What do you think?
Rate this book
The Collected Stories
The collected short stories of Cixin Liu, author of the Three Body Problem trilogy (soon to be a major Netflix series).
The collection will comprise of stories
- The Wandering Earth
- Hold Up the Sky
- Of Ants and Dinosaurs
Collected in a beautiful hardback anthology for the first time.
The collection will comprise of stories
- The Wandering Earth
- Hold Up the Sky
- Of Ants and Dinosaurs
Collected in a beautiful hardback anthology for the first time.
1216 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 11, 2025
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 8, 2025
Cixin Liu’s short, speculative fiction often has a slightly vintage SF feel. Pieces like “Devourer” with its planet-eating spaceship reminded me of old-school Star Trek, the plot of “The Messenger” – featuring a version of Einstein - would easily pass as an outline for a lost Twilight Zone episode. His concerns are also fairly recognisable, themes revolve around existential angst as in unsettling novella “With Her Eyes,” and a more general investment in exploring the possible fate/s of a humanity overshadowed by a fathomless universe. Some stories are clearly commenting on specific historical and environmental concerns: “Whale Song” links to issues around whaling bans; “Son of China” and “Fire in the Earth” touch on China’s past and present particularly the mining industry both recently and in Mao’s time. Others are highly referential such as simple but elegant “The Micro-era” with its echoes of Gulliver’s Travels. The influence of Russian SF pervades a number of stories particularly prominent in “Full-spectrum Barrage Jamming”. There are hints of Stanislaw Lem in the arresting “Of Ants and Dinosaurs” with its distinctive play on Cold War themes; as well as an unusual take on classical Chinese literature in the eccentric but fascinating “Cloud of Poems.”
Overall, it’s an absorbing, consistent collection with numerous pleasing elements such as cameo roles for Stephen Hawking and, in “Curse 5.0” an oblique commentary on SF, Cixin Liu himself. Cixin Liu’s work can be deeply poignant but it can also be satirical or comedic as in “Taking Care of God.” There’s a fair amount of science but it’s mostly areas that are relatively familiar from evolution to quantum mechanics to chaos theory and the so-called Butterfly effect. But there’s nothing too challenging for readers, like me, with limited scientific backgrounds. I could have wished for an introduction that provides an overview or context for the work included and/or suggestions for the most productive reading order: for example, “Of Ants and Dinosaurs” is part of a loose trilogy in which “Devourer” is the sequel followed by “Cloud of Poems.” But I’m very much a fan of this brand of retro SF so, minor quibbles aside, found this highly entertaining.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Head of Zeus for an ARC
Rating: 3.5
Overall, it’s an absorbing, consistent collection with numerous pleasing elements such as cameo roles for Stephen Hawking and, in “Curse 5.0” an oblique commentary on SF, Cixin Liu himself. Cixin Liu’s work can be deeply poignant but it can also be satirical or comedic as in “Taking Care of God.” There’s a fair amount of science but it’s mostly areas that are relatively familiar from evolution to quantum mechanics to chaos theory and the so-called Butterfly effect. But there’s nothing too challenging for readers, like me, with limited scientific backgrounds. I could have wished for an introduction that provides an overview or context for the work included and/or suggestions for the most productive reading order: for example, “Of Ants and Dinosaurs” is part of a loose trilogy in which “Devourer” is the sequel followed by “Cloud of Poems.” But I’m very much a fan of this brand of retro SF so, minor quibbles aside, found this highly entertaining.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Head of Zeus for an ARC
Rating: 3.5
November 21, 2025
BUYER BEWARE!
This book is mostly reprinted material - see note at the end of this review - but contains two stories that had not previously been translated and published in English.
However, in the initial releases of both the hardback and ebook editions, one of them, "Glory and Dreams", is very incomplete. The full story comprises seven chapters, but this book only contains the opening third or so of the first chapter. (There is an English-language fan - or possibly machine? - translation from 2024 on the internet, which I'm not going to link here, but which has the full content.)
(The other 'new' story, "Fibres" is decent enough - I rated it four stars - but is very short.)
Hopefully this error will be fixed in later printings/editions, but potential buyers/readers should be aware of this.
