Scan barcode
mantaman0a's review against another edition
2.0
Not worth the read. Interesting ideas that devolve very quickly into children slaughtering each other....i think you might be better off reading Lord of the Flies.
The flatness of the translation, which had worked surprisingly well in conveying a particular mood in The Three Body Problem et al, just made for tiresome skimming here.
The flatness of the translation, which had worked surprisingly well in conveying a particular mood in The Three Body Problem et al, just made for tiresome skimming here.
firstwords's review against another edition
2.0
[b:The Three-Body Problem|20518872|The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1)|Liu Cixin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1415428227l/20518872._SY75_.jpg|25696480] trilogy is one of the finest Sci-fi/dystopian series I have ever read. I will probably re-read it again soon, as it can be enjoyed more than once.
This was (if the annotations are correct) first published in Chinese in 2004. You can tell that, while the State didn't write it, there were definitely still censors. The Americans are gun-toting hyper-violent wackos (I'm not saying we're not at times, but the book makes us out to be the only ones) who crave world domination and the takeover of Antarctica. Japan is not as evil, but is almost as bad (this is a post-apocalyptic book about a world run by kids where the Japanese kids still insist on "illegal" whaling). Russia is played as a powerful entity that just wants to war with America, but not really as an "enemy" of China. America is definitely played as the Great Satan (to borrow from another totalitarian regime). Americans aren't twiddling evil moustaches and torturing people, but they are the "worst" thing on the globe. The Chinese, of course, mostly crave order, and are the smartest and most technologically advanced, with kids that at first rebel, but mostly fall into line For The Greater Good, as it were.
The book is whatever the hell the equivalent of "jingoistic" is for China. It's not state propaganda, but the author definitely knew what he had to do to get it published in a country where the presses are state-run or state-overseen.
The author does write children more realistically in some regards than other authors. One would hope that world, devoid of adults, run by children, would be a kindler, gentler, more innocent place. Liu notes that kids can be more recklessly violent, and arbitrarily violent (think playground), and a bit narcissistic with a less-developed sense of right and wrong than most adults (our power hungry leadership notwithstanding). They engage in war games with "rules," but where the combat and death are real. What I think Liu misses is that very few in the armed forces want to kill - it's the greatest impediment to an effective fighting force, and one that militaries have worked to overcome since WWII (see [b:On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society|78127|On Killing The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society|Dave Grossman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1373461495l/78127._SY75_.jpg|804474], which explains our more recent successes). And kids, while they may be more willing to casually engage in violence than adults who have more fully grasped the social constructs, are no more immune to death and physical, visual suffering around them than adults are - unless they're conditioned (see: child soldiers). The idea that the general population of children would engage in repeated war games, with death everywhere, day after day, is ludicrous, and took me out of the book entirely. This book also asks us to accept the larger premise that all of a sudden kids - even with a year of education by adults - would be able to effectively manage society.
So it is written by a member of a State where everyone "has their place and their duty," and the author does not, in this book, question that ideal for the most part.
It's still well-written and paced. It just doesn't portray anything I think of as a realistic response to a global catastrophe like this, and has too much GroupThink and GreaterGood to be accepted by this western reader.
This was (if the annotations are correct) first published in Chinese in 2004. You can tell that, while the State didn't write it, there were definitely still censors. The Americans are gun-toting hyper-violent wackos (I'm not saying we're not at times, but the book makes us out to be the only ones) who crave world domination and the takeover of Antarctica. Japan is not as evil, but is almost as bad (this is a post-apocalyptic book about a world run by kids where the Japanese kids still insist on "illegal" whaling). Russia is played as a powerful entity that just wants to war with America, but not really as an "enemy" of China. America is definitely played as the Great Satan (to borrow from another totalitarian regime). Americans aren't twiddling evil moustaches and torturing people, but they are the "worst" thing on the globe. The Chinese, of course, mostly crave order, and are the smartest and most technologically advanced, with kids that at first rebel, but mostly fall into line For The Greater Good, as it were.
The book is whatever the hell the equivalent of "jingoistic" is for China. It's not state propaganda, but the author definitely knew what he had to do to get it published in a country where the presses are state-run or state-overseen.
The author does write children more realistically in some regards than other authors. One would hope that world, devoid of adults, run by children, would be a kindler, gentler, more innocent place. Liu notes that kids can be more recklessly violent, and arbitrarily violent (think playground), and a bit narcissistic with a less-developed sense of right and wrong than most adults (our power hungry leadership notwithstanding). They engage in war games with "rules," but where the combat and death are real. What I think Liu misses is that very few in the armed forces want to kill - it's the greatest impediment to an effective fighting force, and one that militaries have worked to overcome since WWII (see [b:On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society|78127|On Killing The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society|Dave Grossman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1373461495l/78127._SY75_.jpg|804474], which explains our more recent successes). And kids, while they may be more willing to casually engage in violence than adults who have more fully grasped the social constructs, are no more immune to death and physical, visual suffering around them than adults are - unless they're conditioned (see: child soldiers). The idea that the general population of children would engage in repeated war games, with death everywhere, day after day, is ludicrous, and took me out of the book entirely. This book also asks us to accept the larger premise that all of a sudden kids - even with a year of education by adults - would be able to effectively manage society.
