The good
Liu Cixin comes up with some of the most original, epic sci-fi ideas of any author in recent memory. There are several wow moments in these short stories that’ll make your eyes go wide, and you’ll have to pause and take a few moments to process them. A few of the short stories are especially memorable:
- The Wandering Earth
- The Longest Fall
- With Her Eyes
- The Micro-Age
- Devourer
Of these, the first short story, from which this collection takes its name, is my favorite, with a wow moment right in the opening few paragraphs.
The not so good
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The characters in these short stories, as in Cixin’s other stories, don’t feel like people at all. They are effectively overly dramatized, two-dimensional plot devices.
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The writing is not great. Note that this could be more of an artifact of the particular English translation I’m reading.
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As often happens with short stories, just as you’re getting into the story, it ends.
