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The Wandering Earth
by
First published in Science Fiction World, July 2000.
I’ve never seen the night, nor seen a star; I’ve seen neither spring, nor fall, nor winter. I was born at the end of the Reining Age, just as the Earth’s rotation was coming to a final halt.
The Sun is about to unleash a helium flash, threatening to swallow all terrestrial planets in the solar syste ...more
I’ve never seen the night, nor seen a star; I’ve seen neither spring, nor fall, nor winter. I was born at the end of the Reining Age, just as the Earth’s rotation was coming to a final halt.
The Sun is about to unleash a helium flash, threatening to swallow all terrestrial planets in the solar syste ...more
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Kindle Edition, 45 pages
Published
March 11th 2012
by Beijing Guomi Digital Technology Co., Ltd.
(first published July 2000)
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Tim
He was, indeed, one of the translators for this anthology. The others are: Elizabeth Hanlon, Zac Haluza, Adam Lanphier, and Holger Nahm.
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4.20pm, 16/10/1999. Yanquan City, Shanxi Province, Peoples Republic of China
Location: Liu Cixin’s Apartment.
A plain brown couch sits opposite a bookcase full of engineering and SF books. In front of the couch is a glass coffee table with a bulbous, hollow glass object that resembles a rocketship sitting on it.
Liu Cixin and his Friend sit on the couch. They both have sleepy, glazed expressions.
Liu: "Have you… have you ever thought that the Earth is really just a giant spaceship? A great big spacesh/>:/>Liu/>A/>: ...more
Location: Liu Cixin’s Apartment.
A plain brown couch sits opposite a bookcase full of engineering and SF books. In front of the couch is a glass coffee table with a bulbous, hollow glass object that resembles a rocketship sitting on it.
Liu Cixin and his Friend sit on the couch. They both have sleepy, glazed expressions.
Liu: "Have you… have you ever thought that the Earth is really just a giant spaceship? A great big spacesh/>:/>Liu/>A/>: ...more
Reread in anticipation for the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lsOw...
From what I see it’s not quite like the novelette, however, looks damn good.
Back to the story, the Sun is about to become a red giant and humanity must find a way to survive. 12,000 engines are built in order to propel Earth from its orbit, away from the Sun and toward the nearest star, the Proxima Centauri.
The novelette is one of the best I read so far. But how else could it be being Cixin’s? You’ll find it in the collection ...more
From what I see it’s not quite like the novelette, however, looks damn good.
Back to the story, the Sun is about to become a red giant and humanity must find a way to survive. 12,000 engines are built in order to propel Earth from its orbit, away from the Sun and toward the nearest star, the Proxima Centauri.
The novelette is one of the best I read so far. But how else could it be being Cixin’s? You’ll find it in the collection ...more
If I had been thinking, "What I really need right now is an awesome Big-Idea story that turns the earth into an inter-solar spaceship, reminding me pleasantly of some of the early Stephen Baxter tales," then after reading this, I'd say, "Holy shit!"
Well, as it so happens, I've been in a Bigger-Is-Better frame of mind for the last few days, so getting something like this was like unwrapping a mystery gift and actually getting a 24 karat gold ring.
Liu Cixin turned a great tale, follow ...more
Well, as it so happens, I've been in a Bigger-Is-Better frame of mind for the last few days, so getting something like this was like unwrapping a mystery gift and actually getting a 24 karat gold ring.
Liu Cixin turned a great tale, follow ...more
(Originally published on my blog: http://sentidodelamaravilla.blogspot....)
Liu Cixin is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. After reading "Taking Care of God" and Mountain I have now read The Wandering Earth and, again, I am completely amazed. Cixin's imagination is astonishing. The images in his works are absolutely striking. His ability to provoke powerful emotions in the reader, without equal.
In The Wandering Earth, our planet is in extreme danger. The Sun has become unstable and it's been predicted tha ...more
Liu Cixin is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. After reading "Taking Care of God" and Mountain I have now read The Wandering Earth and, again, I am completely amazed. Cixin's imagination is astonishing. The images in his works are absolutely striking. His ability to provoke powerful emotions in the reader, without equal.
In The Wandering Earth, our planet is in extreme danger. The Sun has become unstable and it's been predicted tha ...more
The sun is about to expand into a red giant, so humanity decides to move the Earth towards the orbit of Proxima Centauri. I won't say how and if the threat is real, you have to read to find out :)
Thanks, Claudia, for reminding me to read this before I will see the movie!
Thanks, Claudia, for reminding me to read this before I will see the movie!
A really good and interesting idea, but a really cheesy ending ruined the experience a bit. Still, that was enough to peak my interest in a movie which is based on this book and released a couple months ago. Probably I'll watch it.
