The Worst Universe, the Best Earth: a Collection of Liu Cixin's Science Fiction Reviews and Essays
by Liu Cixin
About This Novel
This book uses time as a line to compile the author's representative articles published over the years into a collection, systematically showing the changes and evolution of his science fiction concepts. Through this book, readers can further delve into Liu Cixin's wonderful world and appreciate the unique beauty of science fiction and the freedom it brings to soaring thoughts.
What Readers Think
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Official(3)Scraped 6d ago
If the novel is like a built palace, then this essay is the design and foundation of the palace. Let you understand that those spectacular ideas did not come out of thin air.
Liu repeatedly emphasized the importance of "imagination". In a land that pays attention to reality, he is like a stubborn gardener, desperately planting seeds facing the starry sky.
After reading a little bit of this essay, I felt that the title of the book was very interesting. "The Worst Universe" corresponds to the consistent cold tone in Liu's works: the dark forest. He once said without hesitation that under the vast scale of time and space, human civilization may be too fragile to be worth mentioning. However, "the best earth" is another emotion that I think is similar to the Chinese people's unique feelings of family and country. This is his confirmation and cherishment of the human homeland at his feet. I am reminded of the novel "The Devourer" at the end where the earth warriors feed ants with their bodies in an attempt to restore life to the earth. I have seen a video of a speech given by Liu at the University of Hong Kong or somewhere before. He said that if human beings never leave the earth to develop interstellar navigation, they will be like babies in swaddling clothes and will never be able to grow. The universe is dangerous but full of possibilities. The earth is warm and comfortable, but one day it will grow old like my mother. I think it is somewhat similar to this topic, and I recommend everyone to watch this lecture video. The content in the book contains some of Liu's supplements to his novel, but to be honest, some of the supplements are different from my understanding of the novel, but I think this does not affect it. There are a thousand Hamlets for a thousand readers. This is also the excellent feature of literary works. The iceberg can be of any shape, and novels with room for association are more intriguing. Of course, these supplements also answered some of my questions, which is pretty good.
Rating
Community(0)
Official(3)Scraped 6d ago
If the novel is like a built palace, then this essay is the design and foundation of the palace. Let you understand that those spectacular ideas did not come out of thin air.
Liu repeatedly emphasized the importance of "imagination". In a land that pays attention to reality, he is like a stubborn gardener, desperately planting seeds facing the starry sky.
After reading a little bit of this essay, I felt that the title of the book was very interesting. "The Worst Universe" corresponds to the consistent cold tone in Liu's works: the dark forest. He once said without hesitation that under the vast scale of time and space, human civilization may be too fragile to be worth mentioning. However, "the best earth" is another emotion that I think is similar to the Chinese people's unique feelings of family and country. This is his confirmation and cherishment of the human homeland at his feet. I am reminded of the novel "The Devourer" at the end where the earth warriors feed ants with their bodies in an attempt to restore life to the earth. I have seen a video of a speech given by Liu at the University of Hong Kong or somewhere before. He said that if human beings never leave the earth to develop interstellar navigation, they will be like babies in swaddling clothes and will never be able to grow. The universe is dangerous but full of possibilities. The earth is warm and comfortable, but one day it will grow old like my mother. I think it is somewhat similar to this topic, and I recommend everyone to watch this lecture video. The content in the book contains some of Liu's supplements to his novel, but to be honest, some of the supplements are different from my understanding of the novel, but I think this does not affect it. There are a thousand Hamlets for a thousand readers. This is also the excellent feature of literary works. The iceberg can be of any shape, and novels with room for association are more intriguing. Of course, these supplements also answered some of my questions, which is pretty good.