Regarding the content of this collection, the description here (and on other places) is slightly misleading. It contains:
* The stories from the collection The Wandering Earth (the 2016 version, not the 2013 version that includes the short/edited version of Of Ants and Dinosaurs)
* The stories from the collection (To) Hold Up the Sky
* The stories (but not the non-fiction essays) from the collection A View from the Stars
* The full length novella/short novel Of Ants and Dinosaurs (published in the US as The Cretaceous Past)
* The story The Circle, previously published in Ken Liu's Invisible Planets anthology, and also the earlier Carbide Tipped Pens anthology. (This was the only other story that I hadn't already read, or already owned in my TBR. It's quite good, but it's *very* similar to some concepts/chapters from The Three Body Problem, so it's far from essential IMHO.)
* The story Moonlight, previously published in Ken Liu's Broken Stars anthology
It is not a complete collection of all of the Cixin Liu stories published in English as of 2025, and there are still a few stories that are currently untranslated. Ryan Yan has created a Google Sheet that breaks down all the details about where Cixin Liu's stories have been published in English.
This book is mostly reprinted material - see note at the end of this review - but contains two stories that had not previously been translated and published in English.
However, in the initial releases of both the hardback and ebook editions, one of them, "Glory and Dreams", is very incomplete. The full story comprises seven chapters, but this book only contains the opening third or so of the first chapter. (There is an English-language fan - or possibly machine? - translation from 2024 on the internet, which I'm not going to link here, but which has the full content.)
(The other 'new' story, "Fibres" is decent enough - I rated it four stars - but is very short.)
Hopefully this error will be fixed in later printings/editions, but potential buyers/readers should be aware of this.
Regarding the content of this collection, the description here (and on other places) is slightly misleading. It contains:
* The stories from the collection The Wandering Earth (the 2016 version, not the 2013 version that includes the short/edited version of Of Ants and Dinosaurs)
* The stories from the collection (To) Hold Up the Sky
* The stories (but not the non-fiction essays) from the collection A View from the Stars
* The full length novella/short novel Of Ants and Dinosaurs (published in the US as The Cretaceous Past)
* The story The Circle, previously published in Ken Liu's Invisible Planets anthology, and also the earlier Carbide Tipped Pens anthology. (This was the only other story that I hadn't already read, or already owned in my TBR. It's quite good, but it's *very* similar to some concepts/chapters from The Three Body Problem, so it's far from essential IMHO.)
* The story Moonlight, previously published in Ken Liu's Broken Stars anthology
It is not a complete collection of all of the Cixin Liu stories published in English as of 2025, and there are still a few stories that are currently untranslated. Ryan Yan has created a Google Sheet that breaks down all the details about where Cixin Liu's stories have been published in English.
May 13, 2026
Cixin Liu’s brain is so yummy. Here are my fav short stories from the book in chronological order: The Messenger, Destiny, Sun of china, Mirror, Ants and Dinosaurs, The Circle and Taking Care of God. I was especially blown away by Sun of China and Mirror. Taking Care of God was hilarious.
Quotes that stayed with me:
“White smoke lingers around his head. It forms a dreamlike pattern, as if his incredible ideas are floating out of his mind....” - Contraction
“When the thing you have feared for a long time happens, sometimes it comes as a relief.” - Butterfly
“In a universe that cannot be known, my heart hardly cares to keep on beating.” - Heard in the Morning
“By the side of the road on the outskirts of town, Shui's parents stood together with their neighbors, watching the China Sun fly east.
Pa shouted into the phone, 'Wah, you are going somewhere far away?'
'Yeah, Pa,' Shui replied from space. 'I am afraid I will not come home.?
'Is it very far away?' Ma asked.
'Very far, Ma,' Shui answered.
'Farther than the Moon?' Pa asked.
Shui fell silent for a few seconds. Then, in a voice much lower than before, he said, 'Yeah, Pa, a little farther than the Moon.'