The Wandering Earth is a sci-if novella in which the Sun is going to explode and drastic measures are needed to save humanity. The Earth is turned into a giant spaceship in which it will be propelled out of the solar system and towards Proxima Centauri the nearest star.
The story is told from the point of view of an unnamed narrator and it spans his lifetime. He was born in one of the underground cities and never saw the Sun until on a class trip around the Earth. All of the children are terrifi ...more
The story is told from the point of view of an unnamed narrator and it spans his lifetime. He was born in one of the underground cities and never saw the Sun until on a class trip around the Earth. All of the children are terrifi ...more
Liu Cixin
The Wandering Earth
Beijing Guomi Digital Technology
45 pages
8.2 (Best Book)
The Wandering Earth is developed from Liu's ambitious and wild idea, but his gentle and humane touch turns this novella into something that's sentimental, beautiful, and full of hope.
In 2007, Liu Cixin released The Three-Body Problem, an astonishing and groundbreaking sci-fi novel where he plants the seed of space war on one place that's familiar to all of us: the Earth. For an epic war, Th ...more
The Wandering Earth
Beijing Guomi Digital Technology
45 pages
8.2 (Best Book)
The Wandering Earth is developed from Liu's ambitious and wild idea, but his gentle and humane touch turns this novella into something that's sentimental, beautiful, and full of hope.
In 2007, Liu Cixin released The Three-Body Problem, an astonishing and groundbreaking sci-fi novel where he plants the seed of space war on one place that's familiar to all of us: the Earth. For an epic war, Th ...more
This was a really well written short story that chronicles the death of the Sun and how the last residents of Earth change the trajectory of the planet's orbit in order to survive.
Liu's prose is beautiful and poetical and the world-building simply fantastic making it a really good science-fiction story.
Based on this short story, I would definitely be interested in reading more from this author.
Liu's prose is beautiful and poetical and the world-building simply fantastic making it a really good science-fiction story.
Based on this short story, I would definitely be interested in reading more from this author.
Solid 5 out of 5. I almost cry at the end of story.
I forgot where I got The Wandering Earth, but it has been sitting on my kindle for more than a year. It's a short read, so I'm not sure why I didn't start it sooner.
The premise is that scientists discover that the sun will die in 300-500 years and swallow up all the planets in its inner orbit, including Earth, in the process. To ensure survival, the people of Earth decide to find a nearby star for its new sun and somehow propel Earth out of its current orbit, out of the solar system, ...more
The premise is that scientists discover that the sun will die in 300-500 years and swallow up all the planets in its inner orbit, including Earth, in the process. To ensure survival, the people of Earth decide to find a nearby star for its new sun and somehow propel Earth out of its current orbit, out of the solar system, ...more
Fairly entertaining stories all throughout, but giving this four stars only because it's hard to surpass the majesty of his Three-Body trilogy. Overall, this collection serves as a neat Liu Cixin starter kit filled with luscious tales that though may be peppered with high-minded SF thought experiments has enough pull in terms of plot and characterization to draw you to the next page and the next over and over, even for someone like me with just a pedestrian working knowledge of science.
I was able to download this short story for free from Amazon. The premise seems interesting - the sun is set to explode and instead of trying to build thousands of spaceships to transport humanity over many generations to another inhabitable planet, they've instead decided to turn the entire Earth into a spaceship by building "Earth Engines."
I don't pretend to have a firm enough grasp of astrophysics to speak with any authority, but I find it implausible that humanity would be able t ...more
I don't pretend to have a firm enough grasp of astrophysics to speak with any authority, but I find it implausible that humanity would be able t ...more
Brilliant novella with one of the most interesting concepts I've ever encountered. I really can't say enough about Liu Cixin. Everything I'm reading by him is sort of groundbreaking in very different ways. Huge concepts at work here and just so much fun. Or, not fun, since this is kind of pessimistic but also so true to life.
He takes on mob rule, revolution, and how time can make a serious catastrophe no longer seem to matter.
He takes on mob rule, revolution, and how time can make a serious catastrophe no longer seem to matter.
Reading this book was like attending a lecture on a really interesting topic given by a really boring person who speaks only in a monotone voice. It had a lot of potential but it was a chore to read.
