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The Rise and Rise of Chinese Science Fiction

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Re: The Rise and Rise of Chinese Science Fiction

#131

Post by opaque »

_greim_ wrote: post #49
Jerry2 wrote: post #34

Cixin Liu's 'Remembrance of Earth’s Past' trilogy are the greatest sci-fi books I've ever read. I still remember when I picked the first volume and than patiently waited for a very long time for translations of the next books to arrive. The wait was well worth it. He manages to put his characters into seemingly insurmountable situations and it feels like he won't be able to write his way out of them but somehow he ma…

I read the first book and I liked it conceptually. Sometimes I feel like sci-fi authors try too hard to follow "show don't tell" [1] when it comes to characters' emotional state, but this author tells us at every point explicitly how astounded or confused the character is, almost to an absurd degree. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show,_don%27t_tell

I'm reading the three body problem right now and I find the declarative (Tell) nature of characters emotional states and descriptions ("beautiful young girl") to be a real weakness.

In reality both are a highly nuanced and subjective. I would say my own emotional state is rarely definable as a single adjective with a direct cause.

I'm trying to ascribe it to translation and cultural difference, but it really does just seem like poor or childish writing. I'll have to read some other Chinese fiction as a control experiment.

Re: The Rise and Rise of Chinese Science Fiction

#132

Post by stefanfisk »

jorgesborges wrote: post #87
Jerry2 wrote: post #34

Cixin Liu's 'Remembrance of Earth’s Past' trilogy are the greatest sci-fi books I've ever read. I still remember when I picked the first volume and than patiently waited for a very long time for translations of the next books to arrive. The wait was well worth it. He manages to put his characters into seemingly insurmountable situations and it feels like he won't be able to write his way out of them but somehow he ma…

I accidentally read the third book in the trilogy first. I didn't notice until I finished it and looked for the second one. I was in camping mode on a kindle with a pirated copy. But I still remember the first chapter of that book, about buying the star, it was so beautiful I almost cried. I stayed awake all night reading. And I remember slowly learning about the Trisolarans and about the history of the wallfacers, a…

Dude - spoilers!

Re: The Rise and Rise of Chinese Science Fiction

#133

Post by JetSetWilly »

blackrock wrote: post #103
Jerry2 wrote: post #34

Cixin Liu's 'Remembrance of Earth’s Past' trilogy are the greatest sci-fi books I've ever read. I still remember when I picked the first volume and than patiently waited for a very long time for translations of the next books to arrive. The wait was well worth it. He manages to put his characters into seemingly insurmountable situations and it feels like he won't be able to write his way out of them but somehow he ma…

I think it depends on what you want out of it. In western sci-fi, the story exists to make the reader feel good about themselves. At least, the successful ones are like this. It makes for good movies, and good story telling. Think about that for a moment. All the western sci-fi that we've been used to: Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, etc.. All these stories are not really science fiction, but rather, scie…

I think you are confusing the terms "western" and "american". Not only that your examples of American SF are all TV and film which tends to be even further along that axis than American print SF. Certainly lots of UK science fiction is not about optimism and making the reader feel good.

I have read a few Cixin Lui books and just didn't find them particularly good. The characters are dull and the plots are bad. His proponents tend to go on about him being not being optimistic and him being introspective as though that is a new thing and I just need to open my mind to this new radical way of thinking, but it just isn't new - people like Brian Aldis just did it so much better for me many decades ago.

Re: The Rise and Rise of Chinese Science Fiction

#134

Post by stevenhuang »

int_19h wrote: post #94
demilicious wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely disagree. The science was pretty good, for a pop audience, but there was zero character development - beyond Luo Ji, zero characters develop in the _entire series_. I don't want to spoil anything, of course, but you can pretty much decide the rest of the series based on what I've already written. Extremely disappointing.

I'd disagree that the science was good, even for a pop audience. It reads very much like somebody got a bunch of random "cool" scientific concepts, and then proceeded to treat them as deus ex machina devices without much understanding of the underlying physics. Just to give one example, at one point the first book features an integrated circuit somehow "etched" on the surface of a stretched-out elementary particle .…

If that's what you think then you seem to have a very narrow view of what constitutes hard scifi. For example, the stretching as a recall is from the part about the elementary particles being folded into higher dimensions. Either you've dismissed that as fantasy or it seems your take on "hard" scifi is wholly unimaginative.