Shui's parents were not especially distraught. Their son was going to do great things at that place beyond the Moon! Besides, these were extraordinary times. Even from the remotest corners of the Earth, they could talk to him at any time, they could even see him on their little television. It was no different from speaking to him face-to-face. It did not occur to them that there would be an ever longer delay; that Shui's answers to their concerned questions would come slower and slower. At first, it would only be a few seconds, but the pauses would grow. In a year's time, every question would require hours for a response.
Finally, their son would vanish. They would be told that Shui had gone to sleep and that he would not wake for forty years. After that, Shui's parents would continue to tend that plot of once-barren but now fertile land and live out the remainder of their once-backbreaking but now satisfying lives. Their last wish would be that, someday in the distant future, their son would return to see an even more beautiful homeland.”
- Sun of China
“Song Cheng, your fatal flaw is that insistence on dividing the world into black and white, when reality is nothing more than gray!'”
“In other words, society will be dead,' the Senior Official said. He raised his head to look Song Cheng in the eyes.
'Care to explain?' Song Cheng said, with the mocking note of a victor looking at a loser.
'Imagine if DNA never made mistakes, always replicating and inheriting with perfect fidelity. What would life on Earth become?'
While Song Cheng considered this, Bai Bing answered for him. 'In that case, life would no longer exist on Earth. The basis of the evolution of life is mutation, caused by mistakes in DNA.'
The Senior Official nodded at Bai Bing. 'Society is the same way. Its evolution and vitality is rooted in the myriad urges and desires departing from the morality laid out by the majority. A fish can't live in perfectly clear water. A society where no one ever makes mistakes in ethics is, in reality, dead.'
- Mirror
“Yes, now our civilization is old. But it is not our fault. No matter how hard one strives, a civilization must grow old one day. Everyone grows old, even you.”
- Taking Care of God
“People who live their entire lives surrounded by mountains usually care nothing for them. They end up seeing the mountains as the things that stand between them and the world.”
“When I was a bit older, I set out early one morning and walked along the Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan Railway. I walked until noon when my grumbling stomach made me turn back, yet the mountains still seemed endlessly far away. In school, I rode my bicycle toward the mountains, but no matter how fast I pedaled the mountains seemed to withdraw just as quickly. In the end, it never felt as if I had gotten even an inch closer to them. Many years later, distant mountains would again become a symbol of my life, like so many things in life that we can clearly see but never reach - a dream crystallized in the distance.”
“Indeed, it is the nature of intelligent life to climb mountains, to strive to stand on ever higher ground to gaze farther into the distance. It is a drive completely divorced from the demands of survival. Had you, for example, only been concerned with staying alive, you would have fled from this mountain as fast and as far away as you could. Instead, you chose to come and climb it. The reason evolution bestows all intelligent life with a desire to climb higher is far more profound than mere base needs, even though we still do not understand its real purpose. Mountains are universal, and we are all standing at the foot of mountains.”
- Mountain
“Cixin, who had described the destruction of fictional universes on innumerable occasions, was scared witless. On the other hand, Pan, whose works brimmed with humanist warmth, was calm and collected.
Stroking his beard, Pan looked at the inferno all around them. In drawn-out tones, he mused: 'Who knew …that destruction ... could be so spectacular. ... Why did I never... write about it?' Cixin's legs buckled beneath him. 'If I had known that destruction was so terrifying, I would not have written so much of it,' he moaned. 'Damn me and my big mouth. This is just perfect.’ Eventually, they came to a consensus: the most gripping destruction was one's own destruction.”
- Curse 5.0
Quotes that stayed with me:
“White smoke lingers around his head. It forms a dreamlike pattern, as if his incredible ideas are floating out of his mind....” - Contraction
“When the thing you have feared for a long time happens, sometimes it comes as a relief.” - Butterfly
“In a universe that cannot be known, my heart hardly cares to keep on beating.” - Heard in the Morning
“By the side of the road on the outskirts of town, Shui's parents stood together with their neighbors, watching the China Sun fly east.
Pa shouted into the phone, 'Wah, you are going somewhere far away?'
'Yeah, Pa,' Shui replied from space. 'I am afraid I will not come home.?
'Is it very far away?' Ma asked.
'Very far, Ma,' Shui answered.
'Farther than the Moon?' Pa asked.
