the middle of a system with three stars orbiting each other. Depending on how they orbit, the world could experience vastly different situations. However, it is impossible to precisely predict how the orbiting will be done (hence the three body problem.) On earth, there is also a three-body civilization game that is played by many of the brightest. They use some experiences from earth to try to solve this three body problem.

Earth sends out a message to try to discover if there is additional life. It is retrieved by the three-body world. However, they are unable to accurately tell where the message came from. They can tell the direction, but not the distance. One of the people on the three-body world sends a response that they should not respond. They know that the world is looking to settle a new planet. If they know where to look, they may seek to destroy the current inhabitants. Alas, a disgruntled earthling decides to send a response, seeing that as a better option than the horrid state of earth.

The three-body world sends a fleet to earth. However, they realize that earth is advancing at an exponential rate and may be more advanced than they are before they arrive. They hatch a plot involving proton folding to restrict scientific progress. This seems to work. On earth many maddening things are happening to scientists. There are also groups on earth that are intent on using the aliens to help "fix" man's wrongdoings. The other planet views humans as no more than "bugs". However, what is they status of "bugs"?

This is a well done science fiction book. The Chinese background makes it different enough, while still being very accessible in translation.