jackesq's review
2.0
This read more like a well written description of scientific research and military weapons project. The author has clear understandable descriptions of scientific concepts which were interesting but there was barely a plot to speak of.
sprague's review
4.0
A boy devotes his life to understanding a strange static lightning phenomenon after seeing his parents incinerated by it.
This Chinese author is gaining worldwide fame, and I concluded that the phenomenon he has become is well-deserved. Chinese SF is carving out its own niche as an interesting genre involving semi-realistic technology in the near future, explore its effect on people, individuals. This book fits the bill.
This Chinese author is gaining worldwide fame, and I concluded that the phenomenon he has become is well-deserved. Chinese SF is carving out its own niche as an interesting genre involving semi-realistic technology in the near future, explore its effect on people, individuals. This book fits the bill.
dray's review
4.0
It took me a while to get into this book but the story is amazing. Cixin takes a well researched aspect of science and weaves it into a fantastic story. Although this is not as involved as the trilogy (1 book compared to three) it is a great piece of realistic SF.
afharker's review
4.0
This is a great gateway science fiction book and is a lot less mind bending than Cixin Liu's Three Body trilogy. Definitely a great read and one that I would recommend to anyone interested in some "hard" sci fi.
yoshi83's review
4.0
This review is for the entire novel. There are lots of cool, imaginative concepts in this novel, and they are explained well enough that anyone who has taken basic science classes can understand them. The book is told completely from the scientist's point of view. I feel like there could be an equally compelling story to be told with the political and military sides of what happened.
kartiknarayanan's review
3.0
Ball Lightning is great hard sci-fi but is boring AF.
I have been a huge fan of Cixin Liu's writing. His 'Remembrance of Earth's Past' series is one of the best science fiction series ever. It combines science with an engrossing storyline; the likes of which I have not read in a long time. So, I had high expectations for Ball Lightning .
Unfortunately, Ball Lightning reads like a science text book for the most part and is not even an interesting one (my school texts were far more interesting). It is dull and dreary. Cixin Liu's commits the cardinal sin of making the story take second precedence to the science; whatever plot there is meanders all over the place.
In retrospect, one of the reasons why the book fails in being interesting is the lack of a proper antagonist. This is more a book about discovery and philosophy than anything else. Some authors can make this work (duh, most non-fiction) but Cixin Liu is not able to do so here. And sadly, the one thing that I really liked about Ball Lightning, which is Cixin Liu's unbelievable imagination, is not enough to carry it. This style of writing might be enough for some readers but not for me.
I have been a huge fan of Cixin Liu's writing. His 'Remembrance of Earth's Past' series is one of the best science fiction series ever. It combines science with an engrossing storyline; the likes of which I have not read in a long time. So, I had high expectations for Ball Lightning .
Unfortunately, Ball Lightning reads like a science text book for the most part and is not even an interesting one (my school texts were far more interesting). It is dull and dreary. Cixin Liu's commits the cardinal sin of making the story take second precedence to the science; whatever plot there is meanders all over the place.
In retrospect, one of the reasons why the book fails in being interesting is the lack of a proper antagonist. This is more a book about discovery and philosophy than anything else. Some authors can make this work (duh, most non-fiction) but Cixin Liu is not able to do so here. And sadly, the one thing that I really liked about Ball Lightning, which is Cixin Liu's unbelievable imagination, is not enough to carry it. This style of writing might be enough for some readers but not for me.
vg2's review
3.0
A couple of years ago, I read Cixin Liu’s ‘Remembrance of Earth’s Past’ trilogy, and whilst I found the individual books to vary in quality (the second was too meandering, but completely redeemed by the excellent third instalment ‘Death’s End’), the trilogy as a whole was a good example of a fascinating and thought-provoking premise that makes Chinese science fiction one of my favourite genres to read. With ‘Ball Lightning’, that originality was still present, but I found the book as a whole to be less well-executed than its predecessors.
A stand-alone with tenuous links to the first trilogy, ‘Ball Lightning’ follows Chen, whose early encounter with the mysterious phenomena of the title results in a life-long obsession that exposes him to the world of weapons research and the people who are exploring these fringes of moral and ethical boundaries. A mainly passive pawn, Chen’s search for answers and subsequent breakthroughs are utilised in ways that he had never imagined.
Written almost as a memoir, I found the first two-thirds to drag at times; Chen’s lack of agency made him a less than compelling narrator, and the story seemed to lose focus around a third of the way in, drifting for a number of chapters. The final third, however, was far more plot-driven and pacey, and the dominance of more interesting side characters balanced out Chen’s blandness. I also struggled to reconcile the writing style with the story itself - the plot and scientific emphasis aligned with the very much adult first trilogy, but the writing seemed more juvenile here, as though it were designed for a slightly younger audience, which was jarring. I’m not sure how much of that was a result of the translation - interestingly (although I am not drawing any conclusions from it), this book was translated by the same person who did the second (and my least favourite) of the ‘Remembrance of Earth’s Past’ trilogy (the other two were by Ken Liu, an author I love in his own right), although this could be a complete coincidence.
Recommended if you are a Cixin Liu fan, but with reservations.
A stand-alone with tenuous links to the first trilogy, ‘Ball Lightning’ follows Chen, whose early encounter with the mysterious phenomena of the title results in a life-long obsession that exposes him to the world of weapons research and the people who are exploring these fringes of moral and ethical boundaries. A mainly passive pawn, Chen’s search for answers and subsequent breakthroughs are utilised in ways that he had never imagined.
Written almost as a memoir, I found the first two-thirds to drag at times; Chen’s lack of agency made him a less than compelling narrator, and the story seemed to lose focus around a third of the way in, drifting for a number of chapters. The final third, however, was far more plot-driven and pacey, and the dominance of more interesting side characters balanced out Chen’s blandness. I also struggled to reconcile the writing style with the story itself - the plot and scientific emphasis aligned with the very much adult first trilogy, but the writing seemed more juvenile here, as though it were designed for a slightly younger audience, which was jarring. I’m not sure how much of that was a result of the translation - interestingly (although I am not drawing any conclusions from it), this book was translated by the same person who did the second (and my least favourite) of the ‘Remembrance of Earth’s Past’ trilogy (the other two were by Ken Liu, an author I love in his own right), although this could be a complete coincidence.
Recommended if you are a Cixin Liu fan, but with reservations.