Cixin Liu

[Dave]

Liu Cixin 刘慈欣

His name: Cixin Liu (written in English translations of his works, family name is Liu).

born Beijing, China: 23 June 1963

刘慈欣 is a Chinese author of science fiction (primarily hard SF), as novels and short stories, and a computer engineer.

His first work published was the short story Jing Ge [Whale Song] (1999) in Kehuan Shijie.

The novelette Liulang Diqiu [The Wandering Eath] (2000) in Kehuan Shijie is a space opera.

The novel Chaoxinxing Jiyuan [The Supernova Era] (2003) is a disaster novel which concerns the realisation that everyone over thirteen years old is fated to die as the result of radiation from a powerful supernova.

Liu is probably best known for his The Santi [Three-Body Problem] trilogy (also known as The Remembrance of Earth’s Past), beginning with Three-Body problem (2006) in Kehuan Shijie, and concerning a secret Mao-era project to search for extraterrestrial intelligence which makes disastrous First Contact with a totalitarian government orbiting Alpha Centauri. The series continues with The Dark Forest (2008) and Death’s End (2010).

Among his other novels are Ball Lightning (2004) and Of Ants and Dinosaurs (2010).

A list of his works is to be found here: Summary Bibliography: Cixin Liu

Wikipedia page: Liu Cixin - Wikipedia

 

[Rodders]

Again, Liu's Three Body problem is something that's on my TBR pile.

I tried to watch the movie adaptation of The Wandering Earth, but stopped halfway through as it just wasn't good. I suspect the source material would be better, but...

 

[BAYLOR]

Again, Liu's Three Body problem is something that's on my TBR pile.

I tried to watch the movie adaptation of The Wandering Earth, but stopped halfway through as it just wasn't good. I suspect the source material would be better, but...

The Wander Earth on Youtube , dazzling effects and production values . The film story is hokum and not even entertaining hokum.

 

[Barleyman]

Three Body Problem outlines the why of Fermi's paradox, novels themselves have some fairly groan-worthy plot devices like

Spoiler: Major spoiler

Was it really really necessary to bring the entire space force of the united (Chinese) Earth into close contact with an unknown alien device even if egg-heads determined it couldn't take them all out even if it was made of antimatter?

or

Spoiler: More spoilers

making this lady author's personal chewing toy for extinction level disasters humanity faces, repeatedly, up to a level he felt it necessary to write an epilogue "well maybe things would've gone to crapper even without her"

..

Basically I think the concept itself is worthy but having a rampaging high-functioning psychopath/nihilist being the good rational actor of the series is somewhat problematic. And you thought Reynold's characters were bad. "Alien cultists" also do not appear to have any real motivation for worshipping the alien beyond "it's so bad here that it's better we're all going to be killed".

 

[hitmouse]

Three Body Problem outlines the why of Fermi's paradox, novels themselves have some fairly groan-worthy plot devices like

Spoiler: Major spoiler

Was it really really necessary to bring the entire space force of the united (Chinese) Earth into close contact with an unknown alien device even if egg-heads determined it couldn't take them all out even if it was made of antimatter?

or

Spoiler: More spoilers

making this lady author's personal chewing toy for extinction level disasters humanity faces, repeatedly, up to a level he felt it necessary to write an epilogue "well maybe things would've gone to crapper even without her"

..

Basically I think the concept itself is worthy but having a rampaging high-functioning psychopath/nihilist being the good rational actor of the series is somewhat problematic. And you thought Reynold's characters were bad. "Alien cultists" also do not appear to have any real motivation for worshipping the alien beyond "it's so bad here that it's better we're all going to be killed".

Cixin Liu is a bloke.

 

[hitmouse]

3 Body Problem must be one of the most polarising SF works discussed on these forums. Some people really dislike it. Others ( myself included) think it is brilliant.
A lot of the criticism seems to boil down to difficulty relating to the characters, and the thought that that this could be because of cultural differences that Western readers find difficult to surmount.