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Sostener el cielo / To Hold Up the Sky
From Cixin Liu, the New York Times bestselling author of The Three-Body Problem, To Hold Up the Sky is a breathtaking collection of imaginative science fiction.
In Hold Up the Sky, Cixin Liu takes us across time and space, from a rural mountain community where elementary students must use physics to prevent an alien invasion; to coal mines in northern China where new technology will either save lives or unleash a fire that will burn for centuries; to a time very much like our own, when superstring computers predict our every move; to 10,000 years in the future, when humanity is finally able to begin anew; to the very collapse of the universe itself.
Written between 1999 and 2017 and never before published in English, these stories came into being during decades of major change in China and will take you across time and space through the eyes of one of science fiction's most visionary writers.
Experience the limitless and pure joy of Cixin Liu's writing and imagination in this stunning collection.
Stories included are:
Contraction
Full Spectrum Barrage Jamming
The Village Teacher
Fire in the Earth
Time Migration
Ode to joy
Cloud of Poems
Mirror
Sea of Dreams
The Thinker
'Cixin's trilogy is SF in the grand style, a galaxy-spanning, ideas-rich narrative of invasion and war' - GUARDIAN.
'Wildly imaginative, really interesting ... The scope of it was immense' - BARACK OBAMA, 44th President of the United States.
In Hold Up the Sky, Cixin Liu takes us across time and space, from a rural mountain community where elementary students must use physics to prevent an alien invasion; to coal mines in northern China where new technology will either save lives or unleash a fire that will burn for centuries; to a time very much like our own, when superstring computers predict our every move; to 10,000 years in the future, when humanity is finally able to begin anew; to the very collapse of the universe itself.
Written between 1999 and 2017 and never before published in English, these stories came into being during decades of major change in China and will take you across time and space through the eyes of one of science fiction's most visionary writers.
Experience the limitless and pure joy of Cixin Liu's writing and imagination in this stunning collection.
Stories included are:
Contraction
Full Spectrum Barrage Jamming
The Village Teacher
Fire in the Earth
Time Migration
Ode to joy
Cloud of Poems
Mirror
Sea of Dreams
The Thinker
'Cixin's trilogy is SF in the grand style, a galaxy-spanning, ideas-rich narrative of invasion and war' - GUARDIAN.
'Wildly imaginative, really interesting ... The scope of it was immense' - BARACK OBAMA, 44th President of the United States.
392 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 2020
1236 people are currently reading
6771 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 710 reviews
October 15, 2020
Liu Cixin is one of my favorite writers and will remain so, even if not all his stories are mind-blowing. And he's to blame for this, because after his famous trilogy, my expectation in SF skyrocketed.
That is the case with this collection: it's a mixed bag with some mind-bending ideas and some less so. Most of them are novelettes, not short stories, and I think some of them would have been greater had they been shorter. Nonetheless, his tales are always fresh, totally different from the usual sci-fi, and the way he intertwines hard SF ideas with Chinese culture is always enthralling and fascinating.
There are 11 stories in this collection, from which only one, "Sea of Dreams", I had previously read in Asimov's Science Fiction, January/February 2018,
The recurent theme is the humans' place in the universe, insignificant and yet, at the same time, so important.
Here are some thoughts on them:
1. The Village Teacher (2000, tr. Adam Lanphier) - an ode to knowledge and how it can save lives. The teacher's story moved me to tears, but the alien involvment seemed to me too artificial. 3/5
2. The Time Migration (2014, tr. Joel Martinsen) - 8 million people chose to be frozen and wake up 120 years in the future. Their ambassador did not like what the world was at that time and chose to set it further, and further, and further. What they discover at the end of the journey is that 3/5
3. 2018-04-01 (2009, tr. John Chu) - in an era when it's possible to prolong life, a guy stole the money to make it happening. Was it worth it? 3/5
4. Fire in the Earth (2000, tr. Joel Martinsen) - taming the fire is a dangerous business. 2/5
5. Contraction (1985, tr. John Chu) - that's the kind of story I want to read, ming-bending idea about what will happen when the universe contracts instead of expanding. 10/5
6. Mirror (2004, tr. Carmen Yiling Yan) - another incredible tale woven around a string computer. 5/5
7. Ode to Joy (2005, tr. Joel Martinsen) - my favorite, and not because of the title, which I love (my Golden, she's named Joy), but because it tells an alternate history of the Sophon, and how amazing is the music of the universe. 10/5
8. Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming (2001, tr. Carmen Yiling Yan) - dedication to the people of Russia and their literature, which influenced the author a great deal - military sci-fi through and through. I don't really like war stories, but this one was nicely wrapped up. 3/5
9. Sea of Dreams (2002, tr. John Chu) - reread. One more larger than life idea and an allegory for creation, art versus life. Brilliant. 5/5
10. Cloud of Poems (2003, tr. Carmen Yiling Yan) - close related to the story "Devourer" from The Wandering Earth: Classic Science Fiction Collection. Another allegory on how art (poetry here) surpases technology, and that's not the only idea. 5/5
11. The Thinker (2003, tr. John Chu) - a bitter sweet story about two people who shared a strong connection in close relation to a certain event related to the stars. 5/5.
Overall, a great collection, with something in it for everybody: genuine ideas, emotions, art, love, war - the most prominent features that make us human, good and bad.
>>> ARC received thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge via NetGalley <<<
That is the case with this collection: it's a mixed bag with some mind-bending ideas and some less so. Most of them are novelettes, not short stories, and I think some of them would have been greater had they been shorter. Nonetheless, his tales are always fresh, totally different from the usual sci-fi, and the way he intertwines hard SF ideas with Chinese culture is always enthralling and fascinating.
There are 11 stories in this collection, from which only one, "Sea of Dreams", I had previously read in Asimov's Science Fiction, January/February 2018,
The recurent theme is the humans' place in the universe, insignificant and yet, at the same time, so important.
Here are some thoughts on them:
1. The Village Teacher (2000, tr. Adam Lanphier) - an ode to knowledge and how it can save lives. The teacher's story moved me to tears, but the alien involvment seemed to me too artificial. 3/5
2. The Time Migration (2014, tr. Joel Martinsen) - 8 million people chose to be frozen and wake up 120 years in the future. Their ambassador did not like what the world was at that time and chose to set it further, and further, and further. What they discover at the end of the journey is that 3/5
3. 2018-04-01 (2009, tr. John Chu) - in an era when it's possible to prolong life, a guy stole the money to make it happening. Was it worth it? 3/5
4. Fire in the Earth (2000, tr. Joel Martinsen) - taming the fire is a dangerous business. 2/5
5. Contraction (1985, tr. John Chu) - that's the kind of story I want to read, ming-bending idea about what will happen when the universe contracts instead of expanding. 10/5
6. Mirror (2004, tr. Carmen Yiling Yan) - another incredible tale woven around a string computer. 5/5
7. Ode to Joy (2005, tr. Joel Martinsen) - my favorite, and not because of the title, which I love (my Golden, she's named Joy), but because it tells an alternate history of the Sophon, and how amazing is the music of the universe. 10/5
8. Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming (2001, tr. Carmen Yiling Yan) - dedication to the people of Russia and their literature, which influenced the author a great deal - military sci-fi through and through. I don't really like war stories, but this one was nicely wrapped up. 3/5
9. Sea of Dreams (2002, tr. John Chu) - reread. One more larger than life idea and an allegory for creation, art versus life. Brilliant. 5/5
10. Cloud of Poems (2003, tr. Carmen Yiling Yan) - close related to the story "Devourer" from The Wandering Earth: Classic Science Fiction Collection. Another allegory on how art (poetry here) surpases technology, and that's not the only idea. 5/5
11. The Thinker (2003, tr. John Chu) - a bitter sweet story about two people who shared a strong connection in close relation to a certain event related to the stars. 5/5.
Overall, a great collection, with something in it for everybody: genuine ideas, emotions, art, love, war - the most prominent features that make us human, good and bad.
>>> ARC received thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge via NetGalley <<<
October 11, 2020
Having been a long-time fan of Liu Cixin, it isn't much of a surprise that I fell into his short story collection. That being said, I *have* read a number of these from within other collections. This may have affected my overall impression of the entire thing.
THAT being said, his stories ARE generally consistent. The strongest ones are the ones that mix high-SF with down-to-earth characterization. The most notable of these is the first story. The Villiage Teacher.
I admit I have a soft spot for the close ties to Chinese culture with the vast Space-Opera themes. If any of you have read his massive trilogy, you'll know what I mean.
Equally notable are the stories that pick up some mind-blowing technology themes. I feel lots of love with the crazy-cool universal dimensional stuff and string-computing (as opposed to regular quantum computing) but there's plenty of all of it to wet your chops.
Hard-SF is Cixin's forte. When he combines it with rather close-tied Chinese themes, including traditional poetry set against universe-shattering themes, I think he's pretty mind-blowing.
But I'll be honest here: Fewer than half of the stories in this collection thrilled me to death. They're decent and some are really good, but I prefer his longer fiction. By far.
THAT being said, his stories ARE generally consistent. The strongest ones are the ones that mix high-SF with down-to-earth characterization. The most notable of these is the first story. The Villiage Teacher.
I admit I have a soft spot for the close ties to Chinese culture with the vast Space-Opera themes. If any of you have read his massive trilogy, you'll know what I mean.
Equally notable are the stories that pick up some mind-blowing technology themes. I feel lots of love with the crazy-cool universal dimensional stuff and string-computing (as opposed to regular quantum computing) but there's plenty of all of it to wet your chops.
Hard-SF is Cixin's forte. When he combines it with rather close-tied Chinese themes, including traditional poetry set against universe-shattering themes, I think he's pretty mind-blowing.
But I'll be honest here: Fewer than half of the stories in this collection thrilled me to death. They're decent and some are really good, but I prefer his longer fiction. By far.
October 4, 2021
ARC received from publisher, Tor, in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 stars.
True to his form as seen in his most renowned science fiction series, The Remembrance of Earth's Past, Cixin Liu's imagination in this short story collection, To Hold Up The Sky, was truly remarkable.
The Three-Body Problem is likely to be the most well-known translated Asian science fiction novel in the world right now. In fact, I hardly hear or read about the series being mentioned in its actual name, but always in reference to the title of the first book. The Remembrance of Earth's Past is one of my favourite science fiction series, and having been treated to the wildly imaginative mind of Cixin Liu in the application of theoretical and astrophysics, I know I'll read anything that he writes.
To Hold Up The Sky is Liu's second collection of short stories, the first being The Wandering Earth, which I owned and have yet to read. As with pretty much most collections, the short stories here could either be a hit or a miss. I would say that the majority of the stories hovered around 3-stars for me. Some of the stories were almost too profound or high concept. The few that I really liked and hence rated 4-stars are the ones which resonated with me more on an emotional level or have a powerful message to humanity.
I've summarised my thoughts along with my rating as I finished each story.
