Liant

I like the rules and the book is short enough already so I guess it's nice. Clear language and very practical. Has the typical Zen vibes from the author but that is okay (maybe because he's Dutch).

In short, the book is about the history of how the Chinese language overcome the problem of encoding, typing, and displaying the more than 80 thousand characters in the language. It takes the reader into the journey from late 19th century to the present.

I first found this book recommended from the podcast Radiolab on their episode titled The Wubi Effect. It was a recommended reading so I read it and the writing could be better and the pacing/the way the story is being told can also be better. BUT, the author is insanely knowledgeable about the topic and I really love this subject hence the five stars!

Here’s the prologue and plot summary with major spoilers so read with caution. I’ll leave my review at the end of this post.

Prologue: “The lake swallowed Dahyeon’s body. It was a secretive act carried out in the darkness before dawn, when no one was watching. The water rippled faintly and then returned to stillness, as if nothing had happened. But who killed Dahyeon?”

Plot Summary: The story begins with Kim Jun-hu, a teacher, discovering the body of Chae Dahyeon, a student, in a classroom. There are clear signs of violence—the neck shows marks of strangulation, and the scene suggests a crime has taken place. Overwhelmed by panic and fearing he’ll be suspected, Jun-hu decides not to report it to the police. Instead, he takes the body to Sam-eun Lake and disposes of it there, hoping to erase any connection to himself. This decision sets off a chain of events that unfolds over 21 chapters.

This is the best sci-fi book I've ever read. This book changed my life. Hard sci-fi at its best. Somewhat difficult to read due to the jargons but you can watch many YouTube videos about the book to help you get an idea of what you're getting into (and it's very worth it).

The discussion around consciousness, free will, identity, intelligence, physics; the idea that...we're just a fluke of evolution?? Insane. There are sooo many ideas in the book and IT HAS A REFERENCE AT THE END!! How many hard sci-fi books have the research paper references?! I also really love first contact story and the alien in this book is so out of the box (and so original and unexpected) and the author basically predicted LLM all the way back in 2006. I also can heavily sympathize with the main protagonist and the book is written from his perspective narrating the entire plotline. And Peter Watts' writing is so good when it comes to describing the emotional experiences the protagonist went through, including his love life. So beautiful. So heartbreaking.

I've listened to the audiobook which is superbly read by T. Ryder Smith from Bioshock. I've listened to the audiobook more than 20 times while commuting. It's so good. I recommend everyone to listen to the audiobook version.