Post type: Book review, Date: 26-May-2024, Language: English

Author: Cixin Liu

Like many others, I learned about this author after the release of the Netflix series named The Three Body Problem, based on their novel series (Remembrance of the Earth’s past). It was a fresh experience to read some science fiction that was not coming from the US or Europe.

The Wandering Earth is a collection of ten short stories with one mindboggling original idea after another. The title of the book is that of the first story, which is about a project humanity embarks on, when faced with the largest threat ever in history. The Sun’s transition to a red giant is happening in the near future and the United Earth government decides to move the Earth out of the solar system to the nearest star. Ten thousand thrust engines that work on nuclear fusion are built, with additional torque engines to stop the rotation of the earth. The 3 billion strong population of the planet is forced to dig in underground to build cities under the thruster engines, to escape from the giant tidal waves that sweep the surface due to the halting rotation and the deep freeze the planet gets into as it moves farther away from the Sun. On their way out of the Solar system, Earth faces unprecedented challenges, which are overcome by the sheer resilience of humanity.

There are also nine other stories in this book with similarly wildly imaginative and thought provoking ideas. In “the Mountain”, an adventurer decides to climb a mountain created by a large standing wave created by the gravity of a spaceship approaching the Earth. The spaceship belongs to a civilization of silicon-based life that wish to share their journey out of their home planet. It was slightly unnerving to think that life can evolve anywhere and there was nothing that prevented this story from being true.

In “the Sun of China”, the author toys with the idea of an artificial Sun which is going to be built to engineer weather on a global scale, generating new kinds of jobs in space. It was slightly predictable that the protagonist would ask to be sent out on the journey he ends up going on. But, it drew an incredible picture of the scientific prowess of China and the underlying inequalities in its system.

“The Wages of Humanity” was an interesting read as well, which kept me confused for some time, though. It begins as a gangster story with scenes of gory violence. There is no sign of any science fiction element in the story except for the occasionally appearing spaceship of the “elder” humans. I was clueless to a point when all of it started making sense, suddenly. This one amazed me by the thoughts about how an interaction with an advanced species could affect the politics and hierarchies of people on Earth.

“Curse 5.0” is the lethal version 5 of what was a simple minded computer virus, created out of a personal conflict, which brings up the endgame for humanity. This was a funny read with Cixin Liu as one of the characters, although the story is truly dystopian! The concept of digital archaelogy was the most attractive thought to me in this one.

“The Micro-Age” talks about miniaturized humans who are created in order to combat overpopulation, who ends up antagonizing the macro-humans. The author examines many of the interesting differences in the daily life of the micron-sized humans. I think I have seen a movie with the same concept several years before.

I also enjoyed reading “With her eyes”, which talks about how a “terranaut” stuck at the Earth’s core craves to see the seemingly small but beautiful things that people fail to take notice in their busy life.

The other stories were also very gripping, but I assume I have made my point already. If you are a science-fiction buff, here is one that you should not miss! UNPUTDOWNABLE!