The Village Teacher
4 stars - How does a touching story of a dying village teacher relate to an interstellar war fought over 20 millenia 50k lightyears away in the center of the Milky Way? An oddly contrasting narrative that worked as tribute to some of most underrated heroes of our world - teachers. The story about the teacher moved me to tears!!
The Time Migration
3 stars - Philosophical and impactful. The scary proposition of what the future might be when humanity's collective memories and consciousness are just programmes in a supercomputer, and people giving up reality for imagined lives in quantum memory.
2018-04-01
3 stars - The grasp for eternal life. The growing schism between rich and poor. The scary possibility of what could happen when wealth is purely denominated in computer bytes.
Fire in the Earth
3 stars - Story about a young man whose father passed away from the health perils of working in a coal mine. Determined that the future of coal mining should not subject people to such dangers, he studied and proposed a new tech/way of extracting energy from coal. Let's just say attempts to tamper with energy are never without its perils.
The Contraction
4 stars - In reference to the contraction of the (currently expanding) universe, this one has brilliant conceptual thinking that I've come to expect from Liu with powerful and mind-bending implications.
Mirror
4 stars - A fairly long but powerful story. The imagination is astounding. Superstring computers being able to create models at an atomic level of entire universes based on the parameters of the singularity. What happens if one discovers the exact model of our universe and could peel through its entire history, including that of Earth and its people - down to every single individual.
Ode to Joy
3 stars - This is almost way too high concept to fathom. Strange story about a ultra-super-advanced entity that travels through the universe and plays the music of the cosmos that it collects on its way.
Full Spectrum Barrage Jamming
2 stars - I got the message but the story felt too long and too full of war technicalities and jargon that it left me feeling a bit cold and bored.
Sea of Dreams
3 stars - Climate science featured heavily in this wildly imaginative story of the most bizarre combo of hyper-advanced aliens, art and losing all our oceans.
Cloud of Poems
3 stars - Profound and bizarre at the same time. There's subtle beauty in the idea that technology may never replace the soul and essence of human intelligence, which in this case is represented in Classical Chinese poetry.
The Thinker
3.5 stars - A story of fate and love bonded by the twinkling of stars.
As I reached the end of the book, I recalled a passage in Liu's Foreword which made me appreciate how this collection of stories fit his ideas about the relationship between humanity and the universe. It's just that on an individual level, we are too small and short-lived to see the vast tapestry woven over billions of years.
You can purchase the book from Book Depository (Free Shipping) | Bookshop.Org (Support Independent Bookstores | Amazon US | Amazon UK
You can find this and my other reviews at Novel Notions.
3.5 stars.
True to his form as seen in his most renowned science fiction series, The Remembrance of Earth's Past, Cixin Liu's imagination in this short story collection, To Hold Up The Sky, was truly remarkable.
The Three-Body Problem is likely to be the most well-known translated Asian science fiction novel in the world right now. In fact, I hardly hear or read about the series being mentioned in its actual name, but always in reference to the title of the first book. The Remembrance of Earth's Past is one of my favourite science fiction series, and having been treated to the wildly imaginative mind of Cixin Liu in the application of theoretical and astrophysics, I know I'll read anything that he writes.
To Hold Up The Sky is Liu's second collection of short stories, the first being The Wandering Earth, which I owned and have yet to read. As with pretty much most collections, the short stories here could either be a hit or a miss. I would say that the majority of the stories hovered around 3-stars for me. Some of the stories were almost too profound or high concept. The few that I really liked and hence rated 4-stars are the ones which resonated with me more on an emotional level or have a powerful message to humanity.
"When you read or make science fiction, your sympathy automatically moves away from ideas of ethnicity or nation and toward a higher idea of humanity as a whole."
I've summarised my thoughts along with my rating as I finished each story.
The Village Teacher
4 stars - How does a touching story of a dying village teacher relate to an interstellar war fought over 20 millenia 50k lightyears away in the center of the Milky Way? An oddly contrasting narrative that worked as tribute to some of most underrated heroes of our world - teachers. The story about the teacher moved me to tears!!
The Time Migration
3 stars - Philosophical and impactful. The scary proposition of what the future might be when humanity's collective memories and consciousness are just programmes in a supercomputer, and people giving up reality for imagined lives in quantum memory.
2018-04-01
3 stars - The grasp for eternal life. The growing schism between rich and poor. The scary possibility of what could happen when wealth is purely denominated in computer bytes.
Fire in the Earth
3 stars - Story about a young man whose father passed away from the health perils of working in a coal mine. Determined that the future of coal mining should not subject people to such dangers, he studied and proposed a new tech/way of extracting energy from coal. Let's just say attempts to tamper with energy are never without its perils.
The Contraction
4 stars - In reference to the contraction of the (currently expanding) universe, this one has brilliant conceptual thinking that I've come to expect from Liu with powerful and mind-bending implications.
Mirror
4 stars - A fairly long but powerful story. The imagination is astounding. Superstring computers being able to create models at an atomic level of entire universes based on the parameters of the singularity. What happens if one discovers the exact model of our universe and could peel through its entire history, including that of Earth and its people - down to every single individual.
Ode to Joy
3 stars - This is almost way too high concept to fathom. Strange story about a ultra-super-advanced entity that travels through the universe and plays the music of the cosmos that it collects on its way.
Full Spectrum Barrage Jamming
2 stars - I got the message but the story felt too long and too full of war technicalities and jargon that it left me feeling a bit cold and bored.
Sea of Dreams
3 stars - Climate science featured heavily in this wildly imaginative story of the most bizarre combo of hyper-advanced aliens, art and losing all our oceans.
Cloud of Poems
3 stars - Profound and bizarre at the same time. There's subtle beauty in the idea that technology may never replace the soul and essence of human intelligence, which in this case is represented in Classical Chinese poetry.
The Thinker
3.5 stars - A story of fate and love bonded by the twinkling of stars.
As I reached the end of the book, I recalled a passage in Liu's Foreword which made me appreciate how this collection of stories fit his ideas about the relationship between humanity and the universe. It's just that on an individual level, we are too small and short-lived to see the vast tapestry woven over billions of years.
"Stories about such relationships between people and the universe are not science fiction; they are realism. In my scif-fi, I work to imagine the direct, tangible relationship between people and the universe. In this relationship, the evolution and metamorphoses of the universe are inseparable from human life and human fate."
You can purchase the book from Book Depository (Free Shipping) | Bookshop.Org (Support Independent Bookstores | Amazon US | Amazon UK
You can find this and my other reviews at Novel Notions.
March 28, 2024
3.5 Stars
Video Review: https://youtu.be/hFXGrkG_A64
This was a good short story collection. However I made the mistake of reading this one immediately after reading The Wandering Earth collection. That one was so incredible that this one paled in comparison. Some of the stories were better than others. My personal favourite was Contraction. I would still recommend it as long as you don't compare it too closely to the author's stronger works.
Video Review: https://youtu.be/hFXGrkG_A64
This was a good short story collection. However I made the mistake of reading this one immediately after reading The Wandering Earth collection. That one was so incredible that this one paled in comparison. Some of the stories were better than others. My personal favourite was Contraction. I would still recommend it as long as you don't compare it too closely to the author's stronger works.
October 10, 2021
Los cuentos Cixin Liu son muy imaginativos como lo es su trilogía El Problema de los 3 cuerpos. Si bien esta colección es en general un poco optimista para mi gusto, me gusta la forma en que el autor juega con el tiempo, las distancias, el arte y la tecnología con sus profundas influencias en el comportamiento humano y relaciones. Destacar tres joyas en el volumen que me llamaron especialmente la atención:
"Colapso cuántico" donde un grupo de científicos y luminarias esperan un momento predeterminado en el que el universo dejará de expandirse y comenzará a contraerse.
"La nube de la poesía" visualiza un futuro en el que la tierra ha sido devastada, los humanos son ganado para los dinosaurios y un dios tecnológico desarrolla la afición por la poesía.
"Espejo" donde se combina la informática con la teoría de cuerdas en un cuento de tintes policiacos
Como soy bastante profano sobre la cultura china (bueno afortunadamente cada día un poco menos) me gusta bastante cómo Cixin Liu entrelaza algunos destellos de su cultura con su enfoque único de ciencia ficción. Sostener el cielo me recuerda a esos días donde la SciFi se escribia sin engaño y sin todo su agotador bagaje moderno. Simplemente pregunta ¿qué pasaría si? Entonces espera a que alguien responda.....y luego vuelve a preguntar.
"Colapso cuántico" donde un grupo de científicos y luminarias esperan un momento predeterminado en el que el universo dejará de expandirse y comenzará a contraerse.
"La nube de la poesía" visualiza un futuro en el que la tierra ha sido devastada, los humanos son ganado para los dinosaurios y un dios tecnológico desarrolla la afición por la poesía.
"Espejo" donde se combina la informática con la teoría de cuerdas en un cuento de tintes policiacos
Como soy bastante profano sobre la cultura china (bueno afortunadamente cada día un poco menos) me gusta bastante cómo Cixin Liu entrelaza algunos destellos de su cultura con su enfoque único de ciencia ficción. Sostener el cielo me recuerda a esos días donde la SciFi se escribia sin engaño y sin todo su agotador bagaje moderno. Simplemente pregunta ¿qué pasaría si? Entonces espera a que alguien responda.....y luego vuelve a preguntar.
November 21, 2021
5,75/10
Los primeros relatos no me desagradaron, incluso alguno de ellos me gustó, pero a partir de cierto momento se me hizo muy pesada la lectura, y eso cuando hablamos sobre textos de 20-50 páginas no es nada positivo.
Iba a dejarlo en 2 estrellas, pero tampoco me parecía justo, al final se queda en 3, aunque muy muy justitas. Una pena, ya que he leído otras cosas de este autor chino y me gustaron mucho, pero en este caso no he sido capaz de empatizar con la lectura, seguramente porque la parte Scifi de algunas de los relatos no me sorprendido y ese creo que es el punto fuerte de este autor, el modo en el que genera historias de ciencia ficción de primer nivel y es capaz de trasladarlas a cualquier lector, incluso aquellos que de ciencia vamos escasos.
Solo recomendable para aquellos muy muy fans de Liu Cixin.
Los primeros relatos no me desagradaron, incluso alguno de ellos me gustó, pero a partir de cierto momento se me hizo muy pesada la lectura, y eso cuando hablamos sobre textos de 20-50 páginas no es nada positivo.
Iba a dejarlo en 2 estrellas, pero tampoco me parecía justo, al final se queda en 3, aunque muy muy justitas. Una pena, ya que he leído otras cosas de este autor chino y me gustaron mucho, pero en este caso no he sido capaz de empatizar con la lectura, seguramente porque la parte Scifi de algunas de los relatos no me sorprendido y ese creo que es el punto fuerte de este autor, el modo en el que genera historias de ciencia ficción de primer nivel y es capaz de trasladarlas a cualquier lector, incluso aquellos que de ciencia vamos escasos.
