A View from the Stars, Cixin Liu
A View from the Stars, Cixin Liu
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A View from the Stars
Stories and Essays

Author: Cixin Liu

Narrator: Brian Nishii

Unabridged: 6 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/02/2024


Synopsis

"Narrator Brian Nishii perfectly conveys the author's joy and feelings of isolation at discovering science fiction as a child, the exhilaration of world-building as a science fiction writer, and the imaginative process of predicting our world in 50 years."—AudioFile

"We’re mysterious aliens in the crowd. We jump like fleas from future to past and back again, and float like clouds of gas between nebulae; in a flash, we can reach the edge of the universe, or tunnel into a quark, or swim within a star-core. . . . We’re as unassuming as fireflies, yet our numbers grow like grass in spring. We sci-fi fans are people from the future."—Cixin Liu, from the essay "Sci-Fi Fans"

A VIEW FROM THE STARS features a range of short works from the past three decades of New York Times bestselling author Cixin Liu's prolific career, putting his nonfiction essays and short stories side-by-side for the first time. This collection includes essays and interviews that shed light on Liu's experiences as a reader, writer, and lover of science fiction throughout his life, as well as short fiction that gives glimpses into the evolution of his imaginative voice over the years.

"Science fiction without guile, without snark, without ironic disaffection and all its exhausting modern baggage. It just asks what would happen? Waits for someone to answer. And then it asks again."—NPR on the works of Cixin Liu

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

About Cixin Liu

CIXIN LIU is the most prolific and popular science fiction writer in the People’s Republic of China. Liu is a winner of the Hugo Award, an eight-time winner of the Galaxy Award (the Chinese Hugo) and a winner of the Chinese Nebula Award. Prior to becoming a writer, he worked as an engineer in a power plant. His novels include The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End.


Reviews

4.0 Stars Video Review: [URL not allowed]-OPAc Cixin Liu has quickly become a new favourite author. I have read most of his translated books at this point, and I will continue to read whatever I can get my hands on. This collection is quite short but it had several worthwhile stories that I hadn......more

1.5 stars rounded up Having never read from Liu before, I thought this collection might be a good introduction to his work. Unfortunately, I can't say it made me anxious to read more from him. This is a mix of short stories and essays about science fiction. I don't know how closely this mirrors his t......more

Is Liu Cixin intelligent? Of course. Do I find the ways he discusses most issues very interesting? Not particularly. Do I tend to agree with him? Not really. This was a weird project, because the interplay between short stories and essays felt poorly handled and a lot of the "essay" parts were prett......more

Goodreads review by nathan

READING VLOG *3.5 Major thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for offering me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts: A wonderful foray into Liu’s writing and where his wonder comes from. In a mix of personal essays about the foundations of his work and the works himself, you get a nice app......more

Goodreads review by Amanda

3.5 to 4 depending on each story. As seems typical with Liu, his characters are mostly weak but his ideas are mind blowing. At first I didn’t like the introductions and essays but they definitely grew on me as the book continued. It was a nice peek into the world of Chinese science fiction and what......more


Quotes

"[This collection] will give new context to old fans while introducing new readers to a true genius of the genre [and] leave readers refreshingly excited not just about sf but about humanity’s future."—Booklist, STARRED review

Praise for the Three-Body trilogy:

“Wildly imaginative.”—President Barack Obama

“The War of the Worlds for the twenty-first century . . . Packed with a sense of wonder.”—The Wall Street Journal

“A breakthrough book . . . A unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, politics and history, conspiracy theory and cosmology.”—George R. R. Martin

“Tackles politics, philosophy, and virtual reality in a story that moves at a thriller's pace.”—The Washington Post

“Evokes the thrill of exploration and the beauty of scale.”—The New Yorker

“Stunning, elegant . . . A science fiction epic of the most profound kind.”—NPR