Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Cixin wins Arthur C. Clarke award | Hacker News Reader

Chinese sci-fi writer Liu Cixin wins Arthur C. Clarke award

ecns.cn

62 pointsglassworm20 comments

The headline is wrong. "Dreams Before the Start of Time" by Anne Charnock is the 2018 winner of the Arthur C. Clarke award: https://www.clarkeaward.com/2018-winner/

They must be referring to the Sir Arthur Clarke Award [1] (for space exploration), not the Arthur C. Clarke Award [2] (for Best Science fiction novel).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Arthur_Clarke_Award

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke_Award

there is a third award, because it's neither of those two: https://www.bis-space.com/2018/10/07/21144/the-2018-sir-arth...

it's this one: https://www.clarkefoundation.org/awards/

greetings, eMBee.

As a long time science fiction reader I really enjoyed the book for the uniquely Chinese perspective - worth reading for that alone. Personally I rate the basic story premise as okay but not the most audacious SF I've ever read and the approach used in the first book to extract the disk drives from a hostile ship verged on idiotic. But, like I said, worth reading for the insights into Chinese culture.

Well deserved! Congratulations! I rather disagree with the Dark Forrest Theory as a premise, but I found the books thought-provoking, which is the most you can ask of a sci-fi writer.

Something I noticed about the Dark Forest, in some editions it has a different translator from the other books.

It is not a bad translation but it definitely reads less fluidly than the other books.

also no chapters, makes it difficult to read in chunks

anyone wondering about the dark forest theory without getting spoilers for the book, it's essentially this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox#It_is_dangerous_...

greetings, eMBee.

This is totally OT, but your name rang a bell. Have you been active in the PSYC/Pike communities many many years ago by any chance?

i am still using pike :-) sent you an email...

Well deserved. We live in times of epic space dramas, but Cixin has some of Clarke’s imagination in his books. I also enjoy the cultural twist of reading into Chinese “normality” through his books. It could be interesting to see a book with less dark gloom alike to Clarke and Asimov’s earlier and more optimistic works.

What other space dramas would you recommend?

Not the OP, but if you haven't,

Alastair Reynolds comes to mind.

And there's always Iain Banks and the Culture series (though very very very different style and outlook!)

Exactly those. I prefer Reynolds over Banks, but both will knock your socks off!

I read Three Body recently after someone mentioned it here on hn. I enjoyed it as a book, but also as something that combines storytelling traditions from my native west and China!

does it contain western storytelling traditions? or are some story elements simply common to both western and chinese traditions? or are there even chinese elements that have found their way into western traditions?

i am not familiar with historic chinese writing so i can't tell. but maybe you can share some insights.

greetings, eMBee.

I have no special expertise beyond having read 100k+ pages of Euro/American scifi for fun :)

Liu Cixin himself cites western influences like Clarke. Some elements feel exotic to me though, which I assume come from the cultural difference. I quite enjoy that, much like I appreciated Wuxia movies as teenager: no deeper that western action flix, but goofy instead of cool, and tropes unknown to me feel less trope-y.

Anyway, I'm happy about the fact that these days it's easy to read and watch stuff from around the globe.

> Liu Cixin himself cites western influences like Clarke

i was not aware of that, that makes sense.

if you are interested to read more chinese science-fiction, check out clarkesworld magazine. since a few years, every issue contains one chinese story translated to english. there is quite a variety of stories there.

greetings, eMBee.

Wonderful to see. Just finished the trilogy - extremely thought provoking and I enjoyed all of them. So interesting to see a Chinese perspective - how someone whose life experience was shaped by the cultural revolution would think about humanity. A couple questions for discussion (doing my best to phrase in a non-spoiling way):

Could anyone interpret the “land of no stories” fable before they cracked it? Incredible talent to put a compelling story in a story and have the awesome metaphors.

Did the sword holder make the right decision? What about the second time?

Would you choose black domain or the alternative?

Why did Wade make the decision he did?

which books do each of these questions relate to?

Congratulations to Cixin, the Dark Forest trilogy is not my favourite work but especially the first book reads very very well.

The last two books suffer from exposing the "Dark Forest" base premise/theory which I find too simplistic* to carry the narrative realistically forward. Almost wish more of the internal mechanics of the universe had been left unexposed since it would have allowed the reader to extrapolate/fantasize more.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com