Solo recomendable para aquellos muy muy fans de Liu Cixin.
March 31, 2023
Реална оценка 3.5
Голяма рядкост е да харесам всички творби в сборник с разкази, та и тук беше така. Но съм доволна - мисля, че някои от кошмарите ми в последните дни бяха благодарение на тази книга :D Лиу Цъсин е събрал умопомрачителни идеи в "To Hold Up The Sky" и си заслужава прочитът.
Голяма рядкост е да харесам всички творби в сборник с разкази, та и тук беше така. Но съм доволна - мисля, че някои от кошмарите ми в последните дни бяха благодарение на тази книга :D Лиу Цъсин е събрал умопомрачителни идеи в "To Hold Up The Sky" и си заслужава прочитът.
February 22, 2021
2/10 stars
My full review is available on my blog here.
Liu’s short story collection comes in the wake of his breakthrough success with the award-winning The Three-Body Problem. Translated by several translators (none of which was Ken Liu, who translated The Three-Body Problem, and I can’t help but wonder if politics wasn’t the reason for that) To Hold Up the Sky offers 11 diverse stories spanning near and far future of our own reality; their main common point seems to be their prominent focus on China and a strong undercurrent of Chinese nationalism. As usual with short stories collections, I’ll review each story separately and give an overall, composite score at the end.
The Village Teacher 0/10
I’d give it 0/10 if I could. Oh, wait, you know what? I can.
Over a quarter century after the collapse of the USSR I never expected to read such a prime example of soc-realist fiction fresh off the publishing press. The primitivity of this story is simply staggering on every level: from the utterly two-dimensional character of the martyr to knowledge – the selfless village teacher bravely giving his life in the heroic quest to teach little kids the Newton’s laws of motion on his death bed in the mountain shed serving as a classroom – to the cosmic conflict between the good carbon-based life-forms who live peacefully in a Federation and the bad silicone-based life-forms who formed a bloodthirsty Empire… Having read both the Polish positivist literature (Orzeszkowa’s ABC vividly comes to mind, and that’s a horrific memory of sickly good intentions married to a total inability to write) and the USSR bestseller and soc-realist opus magnum Story of the Real Man by the Hero of Socialist Labor Boris Polevoy I’ve been scarred for life already. But this… This was even worse. Much, much worse. Polevoy’s book was actually interesting, if you stripped it of the Soviet propaganda – maybe because it was based on a true story. Here? Nothing makes sense.
The Time Migration 1/10
A sickly sweet, unbelievable happy ending belatedly tacked on a nihilistic philosophical story about how humanity is bad and how its progress will eventually lead to its self-inflicted demise. While the main arc at least tried to introduce some ideas about the relationship between humanity and its environment, the conclusion was at once predictable and nonsensical, serving only some vague aim of ending on a positive note. Extremely heavy-handed, populated with cardboard representations of roles (not people, just positions), it reads like a juvenile piece dug out from a drawer after several decades. It should have been left in that drawer.
2018-04-01 5/10
Immortality is costly, and inducive to crime. Love is a mirage of convenience; the only love one can find in life is self-love, and if you’re criminally-minded enough, you can have an eternity of it. The characters are still paper-thin, but at least the story breaks the mold a little and in its depressing depiction of egoism feels more honest than Time Migration.
[...]
The Thinker 9/10
Star-crossed lovers from different walks of life bonding over the discovery that stars in the universe communicate like neurons in a brain. A lovely, melancholy story that touchingly underscores the tragic shortness of human life span and the wonderful miracle of consciousness. If you need proof that Liu can actually write something that is not a primitive propaganda piece, you need not look any further. I were to read one Liu’s story, that would be it.
That was one rough ride. The only undeniable positive coming from this mostly harrowing experience is that because I was able to consider it as an anthropological case study I became more interested in Chinese culture and socio-political situation. But judging Liu’s collection on purely literary merits, as a whole it can get only one score from me (unweighted mean is a bit higher, 3/10, but my overall experience was definitely worse than that): 2/10.
I have received a copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks.
My full review is available on my blog here.
Liu’s short story collection comes in the wake of his breakthrough success with the award-winning The Three-Body Problem. Translated by several translators (none of which was Ken Liu, who translated The Three-Body Problem, and I can’t help but wonder if politics wasn’t the reason for that) To Hold Up the Sky offers 11 diverse stories spanning near and far future of our own reality; their main common point seems to be their prominent focus on China and a strong undercurrent of Chinese nationalism. As usual with short stories collections, I’ll review each story separately and give an overall, composite score at the end.
The Village Teacher 0/10
I’d give it 0/10 if I could. Oh, wait, you know what? I can.
Over a quarter century after the collapse of the USSR I never expected to read such a prime example of soc-realist fiction fresh off the publishing press. The primitivity of this story is simply staggering on every level: from the utterly two-dimensional character of the martyr to knowledge – the selfless village teacher bravely giving his life in the heroic quest to teach little kids the Newton’s laws of motion on his death bed in the mountain shed serving as a classroom – to the cosmic conflict between the good carbon-based life-forms who live peacefully in a Federation and the bad silicone-based life-forms who formed a bloodthirsty Empire… Having read both the Polish positivist literature (Orzeszkowa’s ABC vividly comes to mind, and that’s a horrific memory of sickly good intentions married to a total inability to write) and the USSR bestseller and soc-realist opus magnum Story of the Real Man by the Hero of Socialist Labor Boris Polevoy I’ve been scarred for life already. But this… This was even worse. Much, much worse. Polevoy’s book was actually interesting, if you stripped it of the Soviet propaganda – maybe because it was based on a true story. Here? Nothing makes sense.
The Time Migration 1/10
A sickly sweet, unbelievable happy ending belatedly tacked on a nihilistic philosophical story about how humanity is bad and how its progress will eventually lead to its self-inflicted demise. While the main arc at least tried to introduce some ideas about the relationship between humanity and its environment, the conclusion was at once predictable and nonsensical, serving only some vague aim of ending on a positive note. Extremely heavy-handed, populated with cardboard representations of roles (not people, just positions), it reads like a juvenile piece dug out from a drawer after several decades. It should have been left in that drawer.
2018-04-01 5/10
Immortality is costly, and inducive to crime. Love is a mirage of convenience; the only love one can find in life is self-love, and if you’re criminally-minded enough, you can have an eternity of it. The characters are still paper-thin, but at least the story breaks the mold a little and in its depressing depiction of egoism feels more honest than Time Migration.
[...]
The Thinker 9/10
Star-crossed lovers from different walks of life bonding over the discovery that stars in the universe communicate like neurons in a brain. A lovely, melancholy story that touchingly underscores the tragic shortness of human life span and the wonderful miracle of consciousness. If you need proof that Liu can actually write something that is not a primitive propaganda piece, you need not look any further. I were to read one Liu’s story, that would be it.
That was one rough ride. The only undeniable positive coming from this mostly harrowing experience is that because I was able to consider it as an anthropological case study I became more interested in Chinese culture and socio-political situation. But judging Liu’s collection on purely literary merits, as a whole it can get only one score from me (unweighted mean is a bit higher, 3/10, but my overall experience was definitely worse than that): 2/10.
I have received a copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks.
September 11, 2021
Cixin Liu escribe fábulas modernas mientras explica física teórica de forma muy loca. Sus relatos me han hecho pensar y recrearme como nunca con la magnificencia del cosmos y de nuestra sociedad.
November 5, 2020
Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for providing an ARC! So exciting to read this book!!
___________________________
4.5 stars
Before To Hold Up the Sky, I had never read Cixin Liu. I wanted to read The Three-Body Problem , but I was so afraid of misunderstanding it that I didn't dare. Then I received this ARC from NetGalley, so I decided to finally dive in.
These stories are intelligent and push the reader to think and to challenge his ordinary thoughts and beliefs. Here, they will encounter alien life, spaceships, existential questions, and so on. All the stories aren't coming from the same SF subgenres: I'm not an expert, but some of them are "harder" than others which seem "softer". Most of them take place in the future, but some picture the present, or, at least, start in the present!
The subjects are varied but they all focus on reflection, on questioning the world, our perception. It was surprising, even astonishing sometimes. I was on the verge of laughing sometimes, because it was so unbelievable.
These stories are also quite striking and leave the reader to ponder after they read them.
As for the writing-style, and considering it is a translation, I have nothing special to say: not particularly good, but not bad either.
So much as I loved these stories and was surprised by them, it was sometimes hard to follow for me due to the vocabulary used or the scientific precisions. I'm not sure I 100% understood everything, but I still enjoyed this collection.
I'll try to talk about each of the stories now:
"The Village Teacher"
A story that particularly moved me because it focuses on a teacher who tries, before he dies, to pass knowledge to his young pupils. The reader understands that the village doesn't value what the teacher brings, but that he persists through hardship.
In the beginning, I didn't understand why this story was in this collection because the first part has nothing to do with SF; I understood a few pages later.
Strangely, and in a small amount of pages, I got attached to the characters and
When I finished this story - I have to precise I am a teacher myself -, I felt proud to do my job. It was heartwarming to read, and, at the same time, a bit sad, because the teacher is an outcast in the village.
"The Time Migration"
One of my favorite stories in this collection!
People decide to migrate in time because there is not enough ressources for everyone on Earth during their lifetime.
It was interesting to see Earth changing hundreds of years after the immigrants left. It was a bit frustrating because we do not have the details and we don't understand how they got here, but it was interesting to be in an immigrant's skin and to see Earth through their eyes, without any other explanation.
The ending was both sad and beautiful - but I feel like it might be one of the author's specialties!
"2018-04-01"
Here, we follow a man who has a difficult choice to make: he can choose the woman he loves or something everyone dreams about.
This story, like "The Time Migration", is more focused on the future and mostly on new technologies. The reader gets a glimpse of what the human future could be. It is both fascinating and frightening:
"Fire in the Earth"
This is one of the stories I was less interested in, but it's still stuck in my mind for some reason. It deals with mines, a subject I know practically nothing about.
It was immersive because it was long, and it was long because there were explanations about the change the main character wants to make. I'm sure I didn't understand everything, but it was still striking and vivid to read. I was there, with the characters.
The ending stroke me, I wasn't expecting this at all!
"Contraction"
One of my favorites: a scientist greets a politician who will witness the contraction of the universe after its long expansion.
I didn't expect the revelation at all, just like the other characters! I really loved the main character, who seems to be a mad man among his peers. I can't say too much because this story is really short compared with the others, but it was... shaking I'd say, because it contradicts our perception!
"Mirror"
One of the most disturbing stories of the whole collection.
A man is arrested, the reader doesn't know why. Another seems to know too much, it's not humanly possible. It worries the Senior Official. How can this man know unknowable things?
This story is focused on knowledge, surveillance and "evil".
It was striking because it questioned what "evil" is, if everything can be known, if it is wise if it is possible. I really loved this one, even if it disturbed me.
