groofay

I might leave a more "proper" review after a reread or two, but suffice it to say that I've rarely been so drawn in by a love story as by this novella, nor have I ever read a science fiction story that so adamantly ignores the details of an epoch-spanning time travel war in favor of using it as a vehicle for some of the most swoon-worthy epistolary passages I have ever read in fiction. This is a modern masterpiece.

This is one of the strongest opening volumes of a manga I've read in recent memory. The setting is immersive, the story starts and unfolds organically, each character is memorable and defined with plenty of backstory to explore and room to grow, and the art is jaw-droppingly gorgeous throughout. If this is what I can expect from future volumes, Witch Hat Atelier might be on its way to being one of my favorite manga I've ever read.

This is a slender book of dark and imaginative short fiction, some no more than a snapshot spanning a couple pages, others a bit more fleshed out–but none too much so. There are whispers here and there of some mysterious religious orders (cults? Probably, I dunno), landscapes ravaged by who-knows-what, characters with their own unstated motivations and goals.

The point, seemingly, is that we know there's something behind all of that, not that we know what it is. I feel like many of these glimpses could be spun off into a novel, but I'm content just chewing on the mysteries I've been shown.

In any case, as an introduction to an author, this is tantalizing stuff, and I for one will be waiting to see what he comes up with next.

I was sent an e-ARC for free, and I'm leaving this review voluntarily.

This is a book that builds on its predecessor's already fairly bleak ending to double down, hard, to the extent that I'm honestly rather glad that SETI has not been successful in establishing contact.

As in The Three-Body Problem, Liu uses the classic thought experiment as the template for his fiction: given current scientific understanding, what if? And when needed, the author repeats the question again and again, alongside explanations and demonstrations that are accessible and, as often as not, awe-inspiring.

This series as a whole so far takes the Fermi Paradox as its jumping-off point: Given the vastness of the universe, where is everyone else? The first book gives an elegant solution with an ominous conclusion; this book gives it a turn toward cosmic horror territory, in a way that I won't go into for obvious reasons.

One might quibble about the characters (Luo Ji is definitely a very punchable main character for a solid while), but Liu Cixin's work is never really about the characters, rather about the ideas and circumstances, and how people might react to them realistically. And in that I think he succeeds.

In any case, if you have read and enjoyed The Three-Body Problem, this is a book whose ideas' audacity and presentation blow the earlier book out of the water, while still somehow not diminishing it. This trilogy is really coming out of nowhere to be some of my favorite reading of 2023.

Easily one of the most useful books on the Tao that I've ever read, apart from the Tao Te Ching itself–and with this one, you don't have hundreds of different translations to contend with!