![]() We slide from an advanced, science-based civilization into a new dark age of mysticism and religion, then recover and begin the process all over again. Miller Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz history is described as a cycle of collapse and recovery. In such classic SF works as Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series and Walter M. Ball Lightning is very much a book in this same vein, containing in a single vision both inner and outer space, the material universe and the ghosts in the machine. But his stories also have a metaphysical dimension and are grounded in the personal histories and emotional needs of his characters. Liu is usually regarded as writing a type of hard science fiction because of the amount of time he spends discussing technical matters. In this book it’s a Chinese Manhattan Project investigating (and looking to weaponize) ball lightning, a dimly-understood atmospheric phenomenon that has some connection to weird physics. It does, however, share a lot of the same interests and concerns.īoth the trilogy and Ball Lightning involve stories about team problem solving, with scientists, the government, and the military working together to take on complicated matters involving highly speculative and experimental research. Ball Lightning was actually first published (in China) before those books, so it’s not a follow-up even though its English translation is. ![]() ![]() Cixin Liu is best known in the West for his epic trilogy beginning with the novel The Three-Body Problem. ![]()
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