It made me think of Black Mirror, even more with the title and ... something in the story which has "mirror" in its name!
"Ode to Joy"
During my reading of this one, I was like: "but... am I reading?" It was strange, but still fascinating and giving food for thought.
It was also terrifying in a way:
Once more, original and thought-provoking: I wasn't expecting this and it opened up new horizons! Last thing: it deals with music, as you might have guessed with the title of the story!
(I won't say more and let you discover it!)
"Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming"
This one is quite like "Fire in the Earth" for me: I wasn't interested in the subject and didn't think I would like it - well, I was gripped, but still wasn't a huge fan.
It starts on a battlefield and ends in space. It deals with war, with Russia and NATO, with scientific things I didn't entirely understood, even if I got what it did to end armies win the war.
I loved the relationship father/son the reader gets to discover; I didn't like the political side of it - which is really rare!
"Sea of Dreams"
Same as "Ode to Joy": what am I actually reading? Quite strange, and still interesting because this story focuses on art, what it means, what it is worth. it also pushes the reader to think about art in a way you might not think about: to live for art is beautiful, but does it justify
"Cloud of Poems"
This story also focuses on art, but, this time, on poetry and human civilisation. It was, once more, strange to discover that human beings are here lesser creatures. I thought about how we treat animals in our societies: it clearly echoes the situation in the story. I also thought about how we consider ourselves as super-evolved compared to other species we know: the author knocks humans off their pedestal, while still recognizing the worth of their civilisation.
"The Thinker"
To end this collection, this story is located on Earth, with humans discovering something strange in the twinkling of stars.
I liked the relationship between the characters and the mention of fate: it was a good way to show how life is, indeed, short and bitter, but also beautiful and surprising. Kind of a sweet story to leave the collection.
TW: suicide, gore, violence.
So, I'm glad I read Cixin Liu; I think I'll read his trilogy Remembrance of Earth's Past one day!
___________________________
4.5 stars
Before To Hold Up the Sky, I had never read Cixin Liu. I wanted to read The Three-Body Problem , but I was so afraid of misunderstanding it that I didn't dare. Then I received this ARC from NetGalley, so I decided to finally dive in.
These stories are intelligent and push the reader to think and to challenge his ordinary thoughts and beliefs. Here, they will encounter alien life, spaceships, existential questions, and so on. All the stories aren't coming from the same SF subgenres: I'm not an expert, but some of them are "harder" than others which seem "softer". Most of them take place in the future, but some picture the present, or, at least, start in the present!
The subjects are varied but they all focus on reflection, on questioning the world, our perception. It was surprising, even astonishing sometimes. I was on the verge of laughing sometimes, because it was so unbelievable.
These stories are also quite striking and leave the reader to ponder after they read them.
As for the writing-style, and considering it is a translation, I have nothing special to say: not particularly good, but not bad either.
So much as I loved these stories and was surprised by them, it was sometimes hard to follow for me due to the vocabulary used or the scientific precisions. I'm not sure I 100% understood everything, but I still enjoyed this collection.
I'll try to talk about each of the stories now:
"The Village Teacher"
A story that particularly moved me because it focuses on a teacher who tries, before he dies, to pass knowledge to his young pupils. The reader understands that the village doesn't value what the teacher brings, but that he persists through hardship.
In the beginning, I didn't understand why this story was in this collection because the first part has nothing to do with SF; I understood a few pages later.
Strangely, and in a small amount of pages, I got attached to the characters and
When I finished this story - I have to precise I am a teacher myself -, I felt proud to do my job. It was heartwarming to read, and, at the same time, a bit sad, because the teacher is an outcast in the village.
"The Time Migration"
One of my favorite stories in this collection!
People decide to migrate in time because there is not enough ressources for everyone on Earth during their lifetime.
It was interesting to see Earth changing hundreds of years after the immigrants left. It was a bit frustrating because we do not have the details and we don't understand how they got here, but it was interesting to be in an immigrant's skin and to see Earth through their eyes, without any other explanation.
The ending was both sad and beautiful - but I feel like it might be one of the author's specialties!
"2018-04-01"
Here, we follow a man who has a difficult choice to make: he can choose the woman he loves or something everyone dreams about.
This story, like "The Time Migration", is more focused on the future and mostly on new technologies. The reader gets a glimpse of what the human future could be. It is both fascinating and frightening:
"Fire in the Earth"
This is one of the stories I was less interested in, but it's still stuck in my mind for some reason. It deals with mines, a subject I know practically nothing about.
It was immersive because it was long, and it was long because there were explanations about the change the main character wants to make. I'm sure I didn't understand everything, but it was still striking and vivid to read. I was there, with the characters.
The ending stroke me, I wasn't expecting this at all!
"Contraction"
One of my favorites: a scientist greets a politician who will witness the contraction of the universe after its long expansion.
I didn't expect the revelation at all, just like the other characters! I really loved the main character, who seems to be a mad man among his peers. I can't say too much because this story is really short compared with the others, but it was... shaking I'd say, because it contradicts our perception!
"Mirror"
One of the most disturbing stories of the whole collection.
A man is arrested, the reader doesn't know why. Another seems to know too much, it's not humanly possible. It worries the Senior Official. How can this man know unknowable things?
This story is focused on knowledge, surveillance and "evil".
It was striking because it questioned what "evil" is, if everything can be known, if it is wise if it is possible. I really loved this one, even if it disturbed me.
It made me think of Black Mirror, even more with the title and ... something in the story which has "mirror" in its name!
"Ode to Joy"
During my reading of this one, I was like: "but... am I reading?" It was strange, but still fascinating and giving food for thought.
It was also terrifying in a way:
Once more, original and thought-provoking: I wasn't expecting this and it opened up new horizons! Last thing: it deals with music, as you might have guessed with the title of the story!
(I won't say more and let you discover it!)
"Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming"
This one is quite like "Fire in the Earth" for me: I wasn't interested in the subject and didn't think I would like it - well, I was gripped, but still wasn't a huge fan.
It starts on a battlefield and ends in space. It deals with war, with Russia and NATO, with scientific things I didn't entirely understood, even if I got what it did to end armies win the war.
I loved the relationship father/son the reader gets to discover; I didn't like the political side of it - which is really rare!
"Sea of Dreams"
Same as "Ode to Joy": what am I actually reading? Quite strange, and still interesting because this story focuses on art, what it means, what it is worth. it also pushes the reader to think about art in a way you might not think about: to live for art is beautiful, but does it justify
"Cloud of Poems"
This story also focuses on art, but, this time, on poetry and human civilisation. It was, once more, strange to discover that human beings are here lesser creatures. I thought about how we treat animals in our societies: it clearly echoes the situation in the story. I also thought about how we consider ourselves as super-evolved compared to other species we know: the author knocks humans off their pedestal, while still recognizing the worth of their civilisation.
"The Thinker"
To end this collection, this story is located on Earth, with humans discovering something strange in the twinkling of stars.
I liked the relationship between the characters and the mention of fate: it was a good way to show how life is, indeed, short and bitter, but also beautiful and surprising. Kind of a sweet story to leave the collection.
TW: suicide, gore, violence.
So, I'm glad I read Cixin Liu; I think I'll read his trilogy Remembrance of Earth's Past one day!
May 1, 2025
With this collection of short stories now consumed I can say that Liu is truly the reigning master of Big Idea sci fi.
2 dimensional sentient Mirrors the size of entire planets appearing in the sky? Of course! Bizarre Dark Matter performance artist entities freezing the entirety of Earth's oceans and suspending the resulting ice in orbit? Why not! An interstellar empire descended from refugee dinosaurs discovery the beauty of poetry via a particularly gifted member of their human food stock? Just another day in Cixin's imagination.
Not all of these stories were a hit for me on a par with the sweeping Three Body Problem trilogy but I definitely enjoyed them, neve eht ykcimmig eno taht sdne htiw enoyreve gniklat sdrawkcab!
2 dimensional sentient Mirrors the size of entire planets appearing in the sky? Of course! Bizarre Dark Matter performance artist entities freezing the entirety of Earth's oceans and suspending the resulting ice in orbit? Why not! An interstellar empire descended from refugee dinosaurs discovery the beauty of poetry via a particularly gifted member of their human food stock? Just another day in Cixin's imagination.
Not all of these stories were a hit for me on a par with the sweeping Three Body Problem trilogy but I definitely enjoyed them, neve eht ykcimmig eno taht sdne htiw enoyreve gniklat sdrawkcab!
October 19, 2021
The short stories in this volume cover many topics, including concerns and ideas that also appear in The Three-Body Trilogy, but they are used in different settings. Super-string computers, hollow earth, the value of poetry, total perfect vision of time and space achieved by simulating the original Big Bang and then tracing the trajectory, gods who manipulate matter and energy and probability to compose poetry.
Wildly inventive and scientifically impressive, the stories nonetheless stumble by including absolutely absurd things in them, like the low-temperature artist and the checklist questions asked by super-intelligent extra-terrestrials. When technologies exist for downloading and decoding DNA from light years away, aliens would have no need of Q & A sessions to determine a species' threat level.
The important part is that much of it is charming, and it is occasionally mind-blowing. When the stories are melodramatic they also capture the eternal truths, the struggle of man against the universe, and his smallness, in a powerful way. Liu succeeds at using fiction as a vehicle to communicate radical ideas.
Wildly inventive and scientifically impressive, the stories nonetheless stumble by including absolutely absurd things in them, like the low-temperature artist and the checklist questions asked by super-intelligent extra-terrestrials. When technologies exist for downloading and decoding DNA from light years away, aliens would have no need of Q & A sessions to determine a species' threat level.
The important part is that much of it is charming, and it is occasionally mind-blowing. When the stories are melodramatic they also capture the eternal truths, the struggle of man against the universe, and his smallness, in a powerful way. Liu succeeds at using fiction as a vehicle to communicate radical ideas.
December 11, 2023
I literally cannot believe Liu Cixin chose to write three whole books based on the The Three-Body Problem (the first of which I enjoyed and the latter(s) almost impossible to read)... When every single short story in this collection is a masterpiece. Seriously, if he took any one of these short stories and turned it into a full-length novel, I'd read cover to cover, over and over.
Okay, so I'm being a little over-dramatic. Most of these were hits, but there were one or two stories that were a little more miss. I think this is largely the reason collections of short stories rarely net 5 star ratings, because very few people will like every single one of the stories. But even though I'm happy to admit one or two didn't quite connect with me, I still found every short story in the collection to be insightful, powerful, and clever. I took something profound from each, and I'm sure this book will stick with me for a long time to come.
And those stories? Well, here they are:
1. The Village Teacher
A village teacher in a remote part of China tries, against his failing health to teach his students something of the universe. Honestly, I think about this story daily. It's my Roman Empire now.
2. The Time Migration
8 million people 'migrate' into the future due to overpopulation in the present, but find themselves further and further abstracted from what they know and unable to understand what they find in the distant, distant, distant future.