Shui fell silent for a few seconds. Then, in a voice much lower than before, he said, 'Yeah, Pa, a little farther than the Moon.'
Shui's parents were not especially distraught. Their son was going to do great things at that place beyond the Moon! Besides, these were extraordinary times. Even from the remotest corners of the Earth, they could talk to him at any time, they could even see him on their little television. It was no different from speaking to him face-to-face. It did not occur to them that there would be an ever longer delay; that Shui's answers to their concerned questions would come slower and slower. At first, it would only be a few seconds, but the pauses would grow. In a year's time, every question would require hours for a response.
Finally, their son would vanish. They would be told that Shui had gone to sleep and that he would not wake for forty years. After that, Shui's parents would continue to tend that plot of once-barren but now fertile land and live out the remainder of their once-backbreaking but now satisfying lives. Their last wish would be that, someday in the distant future, their son would return to see an even more beautiful homeland.”
- Sun of China
“Song Cheng, your fatal flaw is that insistence on dividing the world into black and white, when reality is nothing more than gray!'”
“In other words, society will be dead,' the Senior Official said. He raised his head to look Song Cheng in the eyes.
'Care to explain?' Song Cheng said, with the mocking note of a victor looking at a loser.
'Imagine if DNA never made mistakes, always replicating and inheriting with perfect fidelity. What would life on Earth become?'
While Song Cheng considered this, Bai Bing answered for him. 'In that case, life would no longer exist on Earth. The basis of the evolution of life is mutation, caused by mistakes in DNA.'
The Senior Official nodded at Bai Bing. 'Society is the same way. Its evolution and vitality is rooted in the myriad urges and desires departing from the morality laid out by the majority. A fish can't live in perfectly clear water. A society where no one ever makes mistakes in ethics is, in reality, dead.'
- Mirror
“Yes, now our civilization is old. But it is not our fault. No matter how hard one strives, a civilization must grow old one day. Everyone grows old, even you.”
- Taking Care of God
“People who live their entire lives surrounded by mountains usually care nothing for them. They end up seeing the mountains as the things that stand between them and the world.”
“When I was a bit older, I set out early one morning and walked along the Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan Railway. I walked until noon when my grumbling stomach made me turn back, yet the mountains still seemed endlessly far away. In school, I rode my bicycle toward the mountains, but no matter how fast I pedaled the mountains seemed to withdraw just as quickly. In the end, it never felt as if I had gotten even an inch closer to them. Many years later, distant mountains would again become a symbol of my life, like so many things in life that we can clearly see but never reach - a dream crystallized in the distance.”
“Indeed, it is the nature of intelligent life to climb mountains, to strive to stand on ever higher ground to gaze farther into the distance. It is a drive completely divorced from the demands of survival. Had you, for example, only been concerned with staying alive, you would have fled from this mountain as fast and as far away as you could. Instead, you chose to come and climb it. The reason evolution bestows all intelligent life with a desire to climb higher is far more profound than mere base needs, even though we still do not understand its real purpose. Mountains are universal, and we are all standing at the foot of mountains.”
- Mountain
“Cixin, who had described the destruction of fictional universes on innumerable occasions, was scared witless. On the other hand, Pan, whose works brimmed with humanist warmth, was calm and collected.
Stroking his beard, Pan looked at the inferno all around them. In drawn-out tones, he mused: 'Who knew …that destruction ... could be so spectacular. ... Why did I never... write about it?' Cixin's legs buckled beneath him. 'If I had known that destruction was so terrifying, I would not have written so much of it,' he moaned. 'Damn me and my big mouth. This is just perfect.’ Eventually, they came to a consensus: the most gripping destruction was one's own destruction.”
- Curse 5.0
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 10, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley for my free ARC copy!
I was really interested in what this short story collection was going to be like, since I loved Liu’s Three Body Problem. This collection did not disappoint! As I read through the collection, I rated each of the stories out of ten. There were very few duds, and overall, I think the fact that I rated the majority of the stories above an eight, with many of them being rated nine or higher, speaks to the quality of this collection. Liu has a wealth of fascinating, clever, mind-bending, and outright funny ideas, and he presents the entire rich tapestry of them in this book. I repeatedly found myself amazed by the depth and breadth of his imagination!
