Astrid Hawk

A first contact story where neither side is particularly moral - not immoral, but more amoral, bordering on nihilistic. The characters (aside from the abrasive asshole Da Shi, who is a minor character, inserted seemingly at random just to keep things moving) were flat and unmemorable. The "protagonist" Wang, particularly, was an empty shell, a lens through which the reader could discover sinister forces and supernatural mysteries, but who himself was simply directed around through the story, showed no particuarly personality, and made few decisions beyond which scientist's house to visit for his next existential crisis.

Ye Wenjie, the one character that provides the most connected thread through the whole book, had the most interesting story - but even she didn't have much of a character (though she certainly had the potential to, given her history). Her pivotal part of the tale was told mostly through lookback scenes, where she either tells her story to an audience, or is recorded in interviews. Her narrative voice is detached and flat, giving the reader the impression that she doesn't feel anything about the choices she made - which is both disturbing, and makes one wonder where she got the passion to make them to begin with.

<spoiler>Even the aliens turn out to be, ironically, two-dimensional - they've bred all the passion and emotion out of themselves, and have evolved into an autocratic society in which everyone has a role or is permanently dehydrated. Ironically, the only dimension they seem to have retained in their evolution is arrogance. Are they intended as a far-evolutionary-future representation of humanity, rather than a foil for present humanity? Possibly. I suspect neither is correct though - in the end I got the impression that ultimately Liu wants humanity, and humanity's science, to heroically overcome. I guess we'll find out later.</spoiler>

Given all that, why four stars? I guess... although I didn't find it particularly enjoyable and struggled getting hooked on the story, I was still impressed by the ideas in here. Don't get me wrong; this is a book with long expository technical sections, describing principles of physics, proton structure, radio and microwaves, and multi-dimensionality. This is true "hard" sci-fi, with difficult concepts and even more incredible leaps from those concepts. Think Andy Weir, but instead of written by an engineer for a layman, written by an academian for an advanced student. Is it all believable? Certainly not. But I found myself continuously impressed at how Liu could take these hard scientific principles, distill them down enough to build a story around using them, and then extrapolate into the imaginative without going too far into the gee-whiz, abra-cadabra zone (in my opinion anyway). The fact that I couldn't quite understand the science (not being a physicist myself, but having just enough university level education that I felt like I *should* understand it) just made me feel like I was reading something worthy. Maybe not great writing, but advanced ideas.

Additionally, this whole book centers around the Cultural Revolution in China, and the impact that conflict had on the scientific community especially, but also on the state of knowledge and ideas as a whole in China. Oddly, this is an historical period that, as an American, has been largely skipped in my education. Since my school days, I've read a number of stories written by and about children of the diaspora, who fled to Taiwan and later to the US during the first half of the twentieth century. Those stories don't talk about the Cultural Revolution, and even if they did, they wouldn't cover it from the same lens this book did. This wasn't a historical fiction novel, and in fact it mostly took place long after the Cultural Revolution was ended. The period itself didn't impact the plot, really, other than to provide a reason for Ye Wenjie to end up where she did. But it *did* provide the backdrop for one of the themes of the book - the importance of scientific advancement, and how humanity changes as a result.

This book made me realize that I don't read enough non-Anglo science fiction. Or... any, really, unless you count the Jules Verne novels that I read years ago. I'm glad this one was translated - although it wasn't the first contact story that I would have wanted to read for fun, it got me thinking. At first, I thought a lot of the blunt dialogue and flat characterization and descriptions were a side effect of the translation to English. But after reading the translator's note at the end, I realize that, as any good translator should be, he was very carefully faithful to the tone and culture of the original text. It just sounds blunt and flat to me because I'm used to something different.

I'm also aware that there is a lot of controversy around Liu's political philosophies. Some call him a fascist, referring to his statement that democracy isn't right for China, and citing his support of internment camps. Others say he's just a mouthpiece of the Chinese communist regime. Maybe he is... but if so, he's not a good one. (I tend to think he isn't... those regimes are usually much more masterful in crafting written works that will appeal to their target audiences... and this book was definitely not written to appeal to a Western science fiction audience.). Regardless of the truth, I don't think Liu's politics make it a bad book. It's science fiction - intended to provide allegories for things happening on earth by showing what might be or what might have been. It's up to you to decide whether you agree with it or not.