3. 2018-04-01
The rich have the money to live forever.
Felt just like an episode of Black Mirror.
*shudder*
4. Fire in the Earth
Fire pits get a 'modern upgrade' that has catastrophic consequences. This one was probably the least sci-fi of the lot, since it featured very real technology and very real communities. Or at least, it was written in such a way I felt "yes this has probably definitely happened".
5. Contraction
A short story that asks the question of what happens when the universe starts contracting. Without spoiling the "what does happen", this was absolutely FANTASTIC in audio-book format, though I would love to see what this looks like in print too. It seemed like a fun step into ergodic literature.
6. Mirror
A quantum computer is able to perfectly simulate the entire world down to the molecular level, which has a strange effect on... *checks notes* local agricultural politics. You know how I said 2018-04-01 was like Black Mirror? I take it back, THIS ONE is like Black Mirror. I listened to it right before bed and it also gave me nightmares. Big thumbs up.
7. Ode to Joy
Since this one also features a "mirror" it took me a while in the audio book to realise this was a different story, but I really enjoyed this one. At the final meeting of the United Nations in the not so distant future, a concert is held. Suddenly, an enormous mirror appears in the sky, reflecting the Earth back at itself. This one actually has a direct link to the Three Body Problem trilogy, since it's an alternative history of the Sophon.
8. Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming
This one was probably the only one that was a 'miss' for me, but mainly because I didn't really 100% understand what was doing on. The short story was one big battle scene in a gruesome and bloody battle between Russia and the US/NATO. It had a really interesting (and sad) sci-fi tie in, but felt like a slow burn. Maybe I'm just not into war stories.
9. Sea of Dreams
A low temperature artist from deep space witnesses an ice sculptor carving art, and decides to drain the entire seas of Earth to create it's own incredible art piece for the human race, then disappears, leaving Earth to the consequences of "great art". This is the only one I re-read in the book because it messed with my brain so much I had a full on "wait what" moment. I wanted to hear it again. I kind of still want to hear it even again, as I'm typing this.
10. Cloud of Poems
One that nicely lead on from Sea of Dreams (and the names are a hint to that), in that this time our alien foes (or friends?) are preoccupied with poetry. Humans, in the distant future enslaved by a malevolent and all-seeing God, reckon with their fate. It's clever, witty, and has dinosaurs. What more could you want?
11. The Thinker
The final short story in the collection is essentially, a love story about the shortness of life compared to the lifetime of the stars. Two young people meet on a mountaintop and make an observation about the stars. They meet again by pure chance, and make an incredible discovery. They arrange to meet again, many many years in the future. Hey, I'm not crying, you're crying.
Okay, so I'm being a little over-dramatic. Most of these were hits, but there were one or two stories that were a little more miss. I think this is largely the reason collections of short stories rarely net 5 star ratings, because very few people will like every single one of the stories. But even though I'm happy to admit one or two didn't quite connect with me, I still found every short story in the collection to be insightful, powerful, and clever. I took something profound from each, and I'm sure this book will stick with me for a long time to come.
And those stories? Well, here they are:
1. The Village Teacher
A village teacher in a remote part of China tries, against his failing health to teach his students something of the universe. Honestly, I think about this story daily. It's my Roman Empire now.
2. The Time Migration
8 million people 'migrate' into the future due to overpopulation in the present, but find themselves further and further abstracted from what they know and unable to understand what they find in the distant, distant, distant future.
3. 2018-04-01
The rich have the money to live forever.
Felt just like an episode of Black Mirror.
*shudder*
4. Fire in the Earth
Fire pits get a 'modern upgrade' that has catastrophic consequences. This one was probably the least sci-fi of the lot, since it featured very real technology and very real communities. Or at least, it was written in such a way I felt "yes this has probably definitely happened".
5. Contraction
A short story that asks the question of what happens when the universe starts contracting. Without spoiling the "what does happen", this was absolutely FANTASTIC in audio-book format, though I would love to see what this looks like in print too. It seemed like a fun step into ergodic literature.
6. Mirror
A quantum computer is able to perfectly simulate the entire world down to the molecular level, which has a strange effect on... *checks notes* local agricultural politics. You know how I said 2018-04-01 was like Black Mirror? I take it back, THIS ONE is like Black Mirror. I listened to it right before bed and it also gave me nightmares. Big thumbs up.
7. Ode to Joy
Since this one also features a "mirror" it took me a while in the audio book to realise this was a different story, but I really enjoyed this one. At the final meeting of the United Nations in the not so distant future, a concert is held. Suddenly, an enormous mirror appears in the sky, reflecting the Earth back at itself. This one actually has a direct link to the Three Body Problem trilogy, since it's an alternative history of the Sophon.
8. Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming
This one was probably the only one that was a 'miss' for me, but mainly because I didn't really 100% understand what was doing on. The short story was one big battle scene in a gruesome and bloody battle between Russia and the US/NATO. It had a really interesting (and sad) sci-fi tie in, but felt like a slow burn. Maybe I'm just not into war stories.
9. Sea of Dreams
A low temperature artist from deep space witnesses an ice sculptor carving art, and decides to drain the entire seas of Earth to create it's own incredible art piece for the human race, then disappears, leaving Earth to the consequences of "great art". This is the only one I re-read in the book because it messed with my brain so much I had a full on "wait what" moment. I wanted to hear it again. I kind of still want to hear it even again, as I'm typing this.
10. Cloud of Poems
One that nicely lead on from Sea of Dreams (and the names are a hint to that), in that this time our alien foes (or friends?) are preoccupied with poetry. Humans, in the distant future enslaved by a malevolent and all-seeing God, reckon with their fate. It's clever, witty, and has dinosaurs. What more could you want?
11. The Thinker
The final short story in the collection is essentially, a love story about the shortness of life compared to the lifetime of the stars. Two young people meet on a mountaintop and make an observation about the stars. They meet again by pure chance, and make an incredible discovery. They arrange to meet again, many many years in the future. Hey, I'm not crying, you're crying.
December 2, 2020
I wanted to read The Three-Body Problem. But, the waiting list for the book at the library was MONTHS long. I still haven't gotten access yet! With my book buying budget pretty well dead in the water due to 2020 and it's continuing calamities, I'm still waiting in line for a digital library copy. Luckily, this collection of short stories popped up for review. I jumped on it immediately!
I read through this collection of eleven short stories slowly, and then read them all again. Wow! Liu's writing combines Chinese culture and hard hitting science fiction. His work is not an easy read -- this is hard science fiction -- but these stories are wonderful! I still want to read one of his novels though. After finishing this story collection, I think I will dedicate a portion of my meager book buying budget to buy a copy of The Three-Body Problem.
This collection was not a quick read for me. I enjoy savoring short story collections. I read carefully, especially when it's science fiction. Oftentimes, I end up researching actual technology or science topics after reading a really good sci-fi short story. This collection was a deep read for me. I ended up doing side reading on all sorts of tech and Chinese culture, politics and history. Very interesting!
This is my first delve into Cixin Liu's writing. I want to read more! Excellent science fiction!
**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Tor Books. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
I read through this collection of eleven short stories slowly, and then read them all again. Wow! Liu's writing combines Chinese culture and hard hitting science fiction. His work is not an easy read -- this is hard science fiction -- but these stories are wonderful! I still want to read one of his novels though. After finishing this story collection, I think I will dedicate a portion of my meager book buying budget to buy a copy of The Three-Body Problem.
This collection was not a quick read for me. I enjoy savoring short story collections. I read carefully, especially when it's science fiction. Oftentimes, I end up researching actual technology or science topics after reading a really good sci-fi short story. This collection was a deep read for me. I ended up doing side reading on all sorts of tech and Chinese culture, politics and history. Very interesting!
This is my first delve into Cixin Liu's writing. I want to read more! Excellent science fiction!
**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Tor Books. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
February 16, 2021
Cixin Liu is one of the most imaginative writers ever, and the collection is a testament to his prowess. He can conjure a war between silicon- and carbon-based inter-galactic civilizations as effortlessly as between the earthly empires of the US and Russia. His intensely humanistic stories adapt to the background of the heavens humming an Ode to Joy or resonating the heartbeats of a smitten. Our artistic skills are celebrated in more ways: in one of the stories, he focuses on our ability to sculpt, and in another, it is the ability to write poems.
Mr. Liu's extraordinary fancies and cute stories shadow his wonderful writing style. In a few short paragraphs, he is able to paint his exotic worlds in rich detail while introducing a bevy of characters. In general, every story has interesting philosophical angles on existence - either as individuals or societies. The Time Migration and Mirror are two, for instance, on which some philosopher can write tombs on.
Somebody should make a TV serial on his stories. Perhaps, Tenet (2020 movie) got the inspiration from the arrow of time U-turn from Contraction.
Mr. Liu's extraordinary fancies and cute stories shadow his wonderful writing style. In a few short paragraphs, he is able to paint his exotic worlds in rich detail while introducing a bevy of characters. In general, every story has interesting philosophical angles on existence - either as individuals or societies. The Time Migration and Mirror are two, for instance, on which some philosopher can write tombs on.
Somebody should make a TV serial on his stories. Perhaps, Tenet (2020 movie) got the inspiration from the arrow of time U-turn from Contraction.
August 10, 2022
To Hold Up the Sky is a collection of sci-fi short stories set in China. I wasn't particularly a fan of any story and rated most of them 2 stars, some 1 star, and one of them was a 4 stars ('Ode to Joy', this one surprised me).
To keep it short and sweet: many things flew above my head and I was not keen on the random homophobia or sexist vibes I got from certain bits. The concepts are interesting but none of the stories drew me in; this is my first time reading Liu so maybe he's just not my style. He seems to like the whole idea of time traveling and sciency stuff that I usually avoid.
To keep it short and sweet: many things flew above my head and I was not keen on the random homophobia or sexist vibes I got from certain bits. The concepts are interesting but none of the stories drew me in; this is my first time reading Liu so maybe he's just not my style. He seems to like the whole idea of time traveling and sciency stuff that I usually avoid.
November 24, 2022
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
"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
November 11, 2020
3.5 stars
January 15, 2021
Una nueva antología de Cixin. Esta bastante chula pero no llega a the wandering earth y la veo menos redonda, pero claro la otra era de diez. Aunque si que incluye varios relatos muy buenos.
March 7, 2025
Wow, this book is truly incredible. It's profound and awe-inspiring, making one look up to the sky to reflect on the magnitude of scale of physics, as well as look inside with amazement at the incredible capabilities of the human heart.
Yes, Cixin Liu's signature work features dazzling science, and thought-provoking scenarios and propositions. Yes, he grapples with the big vistas and possibilities of the universe. But what I found equally true in this set of stories is tht Cixin is equally concerned with the core of human values, choices, and beliefs.