Oct 21, 2019
Leonardo
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
Readers of timeless science-fiction
The Wandering Earth (both the short story itself and the anthology of the same title) is a masterpiece of hard science fiction that fearlessly tackles our place in the universe and our potential encounters with alien or extraterrestrial civilizations. While none of the plots is boring (on the contrary, most of them are actually quite exhilarating), the true core of these stories is a reflection about our far distant future, the actual requirements of space travel, and how we will need to eventually f
...more
When my Chinese girlfriend started raving about the recent hit blockbuster film "The Wandering Earth", my first instinct was to check if it was based on a book or not. Sure enough, here is the original book, this magnificent short story by Liu Cixin. I was able to read it in one day and it was time very well spent. My review in two thoughts: 1. what a novel concept! 2. what an enjoyable read!
"The Wandering Earth" is well written and concise. It tells the tale of a future Earth that i ...more
"The Wandering Earth" is well written and concise. It tells the tale of a future Earth that i ...more
Even though Cixin Liu is not the greatest storyteller of all times, his imagination and original ideas more than make up for it. The fact that he is Chinese is an extra advantage to all westerners, because his stories are even more original, more poetic, less "American" so to say. All in all, this book contains some of the best SF I have read in a long time. Definitely recommended if you read and liked the Three Body Problem trilogy - but not only.
Better than the movie.
Jul 19, 2018
Theodore
added it
Novel core idea for sci-fi, with a very fast -yet interesting- plot. It's only 50 pages, so that's understandable. It seems it could be part of a larger series. I feel it left some plot pieces un-developed, which left me hanging. Also, I'd like to know more about the society, because I feel it was a bit too crazy to remain unexplained (I'm referring to the events of the penultimate chapter).
I so wanted to get into Liu Cixin. I found myself bogged down in ‘The Three-Body Problem ’, and thought I might have more luck with his short story/ novella ‘The Wandering Earth’, but I had the same response. Although I think the books are so inventive and the plots are good, I can’t do with long scientific description. It just turns me cold. I always hear my inner self screaming “get on with it”. It’s not the book’s problem, and if you are into that lengthy scientific stuff, you will love it.
I think out of fairness one should note that Liu Cixin's "The Wandering Earth" (2000) preceded Alex Garland's "Sunshine" (2007) by several years.
Sunshine echoes Liu's deadpan narration and the overall mood of resignation to eternal trauma occasioned by the imminent death of the Sun, which is the dramatic catalyst in both works. Sunshine is an evocative film. Evocative of what, I still don't know exactly, but definitely those guys aboard the Icarii 1 & 2 were feeling something as they evoked ...more
Sunshine echoes Liu's deadpan narration and the overall mood of resignation to eternal trauma occasioned by the imminent death of the Sun, which is the dramatic catalyst in both works. Sunshine is an evocative film. Evocative of what, I still don't know exactly, but definitely those guys aboard the Icarii 1 & 2 were feeling something as they evoked ...more
I just saw the movie on Netflix .this it must be the best sci -fi movie ive seen. It was fantastic.Honestly best movie of this year for me so far . Enjoy the trailer for The Chinese sci -fi box-office smash his the wandering Earth .
Read after watching the movie. A concise fascination.
This is a translation of a novella written by China's best known science fiction author, Liu Cixin. Cixin tells the story of Earth's hundreds of millennium journey(because of the impending death of the Sun)as it is nudged out of the Sun's orbit to slowly wander to its new home around Proxima Centauri. Although told through the remembrances and musings of someone born in one of the vast underground cities in the China Province and who never knew the Earth pre-journey,it is the Earth itself that i
...more
This is the first story of Liu Cixin I've ever read. I've heard of him in a Brazilian TV show a few days ago, where someone commented on his trilogy The Three-Body Problem. Unfortunely, as I found out, this trilogy is currently being tranlated to English and won't be in bookstores before October. So I went to Amazon.com and found out a series of stories already translated by him, and decided to try one.
The Amazon.com reviews served as a caveat to me: Cixin, even though a rather young ...more
The Amazon.com reviews served as a caveat to me: Cixin, even though a rather young ...more
I read this short story after hearing David Brin reccomend Liu as a "emerging voice in world scifi". To be quick about this review, I agree with Brin. The only thing I felt was lacking about this story was that the translation seemed a little rough in places.
Cixin Liu's skill shines through on every page. This story moves quicky, as a short story spanning 40y or so must, but nothing feels rushed. The stakes escalate quickly both on a personal and on a universe level, and there are no ...more
Cixin Liu's skill shines through on every page. This story moves quicky, as a short story spanning 40y or so must, but nothing feels rushed. The stakes escalate quickly both on a personal and on a universe level, and there are no ...more
Promising start, interesting topic but maybe it got lost in translation.
I hope you’re not overly attached to the earth, cause pretty much every story is a new and original way to totally destroy it :)
It's a terrible book, completely unscientific and untenable in its concepts and approaches. Worse than a fantasy novel. Not qualified to be called a sci-fi.
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