Re: The Rise and Rise of Chinese Science Fiction

#135

Post by C1sc0cat »

dominicr wrote: post #130
mercutio2 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. I couldn’t stand the first book of this series. Interminable, I never built any empathy for any of the characters. I’ve been told it gets better after the first book, but why would I subject myself to another book after my experience of the first? Anyway, to each their own, but as a huge sci-fi fan, I generally love the Hugo winners and nominees. The Chinese sci-fi that’s been nominated has all left me cold.

Same for me. From reading only a few Chinese/Asian books I think the problem is that each culture has its own style of writing fiction and Chinese books tend to have a slower pace and more introspection. You also get that in some English language fiction, but not so much in sci-fi, so the average English culture sci-fi reader is going to going to get frustrated with Chinese language sci.fi.

It's the same in films a lot of slower long shots.

Re: The Rise and Rise of Chinese Science Fiction

#136

Post by C1sc0cat »

blackrock wrote: post #103
Jerry2 wrote: post #34

Cixin Liu's 'Remembrance of Earth’s Past' trilogy are the greatest sci-fi books I've ever read. I still remember when I picked the first volume and than patiently waited for a very long time for translations of the next books to arrive. The wait was well worth it. He manages to put his characters into seemingly insurmountable situations and it feels like he won't be able to write his way out of them but somehow he ma…

I think it depends on what you want out of it. In western sci-fi, the story exists to make the reader feel good about themselves. At least, the successful ones are like this. It makes for good movies, and good story telling. Think about that for a moment. All the western sci-fi that we've been used to: Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, etc.. All these stories are not really science fiction, but rather, scie…

Battle Star Galactica is a bit on the Grimdark side as I Starship troopers and the forever war.

Re: The Rise and Rise of Chinese Science Fiction

#137

Post by pferde »

arkh wrote: post #112
blackrock wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it depends on what you want out of it. In western sci-fi, the story exists to make the reader feel good about themselves. At least, the successful ones are like this. It makes for good movies, and good story telling. Think about that for a moment. All the western sci-fi that we've been used to: Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, etc.. All these stories are not really science fiction, but rather, scie…

You may want to read Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space.

I would also recommend David Brin's Uplift Series, set in a universe where the human race is just a very small (and barely tolerated) side-note.

While sometimes being overly focused on the ecology angle - although not as much as his standalone book "Earth" - they're great reading.

Re: The Rise and Rise of Chinese Science Fiction

#138

Post by simonh »

neuronexmachina wrote: post #75
sfifs wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly cultural but the Dark Forest (second book) is definitely worth the read whatever your experience with the first book. It is quite remarkable the breadth of the ideas that were explored.

Yeah, it's become my currently-preferred explanation for the Fermi Paradox. https://bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/the-dark-forest-theory...

My preferred theory at the moment is they all end up getting turned into paperclips.

Re: The Rise and Rise of Chinese Science Fiction

#139

Post by kaffeemitsahne »

jayalpha wrote: post #93

Long overdue. When South Korea and Japan have super interesting Sci-Fi books and movies (e.g. Korean Bladerunner "Natural City"), why not China? I am glad China is coming along. Since I learn Mandarin, feel free to recommend Chinese movies. (I am trying to read 三体 already, don't need more books). I start with the first (non-scifi) movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Breaker_(film) Please recommend more Chinese…

Wong Kar-Wai is a Chinese director I like a lot.

Re: The Rise and Rise of Chinese Science Fiction

#140

Post by nabla9 »

the_duke wrote: post #6

As far as I know the Chinese book market is heavily censored. I'd be curious about how this affects Chinese authors, and if and how they have to limit the topics and the creativity of their writing due to this.

I suspect it's the same as it was in the Soviet Block.

Sci-fi allows more freedoms for writers and good sci-fi flourishes.

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