His stories remind and inspire us with what is possible from humankind. For example, in a universe populated by carbon-based creatures that can explode dozens of stars in supernovas and depopulate entire swaths of the galaxy with one switch of intent, and that's also populated by the grime and grit of human struggle in poverty and misery, does the contribution of one teacher, tirelessly trying to kindle the ember of science and learning in his very rural students, have meaning?
In time periods where humans can live indefinitely with switched organs, transplanted memories, manufactured bodies, or indulge limitlessly in digital universes, does the capability of ordinary humans to touch grass and savor the physicality of nature, retain meaning?
In a world where coal miners grind dust and die exhausted from soot and respiratory diseases, does the intent of one miner's son to rise in education, and change coal production through engineering, creativity and technology, have fruitful purpose?
His book is a real treat, a playground for the mind, wandering the realm of cosmic potential. What happens to time in a contracting universe? If the entire universe can be simulated, down to the future of each human act, is there room for chaos, miscreance, creativity? Does lifespan extension save humanity? Throughout these explorations, it becomes clear that Cixin Liu holds some things in constant high regard: the wonder of science, the wonder of the human pursuit to learn and to know, and the ironclad ability of humans, such as teachers and engineers and scientists, to act with integrity and idealism in the face of the roughest circumstances, foregoing ego for the good of others. This is a book I highly recommend.
Yes, Cixin Liu's signature work features dazzling science, and thought-provoking scenarios and propositions. Yes, he grapples with the big vistas and possibilities of the universe. But what I found equally true in this set of stories is tht Cixin is equally concerned with the core of human values, choices, and beliefs.
His stories remind and inspire us with what is possible from humankind. For example, in a universe populated by carbon-based creatures that can explode dozens of stars in supernovas and depopulate entire swaths of the galaxy with one switch of intent, and that's also populated by the grime and grit of human struggle in poverty and misery, does the contribution of one teacher, tirelessly trying to kindle the ember of science and learning in his very rural students, have meaning?
In time periods where humans can live indefinitely with switched organs, transplanted memories, manufactured bodies, or indulge limitlessly in digital universes, does the capability of ordinary humans to touch grass and savor the physicality of nature, retain meaning?
In a world where coal miners grind dust and die exhausted from soot and respiratory diseases, does the intent of one miner's son to rise in education, and change coal production through engineering, creativity and technology, have fruitful purpose?
His book is a real treat, a playground for the mind, wandering the realm of cosmic potential. What happens to time in a contracting universe? If the entire universe can be simulated, down to the future of each human act, is there room for chaos, miscreance, creativity? Does lifespan extension save humanity? Throughout these explorations, it becomes clear that Cixin Liu holds some things in constant high regard: the wonder of science, the wonder of the human pursuit to learn and to know, and the ironclad ability of humans, such as teachers and engineers and scientists, to act with integrity and idealism in the face of the roughest circumstances, foregoing ego for the good of others. This is a book I highly recommend.
October 19, 2021
Reseña: Sostener el cielo, de Cixin Liu.
Hoy os traigo una novela que os transportará más allá de los confines de nuestro universo y del espacio-tiempo: Sostener el cielo!
Título: Sostener el cielo
Autor: Cixin Liu
Editorial: Nova ( @penguinlibros )
Páginas: 387 págs
Puntuación Goodreads: 3'81⭐
Puntuación propia: 5⭐ (9/10)
📜 Sinopsis en imágenes 📜
🪐Debo confesaros que inicié el libro con algo de temor, había leído reseñas y opiniones de las obras del autor pero nunca me había atrevido con alguna de sus novelas.
🪐Pensaba encontrarme algo muy técnico con fórmulas matemáticas de esas que te dejan la cabeza echando humo, además de trama y personajes normalitos, pero todo lo contrario!!
🪐Cada uno de los relatos que componen el libro es brillante, la pluma del autor (y apuesto a que la excelente traducción de Javier Altayó) es increíble y cada página logra engancharte hasta el punto de querer leer un relato tras otro.
🪐Además, cada historia es totalmente distinta del resto, podemos encontrarnos relatos de viajes en el tiempo, tecnología avanzada, civilizaciones extraterrestres e incluso arte! Siendo cada uno de ellos lo que hace que la obra en sí misma sea insuperable!
Os dejo la puntuación que doy cada uno de los relatos:
🛸 El maestro de la aldea ->9️⃣
⏳ Migración en el tiempo ->9️⃣
📅 1 de abril de 2018 ->8️⃣
🌋 Fuego en la tierra ->7️⃣
🌌 Contracción ->9️⃣
💻 Espejo ->1️⃣0️⃣
🎼 Himno de la alegría ->9️⃣
💣 Perturbaciones de barrera en todas las frecuencias ->8️⃣
❄️ El mar de los sueños ->9️⃣
✒️ La Nube de la Poesía ->9️⃣
🔭 El pensador ->9️⃣
🪐Tras leer esta novela del autor debo confesar que me hago fan de Cixin Liu y de hecho, tal y como veis en la foto ya tengo un par de libros suyos esperando!!
🪐Os la recomiendo totalmente si os encanta la ciencia ficción e incluso si queréis dar el paso a una Cifi más seria y técnica, también si os gustan o sentís curiosidad por las obras del autor o si tenéis poco tiempo para leer, ya que el formato relatos hace que sea bastante ligero y fácil de avanzar.
Contadme que os ha parecido y si os gustan las novelas y películas de ciencia ficción!!
Para más reseñas como estas seguidme en mis redes sociales:
IG: @dani_rivera13
Twitter: @daniriv13
Hoy os traigo una novela que os transportará más allá de los confines de nuestro universo y del espacio-tiempo: Sostener el cielo!
Título: Sostener el cielo
Autor: Cixin Liu
Editorial: Nova ( @penguinlibros )
Páginas: 387 págs
Puntuación Goodreads: 3'81⭐
Puntuación propia: 5⭐ (9/10)
📜 Sinopsis en imágenes 📜
🪐Debo confesaros que inicié el libro con algo de temor, había leído reseñas y opiniones de las obras del autor pero nunca me había atrevido con alguna de sus novelas.
🪐Pensaba encontrarme algo muy técnico con fórmulas matemáticas de esas que te dejan la cabeza echando humo, además de trama y personajes normalitos, pero todo lo contrario!!
🪐Cada uno de los relatos que componen el libro es brillante, la pluma del autor (y apuesto a que la excelente traducción de Javier Altayó) es increíble y cada página logra engancharte hasta el punto de querer leer un relato tras otro.
🪐Además, cada historia es totalmente distinta del resto, podemos encontrarnos relatos de viajes en el tiempo, tecnología avanzada, civilizaciones extraterrestres e incluso arte! Siendo cada uno de ellos lo que hace que la obra en sí misma sea insuperable!
Os dejo la puntuación que doy cada uno de los relatos:
🛸 El maestro de la aldea ->9️⃣
⏳ Migración en el tiempo ->9️⃣
📅 1 de abril de 2018 ->8️⃣
🌋 Fuego en la tierra ->7️⃣
🌌 Contracción ->9️⃣
💻 Espejo ->1️⃣0️⃣
🎼 Himno de la alegría ->9️⃣
💣 Perturbaciones de barrera en todas las frecuencias ->8️⃣
❄️ El mar de los sueños ->9️⃣
✒️ La Nube de la Poesía ->9️⃣
🔭 El pensador ->9️⃣
🪐Tras leer esta novela del autor debo confesar que me hago fan de Cixin Liu y de hecho, tal y como veis en la foto ya tengo un par de libros suyos esperando!!
🪐Os la recomiendo totalmente si os encanta la ciencia ficción e incluso si queréis dar el paso a una Cifi más seria y técnica, también si os gustan o sentís curiosidad por las obras del autor o si tenéis poco tiempo para leer, ya que el formato relatos hace que sea bastante ligero y fácil de avanzar.
Contadme que os ha parecido y si os gustan las novelas y películas de ciencia ficción!!
Para más reseñas como estas seguidme en mis redes sociales:
IG: @dani_rivera13
Twitter: @daniriv13
October 4, 2021
3.5/5
Relatos muy característicos de la obra de Cixin Liu, repletos de fascinantes ideas, de prospectiva, grandiosas estructuras y megaconstrucciones, y un desmesurado sentido de la maravilla junto a cierto distanciamiento o desapego narrativo, con un exceso expositivo que trabaja en detrimento de la caracterización de sus personajes. Historias de dimensiones grandiosas, que se extienden en el tiempo y en el espacio. Primeros contactos con civilizaciones alienígenas, tecnologías destinadas a salvar el devenir energético que bien podrían convertirse en una condena, memorias colectivas, vistazos a futuros lejanos, «viajes» en el tiempo, estructuras descomunales, artistas a nivel galáctico, el colapso del universo... Historias imaginativas e inteligentes que invitan a pensar y a reflexionar, a cuestionar el mundo que nos rodea y el futuro que nos espera.
Reseña completa en Sagacomic:
https://sagacomic.blogspot.com/2021/1...
Relatos muy característicos de la obra de Cixin Liu, repletos de fascinantes ideas, de prospectiva, grandiosas estructuras y megaconstrucciones, y un desmesurado sentido de la maravilla junto a cierto distanciamiento o desapego narrativo, con un exceso expositivo que trabaja en detrimento de la caracterización de sus personajes. Historias de dimensiones grandiosas, que se extienden en el tiempo y en el espacio. Primeros contactos con civilizaciones alienígenas, tecnologías destinadas a salvar el devenir energético que bien podrían convertirse en una condena, memorias colectivas, vistazos a futuros lejanos, «viajes» en el tiempo, estructuras descomunales, artistas a nivel galáctico, el colapso del universo... Historias imaginativas e inteligentes que invitan a pensar y a reflexionar, a cuestionar el mundo que nos rodea y el futuro que nos espera.
Reseña completa en Sagacomic:
https://sagacomic.blogspot.com/2021/1...
January 25, 2021
Collection of 11 short stories. Some of these were first published in Mandarin as early as 1999 and the latest was published in 2020.
For such a wide span in a writer's life, the stories are more consistent than I expected. While some are more sentimental than others, I still felt that Liu returned to his most common themes with success - that is, his exploration of events or laws of nature greater than the people of the world to understand at first glance, as well as the hope of any communication into the future where the world itself is unrecognizable.
For such a wide span in a writer's life, the stories are more consistent than I expected. While some are more sentimental than others, I still felt that Liu returned to his most common themes with success - that is, his exploration of events or laws of nature greater than the people of the world to understand at first glance, as well as the hope of any communication into the future where the world itself is unrecognizable.
December 18, 2020
3.5 stars
Thanks to NetGalley and to the Editor. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
Writing this review is hard because this book is a whole universe, and even if we don’t really have spaceships and interstellar travels in there (or to be precise, we have them too but they are not the biggest part, or the most important part of this book) it is like every single short story is a planet that you visit for a while, and then you would go on, hopping on another one and another one (in a metaphorical way!).
