When a distant supernova showers the Earth with radiation that kills all adults, the planet’s surviving teens begin acting on violent ideas to rebuild the world. By the Hugo Award-winning author of the Remembrance of Earth’s Past series. - (Baker & Taylor)
"Eight light years away, a star has died, creating a supernova event that showers Earth in deadly levels of radiation. Within a year, everyone over the age of thirteen will die. And so the countdown begins. Parents apprentice their children and try to pass on the knowledge needed to keep the world running. But when the world is theirs, the last generation may not want to continue the legacy left to them. And in shaping the future however they want, will the children usher in an era of bright beginnings or final mistakes? - (Baker & Taylor)
From science fiction legend Cixin Liu, the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Three-Body Problem, comes a vision of the future that reads “like Ursula K Le Guin rewriting The Lord of the Flies for the quantum age.” (NPR).
In those days, Earth was a planet in space.
In those days, Beijing was a city on Earth.
On this night, history as known to humanity came to an end.
Eight light years away, a star has died, creating a supernova event that showers Earth in deadly levels of radiation. Within a year, everyone over the age of thirteen will die.
And so the countdown begins. Parents apprentice their children and try to pass on the knowledge needed to keep the world running.
But when the world is theirs, the last generation may not want to continue the legacy left to them. And in shaping the future however they want, will the children usher in an era of bright beginnings or final mistakes?
"This audacious and ultimately optimistic early work will give Liu's English-reading fans a glimpse at his evolution as a writer and give any speculative fiction reader food for deep thought." -- Shelf Awareness
- (
McMillan Palgrave)
CIXIN LIU is a prolific and popular science fiction writer in the People's Republic of China. Liu is a winner of the Hugo Award and a multiple winner of the Galaxy Award (the Chinese Hugo) and the Xing Yun Award (the Chinese Nebula). His novels include The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End. He lives with his family in Yangquan, Shanxi.
JOEL MARTINSEN is the translator of The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu and (with Alice Xin Liu) of The Problem With Me, a collection of essays by Han Han. His translations of short fiction have appeared in Pathlight, Chutzpah, and Words Without Borders. He lives in Beijing.
- (
McMillan Palgrave)
Booklist Reviews
This novel from the widely acclaimed author of The Three-Body Problem (2014) imagines a world in which radiation from a supernova results in the eventual death of all humans over the age of 12, leading to a mad dash for the swiftly dying adults to prepare their children for the future. Primarily focusing on the children selected to be the new Central Committee in Beijing, Liu presents a world where the values of adult society are swiftly replaced by the new priorities of young children who long for a world based around play rather than work. With the wildly different concepts of play imagined by Chinese children and their more trigger-happy American counterparts, the safety and stability of the new Supernova Era is quickly thrown into question. Unlike Liu's more space-based fictions, Supernova Era's world of children begins to wear a little thin, particularly when the various other nations and their broadly drawn preteen leaders are introduced. Nevertheless, this latest translation is sure to interest readers who want to explore more of the Chinese-language sf canon. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Liu, author of the intellectually challenging Three-Body Problem trilogy, provides a more accessible look at humanity's future in this political thriller founded on a thought experiment reminiscent of classic SF. A supernova near Earth bathes the planet in radiation that has minimal effect on people 13 or younger, but will kill anyone older within a year. That provides time for the governments of the world to prepare the oldest children to assume the leadership of their respective countries. Liu focuses on a group of students in China who are assigned some territory to govern; they must plan to have adequate resources while dealing with their neighbors' territorial ambitions. The complicated role-playing game is used to identify potential leaders. After the inevitable deaths of all the adults, which is chillingly described, the adolescent leaders are left to grapple with an overwhelming set of responsibilities—and a population of even younger children who have their own ideas of how a post-adult world should look. There's more talk than action, and the global scale of the disaster leaves little room for individual character development. Plausible but surprising twists make this a memorable what-if tale. (Oct.)
Copyright 2019 Publishers Weekly.