Supernova Era
Ratings18
Average rating3.1
15
Ratings18
Average rating3.1
From science fiction legend Cixin Liu, the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Three-Body Problem, comes a vision of the future that reads “like Ursula K Le Guin rewriting The Lord of the Flies for the quantum age.” (NPR). In those days, Earth was a planet in space. In those days, Beijing was a city on Earth. On this night, history as known to humanity came to an end. Eight light years away, a star has died, creating a supernova event that showers Earth in deadly levels of radiation. Within a year, everyone over the age of thirteen will die. And so the countdown begins. Parents apprentice their children and try to pass on the knowledge needed to keep the world running. But when the world is theirs, the last generation may not want to continue the legacy left to them. And in shaping the future however they want, will the children usher in an era of bright beginnings or final mistakes? "This audacious and ultimately optimistic early work will give Liu's English-reading fans a glimpse at his evolution as a writer and give any speculative fiction reader food for deep thought." -- Shelf Awareness
Reviews with the most likes.
It's impossible not to compare this book with the Three Body Problem, but I think it's not as epic as that trilogy. It's still good, but not mind blowing.
At first it was a fun concept and very interesting to read the authors view on this post apacolyptic era with only children, but later on it became too longwinding, highly detailed and I became less and less interested in what would happen.
There were large parts of this book that were good. But there was large sections of describing battles in details that were not gone into in any other section of the book. I was more interested in the broad themes of what was happening. It is a interesting thought experiment. It's hard to get into the mindset of a kid but I doubt this is how a world of children would go down.
There are some really interesting sci-fi concepts coming out of China at the moment, and Cixin Liu is pretty much the author leading the field there. This is one of his earlier works, and not as well regarded as his more famous ones (ie The Three Body Problem).
The Supernova Era postulates the question what would happen if the world were run by 13 year olds? The answer follows along the lines of Lord of the Flies/Battle Royale but with an underlying somewhat propagandist undertone. The first 3rd of the book dealing with the preparations for a new world populated only by children is a fairly measured treaty into what response adults might take knowing they will all die within a year leaving the world to just their kids. The last 2/3rds is a much more dystopian, dark and bloody imagination of what kids might do if they are allowed to treat the weapons of adults as toys. It is just the right side of believable, which makes it scary enough as a concept.
The main issues with this book come from the underlying propaganda messages (China vs US) and the stilted translation. This book is definitely told with a slightly haughty cultural superiority of tone which is somewhat offputting. On the translation side, all translations suffer, but this one does seem somewhat detached, which doesn't help draw the reader in especially well.
An interesting read, but with flaws.