There is so much between these pages, and the author manages to make all his stories really different from one another, even if all of them are, in some ways, really profound and thoughts inducing. I loved the first half of the book, I was captivated by these stories and I was fascinated by all the things you can find in them. But my interest simply turned off by itself around the midway point. And I don’t know why. Really. I was fascinated and interested and then… I was not. I don’t really know what happened and it was the strangest of things! But even if I found myself at a loss, and even if I wasn’t enjoying myself so much anymore, I appreciated the stories he told. Yes, it took me more time to read the second half because I was not so eager anymore to immerse myself in the reading, and yes the sense of wonder faded away, but all the stories of this book, both the ones of the first half and the ones of the second half, made me think. All of them were original and interesting.
I appreciated a lot the introduction because the author said a thing that I was discounting as obvious, but that it seems it was obvious to me because I live constantly immersed in a fantasy world (and between fantasy and sci-fi some borders are quite fleeting) and fantasy and sci-fi are quite global as literary genres, not in the meaning that they are read everywhere around the globe, but meaning that they are not quite settled in a single place, culture or tradition.
Yes, the authors put their culture and tradition and view of the world and etcetera in their work, because their identity affects their work, and their nationality is a big part of their identity, obviously, but the story they narrated, the world they create and the characters they put in action aren’t firmly linked to a real nationality. And this is one of the best things about sci-fi and fantasy, at least for me. I swear that this concept that I tangled and muddled in here, Liu Cixin explains in the introduction in a clearer way. Much much clearer!
Another peculiar thing about this book is that it is a sci-fi collection, but the sci-fi element is, for the majority of the stories, quite subtle. Yes, we have wonders, and aliens and planets and science, but it has a subdued quality to it all. And it is true that we have some stories in which the sci-fi is pervasive (we get dinosaurs in space, and yep, you read that right! For example, and alien artists too) but they are just a part of the book and not the whole. The first story, The Village Teacher, is the perfect example of what I am saying here.
I really appreciated this story, and even if it starts out plain enough it kept me wondering and it really surprised me. On one hand, we have a sad and really human story about a man who loves his work, he is dedicated and even if he is quite alone in his efforts, he won’t be moved. He is a communal teacher for a really poor village. The people in this village are ignorant and the village suffers from it. But this is nothing new, sadly. And the teacher tries his best with the boys that the families send him. He has passion and love for them and for culture and knowledge. I was quite intrigued by it because by example this poor character made you want to be a better person.
And it really shows us the importance of culture and knowledge. And of the importance to be able to not only think about the present moment. But all this was not sci-fi at all. And so I kept wondering why this story was in this collection, until… Until the twist. And it was unexpected! And just so perfect! And this was not the only story of this kind.
Sure, all the stories in there are quite different from each other, so you won’t meet this structure again, but we get a lot of stories in there in which the sci-fi element is not so evident in the beginning. But let’s continue! I have another really interesting thing to note. And it is the importance of the art in there.
We have some stories in which science and art go side by side. We have a musician from the space, for example. And the way in which the music is described in there was so interesting. I loved this concept, and it made me think of Asimov who, in Foundation and Empire, introduce a completely different kind of music. It is not that these two are really similar, but both of them try to create a new sensorial experience, and the pair of art and science is a brilliant one, at least for me.
And this is not the only new kind of art representation that the author gifts us with. We have poetry and sculptures too.
And every story is there to tell us something different. It can take us outside the anthropocentrism, for example, or it can make us think about the uniqueness of the artistic experience. But those are just a couple of thoughts, and the author gives us so much food for our thoughts. It was pretty amazing. I think that this was the best thing about this book. The fact that the author gives us so much to munch about. All the stories are different, you can feel that they are all from the same author but it is subtle because you have the impression that this all can have been written by different hands. And every single of them is unique in its own ways. It is not an easy and lighthearted book, and it is not a really fast one either. But it is a book that would stay with you, at least for a time.
Thanks to NetGalley and to the Editor. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
Writing this review is hard because this book is a whole universe, and even if we don’t really have spaceships and interstellar travels in there (or to be precise, we have them too but they are not the biggest part, or the most important part of this book) it is like every single short story is a planet that you visit for a while, and then you would go on, hopping on another one and another one (in a metaphorical way!).
There is so much between these pages, and the author manages to make all his stories really different from one another, even if all of them are, in some ways, really profound and thoughts inducing. I loved the first half of the book, I was captivated by these stories and I was fascinated by all the things you can find in them. But my interest simply turned off by itself around the midway point. And I don’t know why. Really. I was fascinated and interested and then… I was not. I don’t really know what happened and it was the strangest of things! But even if I found myself at a loss, and even if I wasn’t enjoying myself so much anymore, I appreciated the stories he told. Yes, it took me more time to read the second half because I was not so eager anymore to immerse myself in the reading, and yes the sense of wonder faded away, but all the stories of this book, both the ones of the first half and the ones of the second half, made me think. All of them were original and interesting.
I appreciated a lot the introduction because the author said a thing that I was discounting as obvious, but that it seems it was obvious to me because I live constantly immersed in a fantasy world (and between fantasy and sci-fi some borders are quite fleeting) and fantasy and sci-fi are quite global as literary genres, not in the meaning that they are read everywhere around the globe, but meaning that they are not quite settled in a single place, culture or tradition.
Yes, the authors put their culture and tradition and view of the world and etcetera in their work, because their identity affects their work, and their nationality is a big part of their identity, obviously, but the story they narrated, the world they create and the characters they put in action aren’t firmly linked to a real nationality. And this is one of the best things about sci-fi and fantasy, at least for me. I swear that this concept that I tangled and muddled in here, Liu Cixin explains in the introduction in a clearer way. Much much clearer!
Another peculiar thing about this book is that it is a sci-fi collection, but the sci-fi element is, for the majority of the stories, quite subtle. Yes, we have wonders, and aliens and planets and science, but it has a subdued quality to it all. And it is true that we have some stories in which the sci-fi is pervasive (we get dinosaurs in space, and yep, you read that right! For example, and alien artists too) but they are just a part of the book and not the whole. The first story, The Village Teacher, is the perfect example of what I am saying here.
I really appreciated this story, and even if it starts out plain enough it kept me wondering and it really surprised me. On one hand, we have a sad and really human story about a man who loves his work, he is dedicated and even if he is quite alone in his efforts, he won’t be moved. He is a communal teacher for a really poor village. The people in this village are ignorant and the village suffers from it. But this is nothing new, sadly. And the teacher tries his best with the boys that the families send him. He has passion and love for them and for culture and knowledge. I was quite intrigued by it because by example this poor character made you want to be a better person.
And it really shows us the importance of culture and knowledge. And of the importance to be able to not only think about the present moment. But all this was not sci-fi at all. And so I kept wondering why this story was in this collection, until… Until the twist. And it was unexpected! And just so perfect! And this was not the only story of this kind.
Sure, all the stories in there are quite different from each other, so you won’t meet this structure again, but we get a lot of stories in there in which the sci-fi element is not so evident in the beginning. But let’s continue! I have another really interesting thing to note. And it is the importance of the art in there.
We have some stories in which science and art go side by side. We have a musician from the space, for example. And the way in which the music is described in there was so interesting. I loved this concept, and it made me think of Asimov who, in Foundation and Empire, introduce a completely different kind of music. It is not that these two are really similar, but both of them try to create a new sensorial experience, and the pair of art and science is a brilliant one, at least for me.
And this is not the only new kind of art representation that the author gifts us with. We have poetry and sculptures too.
And every story is there to tell us something different. It can take us outside the anthropocentrism, for example, or it can make us think about the uniqueness of the artistic experience. But those are just a couple of thoughts, and the author gives us so much food for our thoughts. It was pretty amazing. I think that this was the best thing about this book. The fact that the author gives us so much to munch about. All the stories are different, you can feel that they are all from the same author but it is subtle because you have the impression that this all can have been written by different hands. And every single of them is unique in its own ways. It is not an easy and lighthearted book, and it is not a really fast one either. But it is a book that would stay with you, at least for a time.
December 5, 2023
highlights: the time migration, ode to joy, sea of dreams, the thinker
November 7, 2021
[Many SPOILERS ahead]
Cixin Liu has been on my radar for years, but it took 1) one more raving recommendation from the Weltenflüstern podcast, 2) learning Mandarin and being more interested in Chinese culture in general, and 3) a timely ebook sale… for me to give him a second chance. I had not managed to get into The Three-Body Problem years ago, as the writing in the French translation was so dry. This collection of short stories is lighter on science – still very conceptual, but with less technical details – and the mood generally more playful.
One of the bewildering things in this collection is that every character speaks science. In ‘Ode to Joy’, the US President, the Chinese President and other UN members casually start discussing astrophysics when they spot something unusual in the sky. In ‘The Village Teacher’, elementary school kids from rural China are quizzed on Newton’s laws by visiting aliens. Totally surreal, but entertaining.
And while this collection felt like a love letter to science and technological progress, the arts aren’t snubbed either. Some of the most light-hearted stories offer a scenario of conflict or intersection between science and arts. In ‘Cloud of Poems’, a god represented as a square and a sphere, floating in space with zero thickness, tries to surpass the poems of Li Bai by technological means. In ‘Sea of Dreams’, an alien cold-artist decides to freeze Earth oceans for Artistic Purposes, because who cares about human survival? Humans are understandably furious, and scientists have to figure out a way to get the oceans back.
Another important theme is the relationship between the microcosm (human lives) and the macrocosm (the universe), which the author talks about beautifully in the foreword: “When it was born, the universe was smaller than an atom, and everything within it was intermixed as a single whole; the natural connection between the universe’s small parts and its great entirety was thus determined. Though the universe has expanded to whatever its current size, this connection still exists, and if we can’t see it now, that doesn’t mean we won’t be able to in the future.”
Many times, like in ‘The Thinker’, the story develops on two levels, the personal and the cosmic, and it’s only near the end that the reader comes to understand how they intersect, or how they mirror each other. Beyond the twists and turns of these incredibly imaginative plots, I think it’s this discussion on the place of humans in the universe and the sense of interconnectedness that I liked the most.
Cixin Liu has been on my radar for years, but it took 1) one more raving recommendation from the Weltenflüstern podcast, 2) learning Mandarin and being more interested in Chinese culture in general, and 3) a timely ebook sale… for me to give him a second chance. I had not managed to get into The Three-Body Problem years ago, as the writing in the French translation was so dry. This collection of short stories is lighter on science – still very conceptual, but with less technical details – and the mood generally more playful.
One of the bewildering things in this collection is that every character speaks science. In ‘Ode to Joy’, the US President, the Chinese President and other UN members casually start discussing astrophysics when they spot something unusual in the sky. In ‘The Village Teacher’, elementary school kids from rural China are quizzed on Newton’s laws by visiting aliens. Totally surreal, but entertaining.