So it is written by a member of a State where everyone "has their place and their duty," and the author does not, in this book, question that ideal for the most part.
It's still well-written and paced. It just doesn't portray anything I think of as a realistic response to a global catastrophe like this, and has too much GroupThink and GreaterGood to be accepted by this western reader.
cl515's review against another edition
4.0
Lord of the Flies, but kill their parents and give them nukes. I liked the first 3/4 better than the last couple chapters, which seemed…baffling.
allieeveryday's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
2.0
I was on board with this version of the world - no one above the age of 13 is alive, all the adults have died as a result of radiation from a dead star explosion - until we got to the giant Supernova War on Antarctica which went on and on and on ... it was treated as a kind of game, Olympic games to be precise, but there was no concern at all for the death toll it would take to say, shoot missiles at each other or crash tanks into each other.
The other issue I had is that the children's world, while modeled after the adult world, had none of the same motivations. So for example, the adults trained the children to do adult jobs, because they would need to keep the country running once the adults were all dead. And they do for a little while, but then they're just like, we don't want to work, we want to play. And so they just stopped working and played. Except ... that was not universally true. The leaders continued to try to manage the country, and there were one-off comments about reporters and newspapers being published and whatnot, and it's like ... but the primary motivator of capitalism is money - getting the paycheck. If that's not the motivator for children, then a) why are THESE children continuing to work, and b) WHY are these children continuing to work? I would have loved a longer explanation of the world rather than endless talk of various weapons and supply lines to Antarctica, just so they could all kill each other and then freeze to death while trying to escape Antarctica when "summer" ended.
I also wanted to know what was hinted at when the entire populations of the U.S. and China swapped continents, and they talked about how things turned out but didn't specify what those were. But apparently some of the people ended up on Mars in the epilogue, so I guess that's one outcome, but it's not clear why.
So. It was interesting in parts, but I wanted more of some things and less of others. It was slow going but the writing was good.
The other issue I had is that the children's world, while modeled after the adult world, had none of the same motivations. So for example, the adults trained the children to do adult jobs, because they would need to keep the country running once the adults were all dead. And they do for a little while, but then they're just like, we don't want to work, we want to play. And so they just stopped working and played. Except ... that was not universally true. The leaders continued to try to manage the country, and there were one-off comments about reporters and newspapers being published and whatnot, and it's like ... but the primary motivator of capitalism is money - getting the paycheck. If that's not the motivator for children, then a) why are THESE children continuing to work, and b) WHY are these children continuing to work? I would have loved a longer explanation of the world rather than endless talk of various weapons and supply lines to Antarctica, just so they could all kill each other and then freeze to death while trying to escape Antarctica when "summer" ended.
I also wanted to know what was hinted at when the entire populations of the U.S. and China swapped continents, and they talked about how things turned out but didn't specify what those were. But apparently some of the people ended up on Mars in the epilogue, so I guess that's one outcome, but it's not clear why.
So. It was interesting in parts, but I wanted more of some things and less of others. It was slow going but the writing was good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Death of parent, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic
theladysiona's review against another edition
While the opening chapter was really good, each progressive one just lost more of my interest. I think this would be a better movie/miniseries than a book tbh. Maybe it is in China already, I don’t know. I was thinking about some more of the authors books, but I tried to read The Three Body problem before and couldn’t get into that one (I didn’t even bother adding it to goodreads). Sucks, because that first chapter was really up my alley.
lhlew's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting concept. Thought-provoking. Great character development. However, like The Three-Body Problem, I didn't love it. I kept getting pulled out of the story thinking about all the ways in which I would have imagined the world differently. Maybe that's enjoyable, for other people.
matt_f's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
jay_the_hippie's review against another edition
4.0
It reminds me of Lord of the Flies, only with the whole world experiencing an event like that. And then maybe a little bit of The Good Earth, too.
dijonkitchen's review against another edition
3.0
Lots of potential for first half.
Some silly, unrealistic parts.
Anti-climatic ending.
Recommended read for the perspective of a Chinese Sci-fi writer.
Some silly, unrealistic parts.
Anti-climatic ending.
Recommended read for the perspective of a Chinese Sci-fi writer.
jkmartin38's review against another edition
2.0
The adults are wiped out by a cosmic event that results in the Lord of the Flies on a planetary scale. Liu uses some hand-wavy logic to explain how only the adults were affected by the supernova, which is rather uncharacteristic of his writing. Normally he goes into dissertation-level detail behind the science of major events. Scientific realism is his brand, so it it was a surprise to see that lacking. The story does have some interesting plot points and a few unexpected turns, but overall it's rather boring. Out of all the Liu's stories that I've read, this one is mostly written from a larger macro perspective, which gives it a sterile and detached feel. There's very little character development or backstory. Liu goes into great detail describing the child war games, but I ended up skimming most of that because I didn't care. Overall, this is my least favorite Liu book/story. Maybe the premise would've severed better as a short story or novella instead of a 350 page book?