Liu definitely has similar themes that he returns to throughout the book; several stories are very interesting meditations on the cost of war, for example, while there’s also a recurring theme of what it takes to push humanity to come together in a crisis. Liu has very canny observations about how people see the world, how people think in a group, public perception, and the will of the crowd, which are very interesting to read about.
I think my critique of some of these stories is that Liu sometimes gets far too bogged down in using very technical language and telling us all about the intricate technicalities of something, which slows down the pace of the story (and admittedly sometimes confused me, as a person who only tentatively grasps the concepts of physics!). I think his work is much better when the technical aspects support the characters’ journey/progression, rather than the other way around.
My favourites in the collection were ‘The Micro-Era,’ which somehow makes you celebrate the end of humanity as we know it (and I won’t spoil it any further than that); ‘With Her Eyes,’ which really showcases Liu’s talent for starting off with a cool sci-fi idea and then turning it into an emotional gut-punch of a piece; and ‘Fire In The Earth,’ which is so rich with historical detail, it makes the whole piece feel so alive and real. Liu manages to give so much character without really dwelling on it, and in this story in particular, he introduces a lot of technical details that manage to never feel too technical.
However, my Absolute Favourite was Sun of China, which I just have to ramble about for a moment. I have read this story before and adored it, but re-reading just drove home how much I loved it. I don’t even really know how to talk about how much Sun of China means to me! (But I'm going to try!) I love this story with all my heart. The theme of transcending your terrible circumstances through hard work and making the best of it, but never repudiating or losing your love for your hometown, is 100% perfect to me. Certain characters express sadness or contempt for the idea that ‘normal, average joes’ are now going to space, but that’s part of what I find most beautiful about this work: that space belongs to the average person just as much as it does to the college grad with five degrees. This is what Shui teaches us - with hard work, he takes every opportunity he’s given, learns to understand things through his own work that he was never given the opportunity to learn about before, given his background, and in the end, ends up being one of the most influential people in the history of humanity’s space exploration, inspiring everyone to turn their eyes to the stars again. Shui’s story is the ultimate expression of ‘even the smallest person can change the course of the future.’ He goes on such a journey - not a traditional hero’s journey in the literary sense, maybe, but definitely the journey of a true hero. If I could convince you to read this collection just for one story, it’s this one.
Overall, I really enjoyed this window into the wild imagination of Cixin Liu, and I rated the vast majority of stories in this book very highly! (Also, I love how much Liu loves dinosaurs. Love it. xD)
I was really interested in what this short story collection was going to be like, since I loved Liu’s Three Body Problem. This collection did not disappoint! As I read through the collection, I rated each of the stories out of ten. There were very few duds, and overall, I think the fact that I rated the majority of the stories above an eight, with many of them being rated nine or higher, speaks to the quality of this collection. Liu has a wealth of fascinating, clever, mind-bending, and outright funny ideas, and he presents the entire rich tapestry of them in this book. I repeatedly found myself amazed by the depth and breadth of his imagination!
Liu definitely has similar themes that he returns to throughout the book; several stories are very interesting meditations on the cost of war, for example, while there’s also a recurring theme of what it takes to push humanity to come together in a crisis. Liu has very canny observations about how people see the world, how people think in a group, public perception, and the will of the crowd, which are very interesting to read about.
I think my critique of some of these stories is that Liu sometimes gets far too bogged down in using very technical language and telling us all about the intricate technicalities of something, which slows down the pace of the story (and admittedly sometimes confused me, as a person who only tentatively grasps the concepts of physics!). I think his work is much better when the technical aspects support the characters’ journey/progression, rather than the other way around.
My favourites in the collection were ‘The Micro-Era,’ which somehow makes you celebrate the end of humanity as we know it (and I won’t spoil it any further than that); ‘With Her Eyes,’ which really showcases Liu’s talent for starting off with a cool sci-fi idea and then turning it into an emotional gut-punch of a piece; and ‘Fire In The Earth,’ which is so rich with historical detail, it makes the whole piece feel so alive and real. Liu manages to give so much character without really dwelling on it, and in this story in particular, he introduces a lot of technical details that manage to never feel too technical.