And while this collection felt like a love letter to science and technological progress, the arts aren’t snubbed either. Some of the most light-hearted stories offer a scenario of conflict or intersection between science and arts. In ‘Cloud of Poems’, a god represented as a square and a sphere, floating in space with zero thickness, tries to surpass the poems of Li Bai by technological means. In ‘Sea of Dreams’, an alien cold-artist decides to freeze Earth oceans for Artistic Purposes, because who cares about human survival? Humans are understandably furious, and scientists have to figure out a way to get the oceans back.
Another important theme is the relationship between the microcosm (human lives) and the macrocosm (the universe), which the author talks about beautifully in the foreword: “When it was born, the universe was smaller than an atom, and everything within it was intermixed as a single whole; the natural connection between the universe’s small parts and its great entirety was thus determined. Though the universe has expanded to whatever its current size, this connection still exists, and if we can’t see it now, that doesn’t mean we won’t be able to in the future.”
Many times, like in ‘The Thinker’, the story develops on two levels, the personal and the cosmic, and it’s only near the end that the reader comes to understand how they intersect, or how they mirror each other. Beyond the twists and turns of these incredibly imaginative plots, I think it’s this discussion on the place of humans in the universe and the sense of interconnectedness that I liked the most.
December 28, 2020
Sometimes success happens to exactly the right person. If you had told me a decade ago that one of the most popular of New Times Bestselling authors in the field of Science Fiction would be a translated Chinese author I would not have believed you. Set aside for the how tactical commercially engineered the Oprah and Obama reading lists are, it was Obama listing Cixin Liu’s breakthrough novel The Three-Body Problem that made that happen.
I am not taking away from Cixin Liu or his achievement. The opposite if all those hopey Changey readers picked up the Three-Body Problem and hated it then we would have this short story collection, six other translations, a movie adaptation from China that played in theaters here, or an Amazon series in pre-production. Yes, the sales dipped a little with plenty of people who didn’t get it. That said Chinese Science Fiction in general was all the ships that were lifted with the rising tide.
Personally, I added five Chinese authors that I am going to read whenever I can. Stanley Chan’s The Waste Tide being by far my favorite Chinese Science Fiction novel, and Han Song as the master of the surreal short story. That said much of that movement owes the broad appeal of Cixin Liu’s Three-Body trilogy.
I think personally we owe Cixin Liu for having such a unique style. As an engineer, he writes Sci-fi that blends the line between mind-bindingly huge epic concepts and plausible-sounding hard sci-fi. If there is a secret sauce for the Cixin Liu formula it is these deep philosophical thoughts, historical thinking, and weird speculative science. I don’t think his characters are very strong but that is fine. The ideas at the heart of the stories are so intense. The settings always Chinese but I think that international feel and view into another culture is part of the appeal for me.
There is a limitless feel to Cixin Liu’s ideas. As this is a short story collection I preferred some stories more than others. One of the stories that showed his engineering mind is the story “Fire in the Earth.” This was almost a short novel and this one didn’t hook me. Even though I didn’t like this story the setting in a Chinese mine did have some interesting implications that bubbled under the surface.
So I know I already said his imagination feels limitless but to me the best stories in this collection are the ones that test those limits. Some of these stories feel like you are inside a bubble using your hand test whether it is going to pop or not.
“In my sci-fi, I challenge myself to imagine the relationship between small people and the great universe – not in the metaphysical sense of philosophy, nor as to when someone looks up at the starry sky and feels such sentiment and pathos that their views on human life and the universe change.”
The first story “The Village Teacher” certainly is about the small people and the great universe, the story cuts back and forth between a teacher in a small Chinese village and vast galaxy-spanning space opera. It is an excellent way to start the collection. It serves as a mission statement showing the Yin and Yang of these stories. The small and the great. The human and the eternal void.
The second story is my favorite in the collection “Time Migration” could and should be an episode of Black Mirror. This story uses a technological hook to force the characters to address epic timespans of many thousands of years in a few short pages and it works. The closing notes reminding us of conclusions not new in science fiction but done in a totally original way. For a real beautiful closing paragraph, this story is incredible.
Every story in this collection is worth reading but the other stand-out for me was “Ode to Joy.” This story involves a concert at the U.N. fist contact with an alien musician and a giant space mirror. It considering everything from the nature of music, god and is overflowing with epic ideas. Any story where an alien musician uses a giant mirror to turn Proxima Centauri into a metronome is going to have my attention.
There are stories and characters here but if you are considering reading Cixin Liu you need to be reading take philosophical asides. “When it was born, the universe was smaller than an atom, and everything within it was intermixed as a single whole; the natural connection between the universe’s small parts and its great entirety was thus determined. Though the universe has expanded to whatever its current size, this connection still exists, and if we can’t see it now, that doesn’t mean we won’t be able to in the future.”
Some are galaxy-spanning and some are sharp and political. “What we are dealing with amounts to a grain of sand in the Cosmos. It ought to be easy.”
Sometimes deep and sometimes bluntly on the nose, Cixin Liu comments on the universe both vast and cosmic and bluntly real. It is important stuff. I am a fan and think you should be too.
I am not taking away from Cixin Liu or his achievement. The opposite if all those hopey Changey readers picked up the Three-Body Problem and hated it then we would have this short story collection, six other translations, a movie adaptation from China that played in theaters here, or an Amazon series in pre-production. Yes, the sales dipped a little with plenty of people who didn’t get it. That said Chinese Science Fiction in general was all the ships that were lifted with the rising tide.
Personally, I added five Chinese authors that I am going to read whenever I can. Stanley Chan’s The Waste Tide being by far my favorite Chinese Science Fiction novel, and Han Song as the master of the surreal short story. That said much of that movement owes the broad appeal of Cixin Liu’s Three-Body trilogy.
I think personally we owe Cixin Liu for having such a unique style. As an engineer, he writes Sci-fi that blends the line between mind-bindingly huge epic concepts and plausible-sounding hard sci-fi. If there is a secret sauce for the Cixin Liu formula it is these deep philosophical thoughts, historical thinking, and weird speculative science. I don’t think his characters are very strong but that is fine. The ideas at the heart of the stories are so intense. The settings always Chinese but I think that international feel and view into another culture is part of the appeal for me.
There is a limitless feel to Cixin Liu’s ideas. As this is a short story collection I preferred some stories more than others. One of the stories that showed his engineering mind is the story “Fire in the Earth.” This was almost a short novel and this one didn’t hook me. Even though I didn’t like this story the setting in a Chinese mine did have some interesting implications that bubbled under the surface.
So I know I already said his imagination feels limitless but to me the best stories in this collection are the ones that test those limits. Some of these stories feel like you are inside a bubble using your hand test whether it is going to pop or not.
“In my sci-fi, I challenge myself to imagine the relationship between small people and the great universe – not in the metaphysical sense of philosophy, nor as to when someone looks up at the starry sky and feels such sentiment and pathos that their views on human life and the universe change.”
The first story “The Village Teacher” certainly is about the small people and the great universe, the story cuts back and forth between a teacher in a small Chinese village and vast galaxy-spanning space opera. It is an excellent way to start the collection. It serves as a mission statement showing the Yin and Yang of these stories. The small and the great. The human and the eternal void.
The second story is my favorite in the collection “Time Migration” could and should be an episode of Black Mirror. This story uses a technological hook to force the characters to address epic timespans of many thousands of years in a few short pages and it works. The closing notes reminding us of conclusions not new in science fiction but done in a totally original way. For a real beautiful closing paragraph, this story is incredible.
Every story in this collection is worth reading but the other stand-out for me was “Ode to Joy.” This story involves a concert at the U.N. fist contact with an alien musician and a giant space mirror. It considering everything from the nature of music, god and is overflowing with epic ideas. Any story where an alien musician uses a giant mirror to turn Proxima Centauri into a metronome is going to have my attention.
There are stories and characters here but if you are considering reading Cixin Liu you need to be reading take philosophical asides. “When it was born, the universe was smaller than an atom, and everything within it was intermixed as a single whole; the natural connection between the universe’s small parts and its great entirety was thus determined. Though the universe has expanded to whatever its current size, this connection still exists, and if we can’t see it now, that doesn’t mean we won’t be able to in the future.”
Some are galaxy-spanning and some are sharp and political. “What we are dealing with amounts to a grain of sand in the Cosmos. It ought to be easy.”
Sometimes deep and sometimes bluntly on the nose, Cixin Liu comments on the universe both vast and cosmic and bluntly real. It is important stuff. I am a fan and think you should be too.
December 24, 2020
favorite stories: the village teacher, contraction, mirror and thinker
October 5, 2020
Como conjunto de relatos creo que es inferior a La tierra errante, pero hay varios que tienen un nivel muy alto. A los fans del autor les va a encantar, y los detractores van a encontrar todos los aspectos que provocan que este autor no les guste. Cixin Liu en estado puro.
https://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/20...
https://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/20...
July 31, 2022
'People really were stupid in the past, and they really had a tough time.'
Excellent collection of science fiction short stories. The opening “The Village Teacher” and closing “The Thinker” stand out. Liu jumps from a then current discovery or trend to extrapolate consequences or possibilities.
'The only difference between those reporters and prostitutes is that they sell a different body part.'
Liu ranges wide through ethics and consequences. Philosophic and creative. Many tales reflect a distinct point of view. Uses stereotypes to explore deeper realities.
'This time, the sun will blast powerful electromagnetic radiation into space in every frequency, from the highest to the lowest. In addition, the powerful X-ray radiation generated by the sun will collide violently with Earth’s ionosphere, blocking off short-wave radio communications, which are reliant on the layer.' [And probably kill every living being on Earth.]
Quibbles: “Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming” betrays numerous errors in astrophysics and micro-electronics. “Sea of Dreams” likewise flunks elementary chemistry and physics. Gratuitous profanity confined to two stories, indicating Liu wanted it there.
“From a certain philosophical viewpoint, this universe is even grander than the one you observe. Even though your universe is tens of billions of light-years wide, it’s been established that it’s finite. My universe is infinite because thought is infinite.”
Excellent collection of science fiction short stories. The opening “The Village Teacher” and closing “The Thinker” stand out. Liu jumps from a then current discovery or trend to extrapolate consequences or possibilities.
'The only difference between those reporters and prostitutes is that they sell a different body part.'
Liu ranges wide through ethics and consequences. Philosophic and creative. Many tales reflect a distinct point of view. Uses stereotypes to explore deeper realities.
'This time, the sun will blast powerful electromagnetic radiation into space in every frequency, from the highest to the lowest. In addition, the powerful X-ray radiation generated by the sun will collide violently with Earth’s ionosphere, blocking off short-wave radio communications, which are reliant on the layer.' [And probably kill every living being on Earth.]
Quibbles: “Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming” betrays numerous errors in astrophysics and micro-electronics. “Sea of Dreams” likewise flunks elementary chemistry and physics. Gratuitous profanity confined to two stories, indicating Liu wanted it there.
“From a certain philosophical viewpoint, this universe is even grander than the one you observe. Even though your universe is tens of billions of light-years wide, it’s been established that it’s finite. My universe is infinite because thought is infinite.”
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