However, my Absolute Favourite was Sun of China, which I just have to ramble about for a moment. I have read this story before and adored it, but re-reading just drove home how much I loved it. I don’t even really know how to talk about how much Sun of China means to me! (But I'm going to try!) I love this story with all my heart. The theme of transcending your terrible circumstances through hard work and making the best of it, but never repudiating or losing your love for your hometown, is 100% perfect to me. Certain characters express sadness or contempt for the idea that ‘normal, average joes’ are now going to space, but that’s part of what I find most beautiful about this work: that space belongs to the average person just as much as it does to the college grad with five degrees. This is what Shui teaches us - with hard work, he takes every opportunity he’s given, learns to understand things through his own work that he was never given the opportunity to learn about before, given his background, and in the end, ends up being one of the most influential people in the history of humanity’s space exploration, inspiring everyone to turn their eyes to the stars again. Shui’s story is the ultimate expression of ‘even the smallest person can change the course of the future.’ He goes on such a journey - not a traditional hero’s journey in the literary sense, maybe, but definitely the journey of a true hero. If I could convince you to read this collection just for one story, it’s this one.
Overall, I really enjoyed this window into the wild imagination of Cixin Liu, and I rated the vast majority of stories in this book very highly! (Also, I love how much Liu loves dinosaurs. Love it. xD)
September 27, 2025
4.25⭐️
The Collected Stories by Cixin Liu consisted of 32 science fiction stories (short stories and novellas) that have been translated into English. They were a delight; my only mistake was reading them as an ARC, which put me on a sort of deadline. I think they are best enjoyed one by one, at a leisurely pace. Some of the stories were sequels to another story, though; they were fun to discover.
My favorite stories are Sun of China (definitely my #1 favorite), Curse 5.0 (the funniest), Of Ants and Dinosaurs (the most impressive, ngl), and Cannonball. Liu has a deep understanding of humanity that makes him a stellar sci-fi writer. I’d recommend reading The Three-Body Problem trilogy prior to this collection, because a lot of the ideas presented here also made their way into the trilogy, and I think it’s best to encounter the jaw-dropping awesomeness of the trilogy without any priming.
eARC courtesy of NetGalley & Head of Zeus.
The Collected Stories by Cixin Liu consisted of 32 science fiction stories (short stories and novellas) that have been translated into English. They were a delight; my only mistake was reading them as an ARC, which put me on a sort of deadline. I think they are best enjoyed one by one, at a leisurely pace. Some of the stories were sequels to another story, though; they were fun to discover.
My favorite stories are Sun of China (definitely my #1 favorite), Curse 5.0 (the funniest), Of Ants and Dinosaurs (the most impressive, ngl), and Cannonball. Liu has a deep understanding of humanity that makes him a stellar sci-fi writer. I’d recommend reading The Three-Body Problem trilogy prior to this collection, because a lot of the ideas presented here also made their way into the trilogy, and I think it’s best to encounter the jaw-dropping awesomeness of the trilogy without any priming.
eARC courtesy of NetGalley & Head of Zeus.
February 4, 2026
thankyou for Netgally and the publisher for this advanced copy.
Overall i enjyed these short stories through it did suffer from the same problem as his long novels which is great ideas and plots but flat characters. i also would love to know why Cixin Liu has a preoccupation with dinosaurs who eveolve enough to rule the world/humans through Dinosaours and Ants was an amaxing long story the other dinosaur stories were average.
This is for people who truely love experimental hard scifi.
great translation and i would still read more CIxin Liu in the future.
Overall i enjyed these short stories through it did suffer from the same problem as his long novels which is great ideas and plots but flat characters. i also would love to know why Cixin Liu has a preoccupation with dinosaurs who eveolve enough to rule the world/humans through Dinosaours and Ants was an amaxing long story the other dinosaur stories were average.
This is for people who truely love experimental hard scifi.
great translation and i would still read more CIxin Liu in the future.
January 26, 2026
Unreal. Liu Cixin is a conceptual wizard.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews