H.G. Wells and Jules Verne are examples of early science fiction authors.

Chinese female writers have made a significant impact on the science fiction genre, representing a notable trend in the genre's evolution.

Chinese female writers have made a significant impact in science fiction recently, representing a notable trend in the genre.

Tawfiq al-Hakim is an example of an Arab author associated with science fiction, with works such as 'The Year of One Million' and 'Journey to Tomorrow' that explore philosophical and futuristic themes.

"Contemporary science fiction often features settings such as corporate-dominated futures and worlds with advanced artificial intelligence, as seen in books like All Systems Red and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep."

Liu Cixin, a Chinese science fiction author, won a Hugo Award for his novel 'The Three Bodies'.

Nnedi Okorafor is an author of color featured in the science fiction list with her book 'Binti'.

Wang Jinkang is a prominent Chinese science fiction author with a prolific career, having published numerous works and received several awards.

"Ursula K. Le Guin is a notable female science fiction author from the 20th century, whose works were initially categorized as science fiction and fantasy but are now recognized as literature."

Mary Shelley, the author of 'Frankenstein', is considered a pioneer in science fiction.

H.G. Wells is an example of an early influential science fiction author.

Liu Cixin is credited with popularizing Chinese science fiction worldwide, especially with the success of his novel "The Three Bodies" and its sequels.

An example of a classic science fiction novel is "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" by Mary Shelley.

Liu Cixin is a Chinese science fiction author who has gained global recognition, particularly with his bestselling novel "Three Bodies", for which he won a major award in science fiction literature.

H.G. Wells and Jules Verne are examples of early science fiction authors.

Title:

Content: Supplement
Sunday literature.
Culture
Sunday Literature: Tu Chien's Years, Huang Hua and Long Memories: A Review of Books by Tu Chien
He died, and there was a great book about him, and a great book about him.
Born in Hong Kong on February 19, 1935 (also known as February 19, 1934), Du Chin studied at Lingnan Primary School and St. Stephen's College in Hong Kong. He graduated from the Chinese Department of Sun Yat-sen University.
Du has been engaged in the editorial and translation work of newspapers and periodicals for 30 years. He has edited the monthly book “Open Volume ” and“ Readers ’ Friends ”. He is the author of “New Trends in Asian, African and Latin Literature ” (1976),“ Contemporary Foreign Writers and Works ” (1980), “The Night Voyage of the Book Sea ” (2 volumes, 1980, 1984),“ World Science Fiction ” (1992). He also translated several science fiction novels, including The Story of a Detective (1994), The Story of a Detective (2019), The Story of Three Generations (2014), Long Memories: The Eyes of a Teacher and Friends (2015), and translated several science fiction novels.
Du moved to Canada in his later years and died on July 23, 2022.
From Afro-Asian to Contemporary Foreign Literature
I have "Asian, African and Latin Literature New Trend", published by Hong Kong Wanyuan Book Company, this book from the left side, introduced the Asian, African and Latin literature, and it is rare to write a relatively mild, not too much ideological discourse.
From the illustrations in the book, Du Chen should have seen a number of foreign books before writing this book, including book reviews such as "Achebe's Novel Creation" and "Du Bois's Will", which discuss the more famous black writers, and scroll down a "text prison of a novel - this novel exposes the corruption of the police", from 1974 Nelson Marra The award-winning novel “The Bodyguard, ” and its associated spate of arrests, describes the repression of freedom of speech and the press by the Uruguayan police, as well as the repression of the literary and artistic world.
The incident has faded from the memory of ordinary literary readers, but Du Jian recorded it with a book review and became a page of literary history.
Towards the end of the 1970s, the tendency of the dogmatic left gradually faded, and Du Jian ’ s reading range became wider. Contemporary Foreign Writers and Works was published by the Hong Kong Ocean Arts and Culture Society, and its chapters were published in the magazine Ocean Arts and Culture.
Du introduced Graham Greene, John Cheever, Colette, Bertolt Brecht, Isak Dinesen, Nadine Gordimer, Ryuichiro Tanizaki and Ryuosuke Okawa, eight 20th-century writers who not only came out of the confines of Afro-Asian literature. As soon as the book is in hand, readers can enjoy the work from the two texts of the commentary and the translation. In “Contemporary Foreign Writers and Works, ” Du Jian chose to translate Ryuichiro Tanizaki ’ s“ tattoo ” and Ryuosuke Okawa ’ s “bamboo forest ”, both of which are popular and popular.
The South African female writer Gaudimet, introduced by Du Jian in the late 1970s, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991.
Book Sea Night Flight
"Book Sea Night Voyage" two episodes published by Beijing Sanlian, when there were many prints in mainland China, naturally has a certain influence, these two books seem to have opened a window for long-closed mainland readers.
Some of the book ’ s reviews have been found in The New Trend of Asian, African and Latin Literature and Contemporary Foreign Writers and Works. The book is mainly a collection of book reviews written by Du Jian in his spare time between 1974 and 1978.
As for "Book Sea Night Voyage II", the content is equally extensive, there is no less than, the second set of the epilogue, Du gradually explained his own ten years as a day of three paragraphs on the reading method:
"I read there is no shortcut, and will not" speed reading ", using a stupid way, the old man actually read the book, there is no other way.
I divide the time into three sections every day, to work a section, do work concentrate on other, the other section is translation and writing, people engaged in writing in Hong Kong, every day have to be a "reptile", write thousands of words, earn some manuscript money to earn a living, is the so-called book is only for the straw.
Only in the evening, I have my own time, from eight o'clock to two o'clock at night, I use to read the books I like to read, write what I like to write, these five or six hours are my most precious, but also I can control a period of reading and writing time. 」
In the second part of the book, Du Jian pointed out that the title of the book was Yan Qingshu (pen name Tang, author of "Jinling Spring Dream") in the illness, Du Jian wrote this book to commemorate the death of his friend Yan Qingshu.
Tang Tao wrote the preface to The Book of the Sea and Night Voyage II. At a glance, when he saw that the book was written by Zhang Dai (Zi Zongzi) and Ah Ying's The Book of the Night Voyage, Tang Tao, a veteran scholar of books, wrote:
"The Book of the Sea of Night Voyage, the Night Voyage Collection, and the Night Voyage Ship have a common meaning, suggesting that the author began his life of reading and writing at a time of silence and complete silence."
The first three books deal with this.
However, Zhang Zongzi has his own experience and opinions, which deserve our attention.
He said that the world is the most difficult to deal with, except for the night boat.
Yu Yao custom, the children of later generations, all do not read, after 20 years of learning as a handicraft, so the hundred works of acrobatics, occasionally have questions, such as "Yingzhou 18 bachelor, Yuntai 28 generals", one by one registration, the answer is like a "two-legged bookcase".
This kind of question and answer is often carried out in the night sailing ship. "Tang Tao also mentioned the funny story of a monk and a man in Chang Dai's" The Night Voyage Ship ", so let's not record it, and if you are interested, it is not difficult to find it.
Science fiction and detective fiction
In the 1990s, two volumes of The World Science Fiction Literary Landscape, published by the Modern Education Research Society and published by the Hong Kong Triumvirate of Detective Reasoning Novels, were the first books Du Jian wrote for young students to read.
According to Li Weicai in the book preface, the article in the "World Science Fiction Literary World" came from 1987 to 1988, and Du Jian was the "Strange Book Talk" column of the "Commercial Daily".
Watching H.G. Wells ’ s “The War of the Worlds ” and“ The Invisible Man, ” as well as Jules Verne ’ s works, Du recalls, was captivated by science fiction.
"World Science Fiction Literary Grand View" divides science fiction into four eras of creation, development, gold and innovation. The originator is "Frankenstein" author Mary Shelley (Mary Shelley), followed by Verne and Wales, and the development era has Huxley (Aldous Huxley) and George Orwell. Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein and Frank Herbert, author of Dune, the era of innovation is even more grand, including Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, and Ballard. J. G. Ballard is one of ten.
Ni Kuang's novels are highly readable because of their dramatic plot arrangements and vivid writing.
"World Science Fiction Literary Grand View" does not have esoteric nomenclature and academic discourse, but takes characters as a special chapter, and introduces the contents of representative works, which are all-encompassing, and is both a brief history of science fiction and a good primer for teenagers.
"Detective Reasoning Novel Talk" has an additional edition of "Detective Story", according to the reprint preface, Du Jian pursues "reading no forbidden area", since childhood likes adventure novels and detective novels, he also pointed out that Qian Zhongshu, Yang, Qian Yuan's family of three are fans of reasoning fiction.
"Detective Reasoning Novel Talk" from the beginning of the conversation between Allan Poe and Holmes, also mentioned Charlie Chan, Fu Manchu, James Bond three novel characters; Japanese reasoning fiction also accounted for a considerable amount of space, the additional edition of "Detective Story" added "Little Roosevelt's" First Lady Detective Case "," The Cat Detective Case "female writer Lilian Brown", style change New materials were added to the four articles of Keigo Higashino and the New Trend of Reasoning Novels and the Past and Present of Chinese Detective Reasoning Novels.
Aged yellow flowers
In his later years, Du left behind two books, one is a memoir, "Years of Yellow Flowers: The Search of Three Generations", and the other is a collection of essays, "Long Face Memories: The Eyes of Teachers and Friends."
From the childhood of the beacon fire (1935 – 1946), experienced the ideal pursuit of studying in mainland China, the anti-rightist struggle, and the storm of the Cultural Revolution. After 20 years in mainland China, he returned to Hong Kong and lived in Hong Kong for another 20 years.
Due to the serious illness of his mother, Tu Chin returned to Hong Kong with the President of the Xinhua News Agency, Mr Leung Wai-lin, and then came to Hong Kong with a one-way permit to accompany his father, Dr Li Song, to work in a pharmacy.
In the past 20 years in mainland China, many books can not be seen, so once in Hong Kong, they constantly buy books to read.
Du Jian bought a collection of poems by Kahlil Gibran and translated some of the novels, but he wanted to kill time and practice writing. Moreover, "In the past few years, the pollution caused by the language of the Cultural Revolution in China, when I opened the newspaper, I saw all the big stories and false stories and official words, and it was best to clean the scum of my own language and words. I was able to learn his writing skills and practice my own Chinese writing, so I started translating Gibberlain ’ s novels. ”
He does not want to hide in the willow.
Du Jian went to the "New Evening News" to see the work, Rover asked Du Jian to translate a draft to see, Du Jian reluctantly to his own translation of the novel and the introduction of Ji Boren's short article to Rover.
The next day, Du Jian opened the "New Evening News" and found that his article introducing Gilbert was published in the newspaper.
As a result, Du turned to work at the newspaper office, because the newspaper was short of people, so he worked in the supplement of the newspaper.
He changed his name to Dujuan, meaning Dujuan Dujuan, to "Dujuan Dujuan".
My handwritten collection of Kiberon's novels, a small book by Daguang Publishing House in 1975, is a collection of translations from Du Jian's that year.
Du Jian said in "The Golden Flower of Time" that Zhang Huai, editor of Daguang Publishing House, is his acquaintance and has published several books for him, including "Life and Death", "People at the bottom", "New District Governor", "Golden City of Blood", etc. These books are not easy to find nowadays.
Teacher 's Eyes
In the preface to the book "I Know Du Zhen", the subtitle of "The Yellow Flower of Time", Lan Zhen points out that "The Yellow Flower of Time" "tells the story of the three generations of his family (grandfather Pan Ta Wei, father Li Song and Li Wenjian) who followed the truth and participated in the democratic revolution." His father was a little older, and his father was a little older, and his father was a little older, and he was a little older, and he was a little older.
It is divided into two parts: the first part is "Teacher's Letters", which, as the name suggests, are reminiscent of teachers and friends, including Lun, Chen Ti, Wu Chi-min, Lu Fu, Yen Ching-shu, Fan Yong, An Tzu Chieh, Kang Chun-fang, Li Liang-min, Xiao Qian Qian, Xu Xu, Lin Nien-tong, Huang Kuo-chih, Ma Kuo-chuan, and Qian. In the second half of the book, "Looking Back on History," Du Chien writes about the old stories of Liao An-hsiang, Pan Chu, Huang Leng-kuan, Pan Ta-wei, and Chen Lu-kui.
There are a number of overlaps between the "Love of the Teacher" and the "Yellow Flower of the Year". "From scratch" is a macroscopic view, and "Love of the Teacher" is even a micro-close-up. Du Jian writes old prose with the pen of a novelist. It is better to be lively and friendly, and everyone is alive. — Remembering my grandfather, Pan Ta-wei ” is a particularly detailed and wonderful article. Pan Ta-wei was influenced by Sun Yat-sen ’ s ideas and joined the Xingzhong Society. Later, Pan Ta-wei became the organizer of the Southern Section of the League.
The most famous story of Pan Ta-wei is the collection of the remains of the 72 martyrs of Huang Hua-gang. This passage is told by Du Chien through the words of his mother-in-law, Chen Wei-chang. When Chen Wei-chang died, Du Chien was very young. It was impossible to record his mother-in-law ’ s words. In other words, Du Chien used a small pen. The story of his father is told in the book of Revelation, and the story of his father is told in the book of Revelation.
Author: Wu Chi-min, editor of Readers ’ Liangyou Monthly (1984-1988, 45 issues), Science and Science Fiction Series (1990, 4 volumes) and Readers ’ Liangyou Library (10 volumes), Zhao Jiabi, Liang Yusheng, Hsu Ting-ming, Dong Ding-shan, Hsiao Chien, Ku Tsang-wu, Huang Ji-shih, Chen Hui-yang and Du Chien-chun.
Combining "The Yellow Flower of the Year" and "The Memory of the Long Face", now imagining Du Jian's career of writing books, translating books, and compiling books is bound to feel wonderful.
by Vincent Cheng
Art • Liu Ruoji
Editors • Chu Chien-hsun
Email • literature @ mingpao.com
fb: http: / / www.facebook.com / SundayMingpao
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Chinese female writers have made a significant impact on the science fiction genre, representing a notable trend in the genre's evolution.

Title:

Content: Science Fiction: Chinese Female Writers | Culture | DW | 21.10.2023
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Cultural warp and weft
Science fiction: the rise of Chinese women writers
While the space for feminist expression in China has shrunk further over the past decade, there ’ s good news from this week ’ s World Science Fiction Conference in Chengdu: Chinese female writers are thriving in the science fiction world, making them one of the most striking trends in the genre.
The rise of Chinese female writers in science fiction has become one of the most striking trends in the genre, according to participants at this week's World Science Fiction Conference in Chengdu.
The World Science Fiction Conference, the world ’ s oldest and most influential science fiction event, was held in China for the first time this year and attracted a large number of local fans, both male and female.
China remains a relatively socially conservative country, and under President Xi Jinping, the space for feminist expression has narrowed further over the past decade.
But author and editor Regina Kanyu Wang, who was nominated for two prestigious Hugo Awards at the World Science Fiction Conference this year, said the number of women writers in science fiction has soared in recent years.
She said more and more women are now realizing that "it's not just nerdy, nerdy science-fiction novels like Liu Cixin [author of the three-body series] that can be published, or can be considered science fiction." Liu Cixin is great, and we all like him.
But there's a lot more to it than Liu Cixin's style. "
The good news, says Wang, is that once women start to become writers, they don ’ t feel they ’ re being treated unequally.
The market and readers need a new perspective, she said.
The 81st World Science Fiction Conference will be held in Chengdu from October 18 to 22.
"Now, many Chinese female science fiction writers focus on issues that women face that men may not feel," Zhou Danxue, a literary scholar at XJCC Liverpool University, told AFP. "These writers can reflect unique female experiences in their own way."
Wang said that in the past two years, four anthologies of Chinese fantasy novels written only by female or non-binary authors have been published, which is a major breakthrough.
There wasn ’ t even an all-female science fiction writer ’ s portfolio before that.
Before the 1990s, there were very few female science fiction writers.
An article in the collection "The Way Spring Comes", which Wang Kanyu participated in compiling, pointed out that the Internet is a training base for women and queer talents.
Author Ni Xueting explained that the widespread use of the Internet “not only brought a new sense of community to people, but also … removed many barriers to writing based on industry and social stereotypes, especially for non-male writers. ”
Chen Qiufan, one of China ’ s leading science fiction writers, told AFP that the genre had traditionally not received special attention and was seen as “written and read by boys. ”
He said there was now a "wider and more diverse audience", estimating that his readers were split equally between men and women.
Chinese women writers begin to make their mark in science fiction
Monet, a 21-year-old woman who visited the science fiction convention on Friday, said she sometimes felt isolated among her own fan base.
“It ’ s hard to share my interests with people who don ’ t understand me.
They ask, "Why does a girl like science fiction?"
She is optimistic about these changes in attitude, pointing out that there are a lot of interested primary and secondary school students at the conference site.
“I think interest in Chinese science fiction has to be nurtured from an early age, ” she says.“ We didn ’ t have that opportunity when we were young … I really envy them, to be honest. ”
(AFP)
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What is considered a major breakthrough in science fiction publication?

Chinese female writers have made a significant impact in science fiction recently, representing a notable trend in the genre.

What is considered a major breakthrough in science fiction publication?

Tawfiq al-Hakim is an example of an Arab author associated with science fiction, with works such as 'The Year of One Million' and 'Journey to Tomorrow' that explore philosophical and futuristic themes.

Title:

Content: Monday 27 December 2021
Chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors
I'm sorry.
Mohamad Elbaz
Editor-in-Chief
Wael Lotfy
Chairman of the Board of Directors and Editors
I'm sorry.
Mohamad Elbaz
Editor-in-Chief
Wael Lotfy
“Studies in Scientific Literature. ”
A book that explores the features of science fiction in Arabic works
Science fiction literature has witnessed a wide presence in Arab creative writings despite its emergence and prosperity in the Western world, and despite its creative popularity, it has not received sufficient critical attention. Based on this idea, the Syrian writer and critic Ahmed Ali Mohammed observes the features and features of science fiction in Arabic literature, both ancient and modern, in his book "Studies in Science Literature", recently published in the series of studies by the Arab Writers Union.
The Syrian researcher believes that the Arab criticism has overlooked the literature of science fiction, citing a number of arguments such as the immaturity of this type of writing in the Arab world, and the disregard of his writers for the features of literary writing, as well as the lack of scientific knowledge, which the writer considers weak, especially with the presence of remarkable writings in this field succeeded in setting a firm foot and overcome many shortcomings.
Leadership in scientific literature
Ali points out that the philosophical messages of Avicenna and Ibn Tufayl can be considered as the beginning of the link in ancient Arabic literature between literature and science, as the Arab heritage includes philosophical messages written in successive times that represented the basis of literary thinking based on science fiction, the most prominent of these messages: "The message of Hayy bin Yaqzan" by Avicenna.
Shahabuddeen al-Sahrawardi ’ s “Strange Alienation ” message is inspired by the story of the neighborhood of Ben Yaqzan, and Ibn al-Nafees ’ s“ Perfect Letter ” in which he followed the example of his predecessors.
The author says of the relevance of these letters to science fiction: "These letters draw a narrative basis based on the facts of science, elaborate on the imagination based on thought and knowledge, and depict part of the knowledge of their owners.
The most prominent aspect of these letters is the narrative imager related to the facts of science and the perceptions of philosophy, which confirms the existence of seeds of scientific literature in the Arabs. ”
Science Fiction Poetry
The writer points out that science fiction literature has been associated with narrative forms, was raised with the French writer Jules Verne, who published the first story in science fiction literature in 1863 entitled "Five Weeks in a Balloon" and then wrote another story entitled "Journey to the Hollow of the Earth" and then continued productions, including the novel "Time Machine" by George Wells and others.
Science fiction poetry is rare, including the poem "The Asteroid" by Russian poet Nikolai Glazkov, translated by Al-Azhar University professor Ahmed Shafiq al-Khatib, a poem based on the achievements of science fiction literature in terms of prediction, foresight and time travel.
Criticism of scientific literature
Some of the works of Tawfiq al-Hakim include The Year of One Million (1953), which is dominated by philosophical consideration of life, nature and the universe, and his play Journey to Tomorrow (1958), which involves a forward-looking view of the future related to man ’ s struggle with time, as well as his play “Food for Every Mouth ”." In which he talks about the problem of food that people will suffer from in the future, and his play "The Prayer of Angels", which deals with the impact of science on the happiness of humanity and the provision of its needs.
Political fiction literature
The writer monitors the branches of science fiction literature that not only addressed the problems of the environment, pollution, space and planets, but touched the problems of politics, society and economy through the literature of political fiction, which includes under its banner the literature of utopia and dystopia.
There are a number of writings concerned with depicting Utopia, which means a utopia without trace of corruption, evil or injustice, the most prominent of these writings is Thomas Moore ’ s “Utopia ”, which depicts an ideal world critical of the political, religious and social conditions of his time.
The literature of dystopia comes in contrast to utopia, but they belong under the name of political fiction, which is a branch of science fiction literature, as each deals with political life by storytelling accompanied by fiction, and dystopia means the literature of the corrupt city or the world of bitter reality that depicts a society full of corruption and highlights the phenomena of destruction, murder and destruction and transformation of human beings. A feuding.
The author mentions a number of Western and Arabic writings that have emerged in the field of dystopia, including George Orwell ’ s 1984, Aldous Huxley ’ s Brave New World, and Ray Bradbury ’ s Fahrenheit 451.
At the level of Arabic writings, a number of works can be observed such as the novel "The Front" by Izz al-Din Issa, the novel "The Tale of the Last Arab" by Wassini al-Araj, "Frankenstein in Baghdad" by Ahmed Saadawi, "The Second War of the Dog" by Ibrahim Nasrallah, "Mercury" by Mohammed Rabie, "The Line" by Basma Abdul Aziz, and "Novelist of the First City" by Omar Hazek. And "Orwell in the Southern Suburbs" by Fawzi Thebian.
Literary Studies
In his book, the Syrian critic offers critical readings in a number of works under the banner of science fiction literature, including the novel "Hala al-Nour" by Mohammed al-Ashri, seeking to stand on the aesthetic trend, especially with the departure of literary criticism from the study of the aesthetic aspects of science fiction literature, observing the methods of the novelist mixing the facts of science with the world mythical heritage.
The book provides another analysis of the collection “Behind the Dark Walls ” by the Syrian writer Taleb Omran, which falls within the literature of dystopia, because the stories depict worlds in which savagery, destruction, murder and destruction prevail, and on the other hand it monitors the Syrian storyteller ’ s interest in the method of scientific storytelling and its reliance on astronomical knowledge and geographical information.
The writer also analyzes the elements and features of fantasy in some of the works of Ahmed Khaled Tawfik as one of the most prominent writers in this field, explaining that science fiction is different from fantasy or wonder in the contemporary novel in that it starts from the modern scientific output, and depends on scientific knowledge specialized, while fantasy completely degenerates from logic and depends on the imagination and does not find a trace of laws we know in reality and depends on mythological and form It is in harmony not with the outside world but with its own world according to which it takes place.

"Contemporary science fiction often features settings such as corporate-dominated futures and worlds with advanced artificial intelligence, as seen in books like All Systems Red and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep."

Title:

Content: 60 Sci-Fi Books That All Science Fiction Fans Must Read

Are you looking for a new science fiction book to read? Looking to fill up your reading list with journeys to strange new worlds and fast-paced science fiction adventures? You're in luck because we've compiled a list of the best sci-fi books.

Whether you're looking to dive into the great sci-fi classics you missed out on or you're looking to delve into brand new tales from up-and-coming indie authors, you're sure to find something that will spark creativity and excitement for you. Science fiction and fantasy novels provide us with allegories, cautionary tales, and deep dives into the human condition told through the lens of the fantastical and the cutting-edge.

The Best Sci-Fi Origins Books

Where did it all begin? Read these early tales with impossible futures, fascinating creatures, time travel, and alien invasion!

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein brought us the iconic monster made by Victor Frankenstein. Considered the first true science fiction novel of the modern era, it would foreshadow genetic tinkering stories of the future.

The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish (also called The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing-World)

Considered to be the first science fiction work, in the 17th century, Duchess of Newcastle Margaret Cavendish wrote of a utopian world.

Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The third Oz book by L. Frank Baum features Tik-Tok, the wind-up clockwork man Dorothy Gale encounters in the Land of Ev. Tik-Tok is basically one of the first robots in literature. Other wacky features in Ozma of Oz include a sand-sailing boat and lunch pail tree.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

A 19th century classic by Wells, depicting time travel and inspiring science fiction tales for over a century.

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

The book would go on to inspire a radio program that terrified people into thinking Martians were actually invading Earth. Wells would kickstart first contact stories and alien invasion at the same time, offering up a cautionary tale that touches sci-fi to this day.

The Best Sci-Fi Space Epics Books

Transport yourself across the universe with these pillars of world-building in science fiction, all of which are either now adapted for TV or film or soon will be.

Dune by Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert’s Dune is considered a masterwork of world-building and family intrigue, inspiring other famous series and their respective houses. In the first book, Paul Atreides encounters the resident free people of the planet Arrakis (Dune), the Fremen, and achieves a destiny of messianic proportions. Dune recently graced the big screen in a new adaptation by Denis Villeneuve.

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi Okorafor's Binti novella series begins with Binti, a Hugo-award-winning Africanfuturistic science fiction horror story published by Tor.com. Binti is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the most exalted institution of higher learning in the galaxy. She faces the choice to accept the offer and give up her place in her family so that she can travel among the stars. Hulu has ordered a pilot for Binti.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov

The beginning of the Foundation series reveals the “psychohistory” developed by mathematician Harry Seldon. Seldon would establish a new empire called Foundation to preserve the culture from societal collapse. Foundation debuted as a TV show on Apple TV in 2021.

Embers of War by Gareth L. Powell

Gareth L. Powell's award-winning trilogy Embers of War follows the war-weary crew of the sentient spaceship Trouble Dog, who after becoming disgusted by her role in war joins the House of Reclamation. Trouble Dog and her captain Sal Konstanz are sent on a rescue mission, which intersects a mission to find missing poet Ona Sundak. The galaxy teeters on the brink of another war, just as an alien presence makes itself known, altering the course of things to come. Now under development for TV.

Rendezvous with Rama by Sir Arthur C. Clarke

A strange spacecraft enters the solar system, and humanity investigates. The secrets within the enormous craft, called Rama, reveal the heritage of an advanced alien civilization. Rendezvous with Rama is in development for a film adaptation with Denis Villeneuve at the helm.

The Best Hard Sci-Fi Books

If you like your science fiction taut with the edginess of battle and the implication of future wars, you must add these books to your collection!

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

This classic military sci-fi epic details the tragic effects of time dilation on a group of soldiers fighting a seemingly endless war.

Ringworld by Larry Niven

Set in the 29th century, Louis Wu and his companions explore a vast, Earth-orbit-sized, constructed world. Their adventures uncover the alien civilization that built it.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

First set with the backdrop of China’s cultural revolution, this new epic involves secret scientific experiments, alien invasion, challenging moral dilemmas, and impressive world-building.

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

A man in his 70s is recruited as a soldier in the Colonial Defense Force, and altered physically in unexpected ways. Strong on character development, this kickstarts the Old Man’s War Series.

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

This classic military sci-fi tale follows Johnny Rico and military recruits who become involved in a battle between humans and aliens nicknamed Arachnids or “Bugs.”

If you love Starship Troopers, check out our review of the wisdom of Grand Admiral Thrawn – Michael

The Best Sci-Fi Robot Stories

The future of robots is here and is complex and necessary reading in these sci-fi tales.

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov’s intriguing work introduced the laws of robotics that all robots must adhere to work alongside humans.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

The first novel in the Murderbot Diaries, All Systems Red, follows a cyborg that goes by the name Murderbot contends with self-awareness in the corporate-dominated future.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

The beginning of the Lunar Chronicles series is a retelling of Cinderella from the point of view of a cyborg.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

Famed for its eventual big-screen adaptation, Blade Runner, this novel recounts a future in which highly realistic artificial fugitives are on the run from bounty hunter Rick Deckard.

The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia

Mattie is an automaton in this steampunk and urban fantasy novel involving gargoyles, Mechanics, and Alchemists.

The Best Sci-Fi Mars Stories

Our neighbor, the red planet Mars, beckons to us. What would it be like to walk on the shifting red sands of Mars? Find out in these Martian classics.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury’s mesmerizing prose introduces us to a Mars full of exotic possibility, soon plundered by humanity’s arrival.

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson

The first in the Mars Trilogy, Red Mars, involves the colonization and terraforming of Mars and the conflicting moral questions that result.

The Martian by Andy Weir

Astronaut Mark Watney is left behind on a Mars mission and must draw upon his skills and ingenuity in order to survive.

Mars by Ben Bova

Navajo geologist Jamie Waterman joins the first expedition of scientists exploring Mars. The grounded approach Bova takes to all the interaction, politics, and bureaucracy help achieve a plausible future story.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

The first book in the Red Rising Trilogy envisions a future of planetary colonization in which caste systems abound. Darrow must fight against this system of overlords.

The Best Sci-Fi Fantasy Books

Fly high with dragons, roam lands on epic quests, and learn the hearts of true heroes in the fantasy masterpieces.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien’s magnum opus spans three books, opening up a fantastically detailed and wholly invented universe in Middle Earth that was hinted at in The Hobbit. Considered the ultimate work of fantasy, The Lord of the Rings brings myth, allegory, poetry, song, war, and melancholy to heights of realism and wonder.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

The first novel in The Earthsea Cycle tells the tale of the wizard Ged, and his journey to redeem his reckless past.

A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin

Beginning with A Game of Thrones, Martin’s elaborate, dark fantasy series covers land in which seasons last decades, and a terrible force from the north threatens to bring an icy apocalypse to an area filled with rulers jockeying to take the Iron Throne.

The Dragonriders of Pern Series by Anne McCaffrey

This remarkable series takes place in the world of Pern, where people telepathically bond with dragons. Dragonflight is the first in the series.

The Fifth Season: The Broken Earth, Book 1 by N.K Jemisin

The Fifth Season marks the first book of the award-winning The Broken Earth trilogy. Set against civilization’s collapse and natural disaster, Essun endures great personal tragedy in her quest to rescue her daughter.

The Best Sci-Fi Dystopian & Apocalyptic Books

Set in a nightmare future, these dystopian and apocalyptic legends will keep you up at night.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

In a totalitarian future America, handmade Offred is forced to bear children to men of a ruling class. The tale follows her harrowing life in a bleak future, and the attempt to escape and bring down the subjugating class to restore rights.

The Stand by Stephen King

A deadly pathogen escapes a military installation, rapidly spreading and bringing civilization essentially to an end. A group of survivors makes its way to a form of a promised land while battling a malevolent group seeking domination.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

In the near future breakdown of the society of Los Angeles, empathic teenager Lauren believes in a better future entailing traveling to other planets. Lauren gathers followers to her belief as she makes her way north.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Set in the Great Lakes region of America, a group of nomadic creatives picks up the pieces after the fall of civilization due to pandemic flu. Station Eleven has been adapted for HBO Max.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The first book in the Hunger Games Trilogy follows the immense challenges that Katniss Everdeen faces in the post-apocalyptic version of America called Panem. She takes her sister’s place in the government-sponsored Hunger Games to compete for survival in a no-holds-barred and deadly competition.

The Best Sci-Fi Near Futures Books

The future is here, or nearly so, in these ground-breaking novels set close to our present day.

Contact by Carl Sagan

Scientist Ellie Arroway detects a potential extraterrestrial signal from space, which appears to instruct humanity in how to build a machine. She faces self-doubt amid scrutiny to uncover the mysteries of the discovery.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

This cautionary tale about genetic engineering in which scientists make living, cloned dinosaurs for an amusement park. Mayhem ensues.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

Mysterious monoliths appear across many worlds, seeding life with intelligence. Following the discovery of one such monolith on the moon, Dr. Bowman and a team of scientists investigate the signal it sends to Saturn’s moon Iapetus. The onboard AI begins exhibiting dangerous behavior during the journey.

Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer

A physics experiment creates an unintended consequence of everyone on earth losing consciousness for two minutes. Each person sees a “flash forward” decades in the future while they are unconscious. The resulting accidents and visions challenge everyone’s ideas of free will.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

In dystopian 2044, impoverished Wade Watts navigates through the virtual reality world of the OASIS, seeking to reverse his fortune.

The Best Sci-Fi Books for Younger Readers

Take adventures through time and space, no matter your age!

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

The Murry children and Calvin O’Keefe crosses universes and space-time to try to find their missing father. Their tale is a mind-bending adventure of good vs. evil.

His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass/The Subtle Knife/The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman

The Golden Compass/Northern Lights begins this sweeping saga of two children, one born in a parallel universe, one born in our own. In Lyra’s world, people’s souls exist in animal form, called daemons. Her father and mother represent warring factions determined to control all universes. Filled with talking animals, witches, airships, and strange creatures, His Dark Materials packs an emotional punch.

The Apothecary Series by Maile Meloy

Set in the 1950s, The Apothecary starts this highly entertaining, thrilling adventure series in which American Janie Scott meets Benjamin Burrows, the son of an apothecary. After Benjamin’s father is kidnapped, the teenagers uncover a terrifying plot that could result in humanity’s end. They use potions with magical effects to try and stop the impending doom.

The Serpent's Secret (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #1) by Sayantani DasGupta

The first of the Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond series, book one begins with Kiranmala discovering her parents are missing, and there is a demon in her kitchen! Two princes recruited her and sent to another dimension, where she must battle the Serpent King and the Rakkhoshi Queen to rescue her parents and save the Earth.

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

This delightful middle-grade novel recounts a discarded robot named Roz and her search for love and acceptance.

The Best Sci-Fi Ponderous Books

These mind-bending sci-fi novels will have you thinking for a long time afterward.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Raised on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith returns to Earth and tries to fit in. His unusual upbringing makes him seem superhuman, but he attempts to help his Earth kin understand things from a different perspective.

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester

Set in the 24th century when telepaths (“Espers”) are common, and police are telepathic as well. Ben Reich tries to evade the telepathic police for a murder he wants to commit. The story opens up the moral issues of using telepathy, regulated mostly by a guild, but raises concerns about the exclusion of telepaths who run astray as well as psychological intrigue.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

Solaris follows humans’ failed attempts to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence. The sentient planet tests the researchers with their memories and emotions.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

A story spanning time and space and connections between various characters, Cloud Atlas explores the theme of fate with a mind-bending narrative.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

This classic tale follows the journey of Genly Ai on his mission to the planet Gethen. The ambisexual Gethenians present challenges and growth for Ai.

The Best Sci-Fi Cyberpunk Books

If you dream of the future lit by neon, shadowed by noir, and fueled with intrigue, these seminal cyberpunk novels are for you!

Neuromancer by William Gibson

In the first novel of the Sprawl Trilogy, hacker Henry Case is hired to help an AI take over the global network called The Matrix.

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

A modern cyberpunk tale is weaving together magic and science, with wit and feeling.

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

Set in the 25th century, humans have spread through the galaxy and can be preserved after death via cortical stacks, then essentially regenerated or “re-sleeved” into another body. Takeshi Kovacs stumbles upon a vast conspiracy after his latest “sleeve.”

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

This early entry into cyberpunk sci-fi follows teleporter Gully Foyle, an outcast considered dangerous.

Synners by Pat Cadigan

The synthesizers, or Synners, are people who can turn mental images into products for consumption. The story is told via various characters’ viewpoints.

The Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books by Indie Authors

Discover the latest sci-fi and fantasy stories, while supporting independent authors!

Mindful Things by Mya Duong

Nineteen-year-old Lauren begins to experience visions and uncovers the fact her deceased parents were witches. A madman hungry for power pursues her, and she must embrace her magical heritage to try to stop him.

The Infinite by John W. Akers

The inventor Pax works on a secret project that can revolutionize human cognition. His plans are derailed by a computer virus that could end civilization, so Pax is forced to choose how he can help humanity survive.

Threadwalkers by Joanna Volavka

Miranda Woodward undergoes a discordant series of events following her father’s death. This is a young adult time travel tale.

Resonance by Jennifer Greenhall

In Book One of the Resonance Series, Sophia Walsh uses her psionic abilities for good but finds herself the next target of a killer.

Heliopause: The Questrison Saga®: Book One by J. Dianne Dotson

Heliopause by J. Dianne Dotson kickstarts The Questrison Saga®, a four-book series science fiction and fantasy series. In Heliopause, a mystery at the edge of the solar system reveals a galactic menace. A galactic natural disaster unfolds, aiding the monster in the void. Human Forster and human-looking, ageless Galla-Deia team up with telepaths, galactic mages, aliens, and androids to face the greatest threat to all life in the galaxy. Full of diverse characters and exotic worlds, found and made families, heartbreak, and whimsy, this space opera recalls Star WarsDoctor Who, and Game of Thrones.

At Your Money Geek, we are huge fans of the science fiction genre, everything from military science fiction to novels about space travel, parallel worlds, and fantasy novels. We are always looking for new books to read and exciting sci-fi writers to profile, let us know in the comments what authors you are currently enjoying.

This post was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.

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J. Dianne Dotson dreamed up other worlds and their characters as a child in the 1980s in East Tennessee. She formed her own neighborhood astronomy club before age 10, to educate her friends about the universe. In addition to writing stories, she drew and painted her characters, designed their outrageous space fashions, and created travel guides and glossaries for the worlds she invented.

As an adult, Dianne earned a degree in ecology and evolutionary biology, and spent several years working in research. She published Heliopause: The Questrison Saga®: Book One (2018) and its sequels Ephemeris: The Questrison Saga®: Book Two (2019), Accretion: The Questrison Saga®: Book Three (2020) and her last novel in the saga, Luminiferous: The Questrison Saga®: Book Four (2021).

Dianne is also a science writer, content writer and manager, short story writer, watercolorist, and illustrator. She lives with her family.

Liu Cixin, a Chinese science fiction author, won a Hugo Award for his novel 'The Three Bodies'.

Title:

Content: Liu Zaifu ’ s “Forty Lectures on Literature ”: History, Journey to the West, Dream of the Red Chamber, the“ grafting ” spectacle of Chinese literary classics
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
What we want you to know is
Liu Zai-fu, quoting literary classics from ancient and modern times, expounds in depth the meaning of literature in life, society, and human culture, not only the best primer to understand the meaning and value of literature, but also fully presents Liu Zai-fu's grand literary view.
Re: The Return of Liu
[15] Intersection of Literature.
One, two new types of inspiration
The topic I ’ m talking about today is a topic I thought about 30 years ago.
At that time, reading Lu Xun's essays, I felt that there was no such thing as "essays" in the history of literature.
This new literary category is the creation of Lu Xun, which is the result of his "grafting" of literature (prose) with political theory, contemporary theory, and contemporary criticism, and can also be said to be the intersection of prose and political theory, contemporary theory, and contemporary criticism.
Convergence, grafting and the production of another "quality", this is a large phenomenon of literature, you can do special research, you can write a paper, you can also write an academic monograph.
After the emergence of essays, some people do not admit that this is "literature", but Lu Xun said that it does not matter, one day, the literary hall will accept this new genre.
At a time when essays were gradually flourishing, another new genre of essays was emerging, called "reportage." Tsou Tiufeng, Fan Changjiang, Liu Binyan, etc., were all masters of reportage, and they became famous all over the world.
In the face of reportage, I also think of the phenomenon of "intersection" and "grafting", and feel that reportage is the result of the intersection of literature and journalism.
But it is not news, but literature, because the news can not have feelings, and the report literature is full of life and passion, the text is full of the author's thoughts and feelings.
Because of the report of literature, I entered the "literary intersection point" of reflection, and later because of the change in the environment, I did not write the paper to go abroad.
Today to pick up this topic, is completely forced by the classroom, but I do not intend to make a large article, but to put their own thoughts on literary intersection, grafting phenomenon to the students to express, I hope that the people here will be able to write the monograph of birth movement in the future.
Second, the phenomenon of "convergence" has existed in the past.
The phenomenon of literary convergence, that is, the "intersection of literature", refers to the intersection of literature with other disciplines or other forms of spiritual value creation, such as literature with history, philosophy, science, psychology, and even Buddhism.
This phenomenon has existed in China for a long time.
The great book that we all know, the History of Sima Qian, is the graft of literature and history.
"Historians", the focus is on history, that is, first of all, a great historical work, but no one can deny its huge literary nature, especially the characters in it and the characters listed.
Take "Xiang Yu Benji" as an example, the cornerstone of this era, that is, the basic material is history, but the protagonist (Xiang Yu) described is lifelike, flesh-and-blood, and can be read as a composition.
Xiang Yu ’ s story, which was later compiled into famous plays such as “Farewell to the Overlord ” and“ Hongmen Banquet ”, is the basis of this story.
Especially surprising to future generations is that many of Xiang Yu's life details must be Sima Qian's complement and imagination, such as Xiang Yu's last defeat and ran to the bank of the Wujiang River in a section description, can be said to be "not literature, more like literature."
We might as well read the text of this section:
So the king wanted to cross the river eastward, and the long boat of Ujiangting waited, saying, "Though Jiangdong is small, the land is thousands of miles, and the number of thousands is sufficient for the king."
I want the king to hurry.
The king laughed and said, "If I die in heaven, how will I do it?"
And by crossing the river with the children of Jiangdong, there is no one to return, even though Jiangdong father and brother have mercy and king me, what face do I see? Even if they do not speak, their independence is worthy of my heart? ”
When I was five years old on this horse, I was invincible, and tried to travel thousands of miles a day, and could not bear to kill it, so as to bless the Lord. "
Hundreds of soldiers were killed alone.
The king said, "If it were not for me," and the king said, "This is the king," and the king said, "I have heard that the king has bought my head a thousand gold, and I have a thousand households, and I have died for Jude."
And the king of Israel, and the king of Israel, and the king of Israel, and the king of Israel, and the king of Israel, and the king of Israel, and
Then came the horse, and the horse, and the horse, and the horse, and the horse, and the horse, and the horse, and the horse, and the horse, and the horse, and the horse, and the horse, and the
Five of them together, all of them.
5: 5); and the Lord of hosts, and the Lord of hosts, and the Lord of hosts, and the Lord of hosts, and the Lord of hosts, and the Lord of hosts, and the Lord of hosts, and the Lord of hosts, and the Lord of hosts, and the Lord of hosts.
If Sima Chien had made the Book of History a pure historical book, it would have taken only a few words to write about Xiang Yu ’ s “end of the road ”:“ Xiang Yu stayed on the bank of the Wujiang River for a moment and felt that he had no face to see his father again, so he drew his sword and killed himself. ” In the book of Revelation, the Lord of the Rings tells us that He is the Lord of the Rings; that He is the Lord of the Rings; that He is the Lord of the Rings; that He is the Lord of the Rings; that He is the Lord of the Rings; that He is the Lord of the Rings, and that He is the Lord of the Rings.
In just four or five hundred words, he wrote a heroic ending and a heroic sad song, which is both sad and sad, and has both heroic spirit and heroic friendship, not only historical facts.
This section of text, both historical material value, can also be composition learning text read.
The History provides us with a successful example of the grafting of literature and history.
Literature can be grafted with both history and philosophy.
It can be said that Kafka and his later mainstream of modern literature, the so-called "absurd literature", are the result of the grafting of literature and philosophy.
Beckett, Yunescu, Pinter, Gao Xingjian, etc., all benefited from the intersection of literature and philosophy.
Professor Hu Yao-heng, an expert in drama studies at National Taiwan University, says that “Gao Xingjian ’ s plays are philosophical plays ” and is entirely correct.
Gao Xingjian ’ s plays, from “The Station ” and“ Beyond the Shore ” to “Dialogue and Conversation ” to“ The Night God ” and “Questioning Death ”, are the intersection of philosophy and literature.
Before Gao Xingjian, Beckett ’ s “Waiting for Godot ” and Yunesku ’ s“ Rhino ” were also philosophical and literary juxtapositions.
Its tone is no longer "lyrical", nor is it "verbal".
In the whole drama, only the author's profound understanding of the absurd world, which is both imaginary and philosophical.
The focus is on thoughts, not emotions.
From Kafka and Beckett to Pinter and Gao Xingjian, we can see the power of the intersection of literature and philosophy – it can change the tone of the literary world and create a new world of literature.
Third, the miracle of "grafting" in Chinese literary classics
If it is said that "History" is the intersection of history and literature, then "Journey to the West" is the marriage of literature and Buddhism, and "Dream of the Red Chamber" is the marriage of literature and psychology.
Without the Eastern Biography of Buddhism, there would be no Journey to the West.
The Book of Revelation is the book of Revelation and the book of Revelation, which is written in the Book of Revelation, and the Book of Revelation, which is written in the Book of Revelation and the Book of Revelation, which is written in the Book of Revelation, and is written in the Book of Revelation.
Sun Wukong accompanied Master Tang Monk to the West Heaven to take the Sutra, from the beginning to the end of the Sutra, it is all the logic of "Buddhism".
The Buddha of Rulai in Journey to the West is the most powerful, but not the absolute "savior".
The representative of the Buddhist world, Guanyin Bodhisattva, specifically helped guide the Tang monk and the Monkey King Master to overcome all kinds of difficulties and win the victory of the scriptures. She is God (Buddhism), but full of human feelings (literature).
The Lord is strong and powerful, and has the power of the devil, but the truth is perfect, and has the heart of the Buddha and the heart of the child; he is also a man, with the naughty and ideal of man.
There is no magic, no magic, no magic, no magic, no magic.
The Lord of hosts is the Lord of hosts, and the Lord of hosts is the Lord of hosts and the Lord of hosts.
"Dream of the Red Chamber" is like "Journey to the West", the whole book is full of Buddha light, children's heart pound.
"Journey to the West" is based on the Eastern tradition of Buddhism, and "Dream of the Red Chamber" is also based on the Eastern tradition of Buddhism.
But in contrast, the whole book of Journey to the West is saturated with Buddhism, and the Dream of the Red Chamber is saturated with psychology.
Therefore, I say, "Dream of the Red Chamber" is the greatest work of psychology after the "Ecclesiastes" (Wang Yangming), and the difference is only that the former is intellectual psychology, and the latter is imaginary psychology.
Jia Baoyu, the protagonist of "Dream of the Red Chamber", is not so much a "person" as a "heart" - the purest heart that has never been seen in the history of world literature, like the dustless heart that was born on the first morning of Genesis.
If we regard Jia Baoyu as a "person", we will define him as a noble son, a playboy, and will feel that he likes poetry voice is "not doing good work", so that he feels that his "problems" are many and insufficient for training.
And if you think of him as a "heart", you will find that this heart is not stained with mud, and the thoughts and thoughts in the heart are completely different from those of the secular people.
This heart has no hatred function, no jealousy function, no vengeance function, no calculation function.
This heart is a boundless universe that can accommodate all things in heaven and earth, can accommodate all people, can understand and forgive all people.
Because he is a "heart", so it does not have the secular that some of the concept of distinction, I do not know that there are expensive and inferior points, high and low points, master and slave points.
Therefore, he regarded the "underlings" and "masters" as equals, and was willing to act as the "divine waiter" of these slaves and maidens (not only as the divine waiter of aristocratic girls such as Lin Daiyu). Jia Baoyu's life was only in childhood, adolescence and youth, and there was no middle age or old age.
So the Jia Baoyu mind we see, only the breath of youth and the breath of the universe.
The heart is filled with nothing but love.
New achievements in the intersection of literature and science
We talked about the difference between literature and science.
It is not difficult to distinguish this difference.
But this lesson is about how literature and science can also be intertwined and grafted.
In Lu Xun ’ s time, Lu Xun introduced the French “father of science fiction ” Verne ’ s“ Journey to the Moon ” and “Journey Under the Earth ”.
The intersection of literature and science, the most important result is the production of science fiction.
If we adhere to literary dogmatism, we may reject science fiction because it is not written about the “real world ” (and certainly not about reflecting real life), but the future world.
The characters in the book are not "real people" with flesh and blood, but "scientific people" in the author's imagination.
This kind of activity space for technological people is beyond the survival situation of traditional novels, and beyond the "rivers and lakes" environment of the martial arts novels.
Its heroes are not real heroes or heroes, but science and technology heroes.
If you stick to the definition of "literature is anthropology", then science fiction is difficult to be classified as literature.
However, if we use what I call the three elements of “mind, imagination, and aesthetic form ” to examine without demanding literature in ready-made literary definitions, then we cannot but admit that science fiction has all these three elements, especially imagination, and will happily accept science fiction.
It is worth noting that science fiction has made great strides in recent years, both in China and in the West.
Among them, the United States has even ushered in the golden age of science fiction, and Lu Xu, who was listening to the class, recently published an article in the "Bookhouse" about Ray Bradbury (United States) "Fahrenheit 451" and Liu Cixin (China) "The Three Body", entitled "The Humanities in Dystopia", which tells the two representative science fiction writers of the United States and China, half. In the 21st century, through creation, we hope that science and technology and humanistic spirit can meet and understand each other.
Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 develops a "science fiction utopia" into a "science fiction utopia" that warns against the anti-intellectual (anti-humanistic) tendencies of human society.
And the recent emergence of Chinese writer Liu Cixin, published in 2006 science fiction novel "The Three Bodies", not only accepted by Chinese readers, but also won the United States Hugo Award (Best Novel Award), which brilliantly realized the intersection and grafting of science, culture and literature.
He consciously fought against the spiritual split between science and culture and humanistic culture, and put more humanistic feelings into it.
Roth said of the three:
A triple star system is a star system closer to Earth that interacts with three sun-like stars, resulting in chaotic orbits and poor survival conditions.
After establishing a connection with the Earth, the Three Kingdoms decide to launch a cosmic migration, and human society is facing a crisis of extinction.
The first part of the novel uncovers this reality, and the second and third parts depict the various efforts and struggles that humans have made to cope with the great crisis. For example, launching gravitational waves into the entire universe, exposing the coordinates of the Three Body World, so that the entire solar system, including the Earth, will become the target of the cosmic "dark forest".
In order to save itself, the earth even made a low-intelligence statement (using drugs and brain science technology to reduce human intelligence), and implemented technical self-harm, that is, to save the earth by limiting human development through technology.
This idea is to leave the final salvation to the humanistic spirit, and the literary pursuit of the "ultimate good."
From the examples of Ray Bradbury and Liu Cixin, it can be seen that the intellectual challenge caused by the intersection of literature and science is the highest intellectual thinking in the human world today, and it is also a new topic facing literature.
The emergence of outstanding science fiction, such as The Three Bodies, is challenging many traditional literary theories and definitions.
Looking at the history of literature, especially the history of modern literature, we will find that many new literary categories and literary patterns are the result of the intersection and grafting of literature with other disciplines, and over the past 100 years, we have also seen that the intersection of literature and psychology has produced the giant flow of consciousness novels such as Proust's "Remembering the Year of the Passing Water" and Joyce's "Ulysses.
Since then, we have seen Orwell ’ s Animal Farm, a new type of novel that has hit the world, which is actually the intersection of literature and politics.
We do not support literature as a tool of politics (including the idea that literature serves politics), but we do not deny that political life is also a part of real life, and political activities can also become a part of literature.
Orwell is familiar with literature, but also familiar with politics, he did not put politics above literature, but turned politics into the material and tool of literature, the art of politics refining and upgrading, so that politics is fully literalized.
The whole novel is written about politics, but it is also full of literary and artistic politics.
There are two camps in the novel: the “animal farm ” is a socialist state, the“ human farm ” is a capitalist state; the “animal ” is the oppressed and exploited party, and the“ human ” is the party that practices oppression and exploitation.
The struggle between “animals ” and“ humans ” is a metaphor for the resistance of oppressed people and oppressed peoples.
It can be said that these are well-known and commonplace political stories and political common sense.
However, Orwell designed the contemporary political struggle as a struggle between animals and people.
The characters of animal farms are pigs, dogs, horses, cows, sheep, goats, donkeys, old cats, pigeons, crows, chickens, ducks, geese, sparrows, mice, turtles, foxes, etc. Point wait.
These pigs, dogs, all anthropomorphic, and most importantly, full of comedy.
Liu Zaifu ’ s “Forty Lectures on Literature ”: Literature is moving toward“ Huineng ”, not toward “Nietzsche ”, which is my own unique expression.
Book Introduction
Forty Lectures on Literature: Common Knowledge and Wisdom, Joint Publishing
Author: Liu Zai
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One of the hottest defenders of humanity.
Let go of obscure hypotheses and ask for infinite truth.
Candles shine on the heart, bid farewell to ignorance, the shortest shortcut to enter literature
The world is so rich and complex, life is so vast and boundless, human nature is so colorful, literature face all this, naturally can also show their own charm.
There is absolutely no need to incorporate the narrow framework of a certain political ideology, whether it comes from the left or from the right.
Freedom can also be completely in their own hands, only when there is an awareness of freedom, can there be true freedom, and there is no need to wait for the objective conditions of freedom to mature before creating.
— — Liu Zaifu
In 2013 and 2016, Liu Zaifu accepted the appointment of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Institute for Advanced Study as a visiting professor.
According to the course, the book is divided into two parts.
The upper part of the "What is literature: literature common sense 22 lectures" from Chinese and Western literature common sense, from the definition of literature to the state of literature, and ultimately to pursue the "literary mind" in real life; the lower part of the "how to read literature: literary understanding 18 points", then carefully read the literature works need to think about the main points, in order to understand the mysteries of literature.
And...
Liu Zai-fu, quoting literary classics from ancient and modern times, expounds in depth the meaning of literature in life, society, and human culture, not only the best primer to understand the meaning and value of literature, but also fully presents Liu Zai-fu's grand literary view.
Editor-in-Chief: Weng Shihang
Editor-in-chief: Wang Zupeng
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Nnedi Okorafor is an author of color featured in the science fiction list with her book 'Binti'.

Who wrote "Binti," a Hugo-award-winning African futuristic science fiction horror story?

Wang Jinkang is a prominent Chinese science fiction author with a prolific career, having published numerous works and received several awards.

Title:

Content: Interview with Wang Jinkang, 2024 Hugo Finalist

INTRODUCTION: Eight Light Minutes(8LM) Culture of Chengdu has given permission for File 770 to reprint the series of interviews with Chinese science fiction writers which they have been running this week on Facebook. The first one is a question and answer session with Wang Jinkang, whose novella Seeds of Mercury is a 2024 Hugo Award finalist.

SUPPORTING CHINESE WRITERS SERIES (1): 2024 HUGO AWARD NOMINATION INTERVIEW WITH WANG JINKANG

Translated by Joseph Brant.

Wang Jinkang(王晋康) was born in Nanyang, Henan Province in 1948. He is a senior engineer, and a member of the Chinese Writer’s Association (CWA), The China Popular Science Writing Association (CPSWA), The Committee of Scientific Literature and Art, and the Henan Writers’ Association. Since the publication of his first story, The Return of Adam, in 1993, he has published over 90 short works, and 20 full novels, including Cross, We Together, Escape from The Mother Universe, Parents of Heaven and Earth, and Cosmic Crystal Eggs, totaling over six million words. He has won China’s Galaxy Award 16 times, as well as The Chinese Science Fiction Nebula’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He is considered one of Chinese science fiction’s ‘Four Heavenly Kings’, and his emblematic work Seeds of Mercury was shortlisted for the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novella.

Hello Mr. Wang! Before we start, I would like to congratulate you on Seeds of Mercury’s shortlisting for 2024’s “Best Novella” Hugo Award. This is news that has excited countless Chinese science fiction fans. Ever since the publication of Chinese Science Fiction: An Oral History, readers have commented that your contributions have particularly appealed to them and would like to know more about your life and work. Hopefully, this long-awaited interview will provide some of the insights the sci-fi community has longed for.

Q1Mr. Wang, despite having produced many great works, this is the first time you’ve been shortlisted for the Hugo. How did you feel when you learned that you’d been shortlisted?

Wang Jinkang: Of course I was elated. Although I’ve won many awards in China, in fact the most Galaxy Awards in history, this is the first time I’ve been shortlisted for a Hugo. It felt like 31 years ago, when I first saw The Return of Adam in print, and when I won my First Galaxy Award. I think every author experiences these moments of excitement. It’s excellent that Chinese science fiction has reached a certain level, after years of growth, it’s now more and more visible internationally, which is fantastic. Of course, what we value even more, is these works transcending their era, and surviving the tides of time to reach future generations.

Religion and Science are enemies who love each other.

Q2Mr. Wang, as one of the ‘Four Heavenly Kings’ of Chinese science fiction, you’re already very well known in China, with a creative career spanning over thirty years, with works such as Leopard Man, Ant Life and Survival Experiment and so on. This shortlisted work is such a quintessential piece. However, this interview is not just intended for the Chinese sci-fi fans, but for readers around the world, who may not be familiar with Seeds of Mercury. Could I ask you to introduce it for the benefit of the overseas sci-fi fans?

Wang Jinkang: Seeds of Mercury is a two-threaded story. The first one follows a female scientist named Shawu, who discovers a new formula for life, and creates a fluid metal nano life form. When she dies, she entrusts that formula to Chen Yizhe, a businessman with a pure heart, along with the message “real life cannot be bred in pens. In the Solar System, there happens to be a suitable place for it to breed freely – Mercury”. Chen Yizhe accepts this monumental legacy enthusiastically, using his personal wealth to maintain the laboratory. In order take the next step, of “seeding Mercury”, he must turn to the society around him. Mr Hong, a multi-billionaire with a disagreeable personality but a benevolent soul, decides to liquidate his empire to facilitate the spaceship’s construction. Furthermore, Hong makes another astonishing decision: to relocate to Mercury, have his body frozen in the millennia-old ice caves of the planet’s north pole, to be awakened every 10 million years, to assist the evolution of these micro-lifeforms. In just 15 years, Chen Yizhe sends Hong to Mercury to seed the nano-life into the liquid metal lakes of Mercury, after which Hong settles down in its polar caves. Meanwhile, Hong’s lawyer, and soulmate named Yin, bids her painful farewells from the distant Earth.

The second storyline is set 100 million years later, when the Suola race have evolved on Mercury, their metal bodies adapted to the hundred-degree temperatures of the planet. They are sustained by light (drawing energy directly by photosynthesis). With no sense of hearing, they rely on the flashing of light through two orifices in their abdomen to communicate in binary. The entire Suola race are devout followers of Shawu, venerate the Star Father, the great god Shawu and her earthly incarnation. They have been initiated in science, and after studying their Holy Book, scientist Tu Lala discovers that much scientific knowledge has been disguised and hidden within. From this he deduces that life on Mercury originates from The Blue Planet. He implores the high priest to send an expedition to search for the Holy Site in the depths of the ice, with the excuse of reviving the incarnation of Shawu, as the Book prophesied. The high priest consents, sending a chaplain to supervise the mission. Tu Lala actually locates the Holy Site, and discovers the incarnation of Shawu (Mr Hong), frozen in the ice, along the sacred rites of “how to revive the incarnation of Shawu”.

However, unexpected occurrences, mainly due to the ignorance and blind devotion of the believers, result in Tulala’s unfortunate violent death (as metallic organisms, the Suola can easily resurrect after a sudden death, but those who do are considered an untouchable caste). In order to protect Mr Hong’s body, Tu lala risks the humiliation, but tragically, his student Qi Qiaqia denounces him, exposing his untouchable status, and inciting the crowd to him, During which time, Mr Hong’s body is destroyed in the scorching sunlight. To avoid blame, Qi Qiaqia suddenly declares that the incarnation of Shawu was a false god, which is why the Father Star could destroy it. This narrative is accepted by the devotees, who hail him as their new high priest. In the thousands of years that follow, Suola society descends into darkness, religious cruelly suppressing science, but from among the population comes a new “Sect of Repentance”, apparently founded by an untouchable. Silently they preserve everything related to science, awaiting the next rebirth of Shawu in future millennia.

Q3Seeds of Mercury was first published in 2002, and its appeal still endures, even after all this time. What inspired you to write this story?

Wang Jinkang: The initial inspiration probably came from a sad epiphany I had as a teenager. The human body is too fragile. Our proteins start to coagulate above 80°C, our brain suffers irreversible damage if we don’t breathe for five minutes, our body can’t withstand radiation, and we can die from disease, hunger, dehydration, drowning and freezing… It’s admirable that such a fragile life form has been propagated on for billions of years, but it also makes me apprehensive that humanity would not survive a disaster. Human civilisation is a great achievement, which is why we are proud of it; but it also makes me anxious, worrying that humanity may not survive the next cataclysm. I couldn’t help but imagine, what if a creator, or god of evolution, created a metallic life, invulnerable to fire and flood? Many years later, I combined these youthful imaginings with my subsequent concept of “Templates for Life” and turned it into this novella.

Q4Seeds of Mercury is a piece about the sublime act of Creation, and a reflection on the transitory nature of life. Did you write it with the intention of exploring the contradiction between Science and Religion? Or did that grow naturally out of the creative process? Also, do the sentient beings you write about reflect your own views and positions?

Wang Jinkang: I didn’t intend to construct that dichotomy between Science and Religion, but it’s exactly what happened on Earth, so when I created a history for Mercury’s civilisation, those episodes just appeared naturally. Religion and Science are enemies who love each other. European Papacy cruelly persecuted Galileo, Bruno, and other ‘heretics’, and strictly forbade the theory of evolution, but medieval Europe became the birthplace of modern science. When we look back at the history of Civilisation over millennia, you can’t help but sigh that history is full of paradoxes, and that The Creator is always full of mischief, making fun of the theories of Cause and Effect. As to whether this new life carries some of my own views or positions? Of course. Tu Lala is the heir to the human spirit, with his scientific rationality, adventurous spirit, sense of responsibility, fortitude, and self-sacrifice. In the story, when Tu Lala meets the holy body of Shawu Incarnate, and he figures out that the great god was a scientist. Thus, demonstrating that the intellectual spirits of all scientists are inter-relatable, even if they are alien. That is what I believe in my heart.

Today’s AI isn’t quite up to the standard of “Return of Adam”

Q5Mr. Wang, the world has moved on 22 years since the first publication of Seeds of Mercury. What changes do you think have occurred in science fiction writing in the present day, compared to the early years both in terms of the environment, and the core themes?

Wang Jinkang: These 22 years have brought great changes, and it could be said that civilisation has reached a critical point, that we’re on the cusp of drastic changes. However, for the science fiction writer, who is used to seeing the world from a god-like point of view (through the eyes of science) we think in millennia, so 22 years is too short a period to affect the themes of my work. For example, my debut story Return of Adam showed a society where AI had overcome natural humanity, though it had taken on a parasitic approach, augmenting the processing power (IQ) of the human mind to far outstrip the basic brain, and in fact, became the core of human consciousness. The rapid development of AI today, especially the LLM systems, is amazing, even frightening, but in general, today’s AI isn’t quite up to the standards of Return of Adam. Still, I’m saddened that some things I wrote about, which I assumed would be far in the future have come to pass in my lifetime. For example, in 1997, when many Chinese people asserted that AI could never triumph in the field of Weiqi (Go), I was convinced it eventually would, and wrote a scene of an ‘AI beating a human chess master’ in one of my stories, before it actually happened. I just never expected to see it in my lifetime.

Q6Before Liu Cixin appeared, you “held up half the sky” in Chinese Sci-fi. When you first appeared in China’s science fiction circles, you were relatively older, and more experienced. Do you think that maturity allowed your work to appear more rounded?

Wang Jinkang: My life and experiences have been quite unique. I’ve lived through a very special time in China’s history, worked as a rusticated youth, a miner and model maker. I went to university at 30, became a mechanical engineer, wrote literary novels, and only broke into the science fiction world by chance at 45, publishing my first sci-fi story. If anything, my near-fanatical reading of literature at university paved the way for my future writing. At that time, the reforms were already happening in China, and it was opening up to the world. A huge amount of foreign literature was pouring into the country, dazzling readers like me. There may be another special factor, which is, because I was studying engineering, I was standing atop this wall of science and watching this river of literature racing by, I had a sense of detachment. Add to that I only started writing SF decades after experiencing the rise, fall and distilling of the wave of literature. I suppose that’s why my writing style has a poised, bleak, and sombre character.

Q7What sort of stories do you think are expected from the current literary ecosystem? Which sci-fi genres do you expect to take off in the future?

Wang Jinkang: I have always felt that science fiction is unlike any other form of literature. The richness of mainstream literature does not necessarily coincide with the strength of a country. As the aphorisms go, “classics are born from chaos”, and “poets are fortunate when the country is not”. However, the success of science fiction is reliant on enough readers and authors being educated to a certain threshold, and so depends on the country’s economic, scientific, and technological development, which can be proven by the movement of science fiction’s centre from Britain and France to the United States over the last century. Over the past 40 years, China’s overall economic development has been good, and as one of the oldest sci-fi writers in the country, I’ve experienced this first-hand. I feel that as China continues to modernise and converge with the rest of the world, the creative environment of Chinese sci-fi will continue to improve. As for which themes, I feel will start to emerge? It’s expected that artificial intelligence and space themes, with more emphasis on exploring the human condition, are going to be the stories of importance, but other themes will also develop immensely.

Science fiction writers are used to seeing the world from a god-like viewpoint.

Q8 Mr. Wang, science fiction has taken root in China now for around a century, and you have played a pivotal role in the history of science fiction in the country. Irrespective of whether or not you win this Hugo Award, you have influenced a generation of sci-fi fans and creators. How do you view your own Creative Achievements?

Wang Jinkang: I’m flattered, but I only really played a leading and inductive role in the early stages of the so-called “New Generation” of Chinese sci-fi back in the 1990s. I’m content with the two aspects of my writing career, firstly, in forming the genre of Philosophical Science Fiction, which is based on the latest technological advances, and digs deep into the influence it has on alienation, civilisation, and so forth, to discover this genre’s philosophical uniqueness. This genre did not originate in my work, foreign writers including Mr. Arthur C. Clarke have long created excellent works of philosophical sci-fi, but these elements in my work are more concentrated. Furthermore, with regards science fiction as “the most cosmopolitan form of literature”, I consider my work, whilst still cosmopolitan, to be imbued heavily with Chinese styles and themes, which adds a certain flavour to the genre.

Q9Do you feel that science fiction writing is shifting from short-form to long form, and what difficulties do you feel are associated with that?

Wang Jinkang: In my experience there are three main issues faced when moving into the long-form. Firstly, there must be enough knowledge, from the accumulation of experience and information. Secondly, there must be a more mature view of Nature and human society, in their entirety. These are not necessarily the dominant trait of the novel but will play important roles in the story’s development. Thirdly, the ability to comprehend the entirety of the larger story. This ability to grasp the complete story is equally important to mainstream literary writers, but in science fiction, concepts always play a driving role in the whole work and should be logically consistent in themselves.

Q10In your eyes, what is the role of Morality and Ethics in Science Fiction?

Wang Jinkang: Science fiction authors often look at the world from a godlike point of view, and in the eyes of a creator, survival comes first, and morality and ethics are just auxiliary codes established by humans once they reached a certain level of civilisation. They are also conducive to the overall survival of the human race. As Humanity develops, and “co-operation” becomes more central to society, the role of morality and ethics becomes more and more important, but they certainly won’t stay the same, and the rules will certainly have additions and deletions. For example, once technology becomes suitably advance, the ethics of “strict prohibition regarding editing the genes of a human being” are very likely to change.

Q11Throughout your career, which of your stories are you most satisfied with?

Wang Jinkang: Of my short and medium length works, I like Seeds of Mercury’, Bee Keepers and The Song of Life, and of my longer works, I’m most satisfied with Ant’s Life and the Alive Trilogy (Escape From The Mother Universe, Parents of Heaven And Earth, and Cosmic Crystal Eggs).

Thank you, reader, for giving meaning to my life.

Q12Mr. Wang, some sci-fi fans have pointed out you are ‘the oldest non-American writer shortlisted for the Hugo Award’, which is an impressive feat. What are your hopes for the Hugo Awards?

Wang Jinkang: There’s a bit of a special circumstance here, where a story I wrote 22 years ago, was only translated into English last year, and shortlisted according to the translation’s publication date, even though, I’m very happy to hold this “World Record”. I hope it will go further than just being a finalist, but even if it doesn’t, I still consider it a great honour to be shortlisted.

Q13What would you like to say to the readers regarding the inclusion of Seeds of Mercury in the Hugo Awards shortlist, which was voted for by individual sci-fi fans one after another?

Wang Jinkang: I’ve always had a reverence for my readers. The two most common inscriptions I write to fans at signings are “The reader is the god of authors”, and “Thank you reader, for giving meaning to my life”. Out of the millions of publications each year, in a sea of stories, to have any number of people read your work, enjoy it, and keep it in their memory after that relentless tide of time, is a rare blessing. One might even call it a great gift from the readers to the author.

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"Ursula K. Le Guin is a notable female science fiction author from the 20th century, whose works were initially categorized as science fiction and fantasy but are now recognized as literature."

Title:

Content: INTERVIEW

"I want to believe": Alice Hoffman is always seeking magic, practical and otherwise

The author on her time travel novel "The Invisible Hour," thoughts on Nathaniel Hawthorne and "Practical Magic"

By Alison Stine

Staff Writer

Published August 20, 2023 8:00AM (EDT)

1998 Sandra Bullock and Nichole Kidman stars in the new movie "Practical Magic." (Getty Images/Warner Bros./Hulton Archive)

Alice Hoffman still believes.

The New York Times bestselling author of more than 40 works of fiction published her first, "Property Of," when she was just 21. That novel was swiftly followed by beloved collections of short fiction, works for teens and children, and novels like 1995's "Practical Magic," best known for its big-screen adaptation.

"It's a bad idea to write for the moment because the moment passes so quickly."

It's not the only one of her books to be turned into a film. She also wrote "Aquamarine," "The River King," and penned the screenplay for the 1993 indie film "Independence Day." But the 1998 movie adaptation of "Practical Magic," starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman and Stockard Channing, has acquired a massive following over the years.

Hoffman returned to the family of witches introduced in "Practical Magic" with several other books, including 2021's "The Book of Magic." And she returns to magic often, with witchy characters, rambling houses lush with flourishing plants (I always keep rosemary by my garden gate because of Hoffman), inherited curses, women telling their own truths — and a strong belief in what we cannot always see.

Her new novel, "The Invisible Hour" twists time. Lonely and ostracized Mia has been raised in the cloistered Community, a cult in western Massachusetts. Though books are outlawed by the Community, she finds secret solace in them. Specifically, one book: "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. And in the second half of Hoffman's novel, she finds herself going back in time to encounter the writer whose words she feels showed her a way to survive.

Hoffman talked with Salon about Hawthorne, writing during a time of COVID and finding magic in the real world still.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Your first novel was published when you were very young. Did you always know that you wanted to tell stories?

I think I was always a reader. That was what was important to me. I think I wanted to be a writer. I remember sending a short story someplace when I was in high school, so I must have had thoughts about that, but really I was mostly a reader. Then I took a creative writing class, and the professor was shockingly supportive. I just never expected it. I certainly didn't think you could do it for a living or it would be a profession.

I remember that I didn't know that until I read "Anne of Green Gables" by L. M. Montgomery. The main character was a writer, and I realized, oh, people actually do this.

I know, it's kind of a shock. I think nowadays people think about doing this, I don't know, but I certainly didn't think about getting published. That wasn't my thought.

You've written in a lot of formats. You've written novels for adults, YA novels, middle grade, short stories, a screenplay. Do you have a favorite form that you love to write in?

Honestly, I think I like connecting short stories, a novel-in-stories because you get to move around. There's so much freedom, and the way things connect can be so interesting.

That seems like a hard format to me.

Really? I think it's so much fun. And you just can create a whole gigantic world and move around so freely.

Well, that makes sense because you've returned to your worlds a few times. You've returned to the characters, so it makes sense that you would be drawn to it.

And this new book ["The Invisible Hour"] actually takes place in a town where I wrote a book of connecting stories about called "The Red Garden," so it's the same place. It's just a novel that takes place in that town.

Oh, that's so interesting. It's like there's something left over that you have to return to.

For me, it was very healing to go back to that town. I felt really comfortable there. It made it easier for me in a way to write the novel. It was so weird writing during COVID and so escapist for me. I think some people couldn't write, but for me I wrote more because where were we going to go? And I think the idea of time travel — I've always loved time travel books, but the idea that you could change things or go back, it's really interesting to me.

It makes sense that you would be thinking about time travel during COVID, too. I was going to ask you about time, and if that was important to your work.

It really is all about time. I thought a lot about time while I was writing this book and before this book because it was such a lousy time. I mean, there were good things that came out of it. I think some friendships became closer, but I just felt so sad for the people who were at certain phases of their life, were young, becoming young adults or were kids. And I just didn't really want to be in this time. I still don't want to be in this time, to tell you the truth.

Yeah, I understand that. How do you keep a sense of wonder in your writing, even when you're writing for adults?

I think it's because of the books that I read. I'm sure as a fiction writer you feel this too. The books that I read when I was younger are the books that wound up affecting me more than any others. They form who you are as a reader, as a person. And I read a lot of magic and a lot of Ray Bradbury.

I loved books that took place in the here and now, but also included magic so that it wasn't so far away. Back then, everything was genre-ized . . . Now that's changed, and [science fiction and fantasy] are more acceptable as literature, but it didn't used to be. I always feel like you should just write what you want to write no matter what's current because it doesn't really matter. It changes.

That's a good point. And I feel like that changed not too long ago. Even when I was in school, there was a lot of criticism from professors for genre writing. To write genre work was somehow bad. And I feel like that's been a recent kind of shift, thank goodness.

Really recent, I think. I remember I read Ursula K. Le Guin when I was a kid and loved her books, but they were definitely science fiction and fantasy. And then all of a sudden they became literature. Someone decided. But they were always literature. It's just they were put into these categories.

"Fiction is more believable than life in a way because when you're writing a book, you have to have it make sense."

I think it's a bad idea to write for the moment because the moment passes so quickly. The other thing about time is that what's right and what's good and what's accepted suddenly becomes not. I thought about that with the way women were treated in "The Scarlet Letter," the way that the Puritans blamed women, and they believed in original sin and that women were responsible for that because of Eve. It all changed, but then it changes back. And then it changes again. A lot of the things that women are coping with right now are not that different, really. The judgment against women.

That's very true. Why do you feel called to tell stories that have magic in them? I mean, you talked a little bit about your childhood reading. Is that why, or do you think there's something else that makes you feel like these are the stories you need to tell?

It's about my childhood and what I read, but I think it's also I want to believe. I want to believe that there's — not magic per se necessarily, but wonder and beauty and goodness and a moral universe and all those sorts of things . . . I feel like fiction is more believable than life in a way because when you're writing a book, you have to have it make sense. You can't just have random things happen for no reason, but that's not like life at all. I almost feel that's part of the comfort of reading fiction. Even with time travel, it has to make some kind of sense — and life really doesn't make any sense. I feel like I'm constantly trying to make it make sense.

And there's no closure in life.

No.

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There can be closure in books and you can also return to them, as you have. You can return to the world and get that healing that we really can't get in life. You have a new book out, "The Invisible Hour." How would you describe it?

It's about magic and women and time and loss. Sometimes I think you don't really know what a book is about until you finish it. I always feel like there's the inside story; there's the outside story. You don't necessarily know the inside story.

For me, I think it was a lot about my relationship with my mother and how difficult mother and daughter relationships are, how important they are, and how they change as people get older, as you more understand who your mother was and what she went through.

I always feel like you can't really know older people or your mother because you didn't know her when she was young. And even though I think people basically stay the same unless they're extremely traumatized, you're so different when you're young. So I feel like we can't really know our mothers.

"Better not to meet your heroes, your living heroes. Better to fall in love with a dead writer."

Again, there's so much about time and history in this book. Was Nathaniel Hawthorne an influence on you?

I've been thinking about writing about him for a long time. He's interesting because in some ways some of the things that he wrote were a little bit misogynistic, but "The Scarlet Letter" is such a feminist book. It's kind of shocking. His wife came from a family that was kind of a feminist family in a way for the time. He had two sisters and a mother that he was very close to.

He also had a lot of issues about writing and life — and hiding from life in writing. I think he was an extremely interesting person and writer. Sometimes, for people now "The Scarlet Letter" can be off-putting because the language is old-fashioned, but the heart of it really is about a woman trying to make decisions about her own life and society not wanting to allow that to happen.

Is there a book that helped you feel less lonely, as "The Scarlet Letter" helps Mia in "The Invisible Hour"?

There were a couple of books. One of those books was "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank when I was young . . . You know, sometimes you read a book and you feel known. I felt like I'm her or she's me . . .  I think that's why "Catcher in the Rye" was popular and meaningful for a lot of people because there was this sense that the character was talking directly to you. And so I have a couple of books. I think books in general make me feel that.

Is there a writer from history that you believe you could fall in love with, similar to what kind of happens in "The Invisible Hour?"

Well, I think a lot of people fell in love with Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was so incredibly handsome. So, maybe him.

When I interviewed the musician Amanda Shires, I knew that she loved Leonard Cohen, and she said that she sometimes felt she might have been born in the wrong time, that she and Cohen could have been together and made music together.

Yeah, and she would've been very miserable. I love Leonard Cohen, but –

She would've written some other great songs, but they might've been sad songs.

I think sometimes it's better not to meet your heroes, your living heroes. Better to fall in love with a dead writer.

We talked a bit about the pandemic, and I'm with you: at the start, I definitely found comfort in my fiction writing, but I also found community in it. I could kind of make up my own community when I couldn't leave the house. That's something that I see in a lot of your books: a small town or this found family. Is community or the idea of a village important to your writing?

I think I write about a lot of things that I don't have. I don't have a sister, I don't have a daughter. I'm close to one of my aunts and I'm very close to my nephews, but I don't have that kind of community. I don't live in a small town. I really long for that, and I think most people do have a need for it. I just think we live in such a fractured society. People move all over the country and you see them maybe once a year.

COVID really pointed that out to me because a lot of people kind of went into retreat with their families. If you didn't have a family, there were really not that many people to go into retreat with. I think a lot of my books are about longing for community.

Growing up my mother was very bohemian, and we were outcasts in our community. I think that made me long for it even more, and yet distrust it.

How do you create your characters? How do you make engaging people come to life?

That's a really scary question because I don't think I have the answers for it. I used to do things with my characters. I'd write down everything about them, where they went to school, what they dressed in and what music they listened to. But I don't really do that anymore.

Now, it's like they walk in through the door, and I just let them be. I have to rewrite them a lot, but basically, that definitely happened with "Practical Magic" where I remember writing it in this little shed on a marsh. I just felt like they walked through the door. It happened when I wrote "The Rules of Magic" too and Vincent appeared. I didn't expect him to be in the book. I didn't know anything about him, and he just kind of revealed himself. I really didn't have to do it. It just happened.

I guess the trick is you have to leave that door open. They might just walk in, but you can't close it.

You can't shut the door in their face. It's opening the door.

Are you surprised at how much cultural impact your books have had, like "Practical Magic?" That has such staying power. It's in memes; it just shows up all the time. Has that surprised you, that people have loved your story for so long?

I don't know. I wasn't thinking like that. I think some of that — maybe a lot of that — has to do with the movie, which was weirdly, extremely unpopular. Nobody went to see it when it came out. And every year it becomes more popular, which is so interesting to me. I almost feel it wasn't the right time for it. It was one of the first movies that had basically a cast of women. The men are there, but they're not as important as the relationships between the women.

Now there are more, movies like "Bridesmaids." But then, it didn't really exist. There was a very negative critical response to ["Practical Magic"], I think probably because it was very female and very much about sisterhood. And that's changed, so that's a good thing.

That goes back to what you were speaking about, how you can't write for the moment because the moment is going to move on. Maybe the moment will get you in a few years, but not right now.

That's right. It's like what are you writing for? Sometimes I'm afraid now: will there even be books? Or, will it be like one of my favorite books, "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, where books are too dangerous. They're not just banning books, they're burning books because books — it goes two ways. The writer opens the door for the characters, but the book opens the door for the reader.

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It's a scary time in the world right now with book banning and AI.

I don't feel like: oh, my books will last. Because I don't know if books are lasting. I just feel like they're here. But I want them to have this feeling of timelessness because that's how I felt when I read the books that I loved. Even when they were happening at a certain time, they didn't seem caught in time.

How does magic show up in your life now?

I am kind of still looking for it. I think I'm constantly looking for it. My connection with magic is about writing. This idea that characters walk through the door and this idea of creating something beautiful out of something terrible sometimes, or out of loss, or out of death. You can put letters on a page, and it becomes a world. And it means something so different to the writer and to the reader. The reader creates that whole world in their mind. For me, that's magic.

By Alison Stine

Alison Stine is a former staff writer at Salon. She is the author of the novels "Trashlands" and "Road Out of Winter," winner of the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award. A recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), she has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and others.

MORE FROM Alison Stine

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What is considered the first true science fiction novel of the modern era, which foreshadowed genetic tinkering?

H.G. Wells is an example of an early influential science fiction author.

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Liu Cixin is credited with popularizing Chinese science fiction worldwide, especially with the success of his novel "The Three Bodies" and its sequels.

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Science fiction "Three Bodies" adapted into a new drama on the Internet to impact the Chinese scale
Created by Chinese writers, the “Three Bodies ” was adapted by Western producers as a series performed by a number of foreign actors, which not only greatly reduced the Chinese elements, but also opened with scenes of the Cultural Revolution fighting dead.
Like the story of the alien invasion of Earth, it is also impacting the “beliefs ” of many Chinese and the“ yardstick ” of the Beijing authorities.
“Three Bodies ” is a bestselling novel by renowned Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin, who has won one of the world ’ s most influential awards in science fiction literature. In China,“ Three Bodies ” has been considered “difficult to adapt ” for its puzzling time jumps, philosophical dilemmas and intensive exploration of scientific theory.
Today, the “Three Bodies ” are on the international screen through Netflix, a rare breakthrough in foreign media observation, in contrast to the suppression of science fiction in Chinese history.
★ A rare breakthrough under Beijing ’ s repression
Produced by Game of Thrones producers, Netflix ’ s new series “3 Body Problem ” is based on China ’ s best-selling science-fiction novel of the same name, according to the BBC. The novel is still popular in China despite China ’ s ongoing censorship of the genre.
The story structure of the “Three Bodies ” is roughly the same: one day in 1967, Ye Wenjie, an astrophysics student in Beijing, witnessed her father being beaten to death by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution.
She joined a military project in Inner Mongolia to avoid being punished by a series of sit-ins, but on the condition that she never leave the base.
At this cold outpost, under a huge parabolic antenna, Ye Wenjie lost all confidence in humanity.
She devoted her life to research and made scientific breakthroughs, broadcasting high-power radio signals into outer space.
This action will have serious consequences, and it all stems from that disastrous day in Beijing.
In addition to the trans-cosmic plot, the Three Bodies also involve secret scientific projects; an alien species in the solar system beyond the stars; and a strange video game depicting the rise and fall of great civilizations over the millennia.
“The Three Bodies ” is the first of a trilogy of“ Past Events on Earth ” written by Beijing-born Liu Cixin. A Chinese adaptation of the film was shelved in 2017.
But now it ’ s on the international screen via Netflix, the belated return of Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss.
Early reviews were divided over whether they could be successfully adapted.
What ’ s more, the original novel has been an incredible success. It was first serialized in China ’ s Science Fiction World magazine in 2006 and translated to Western readers by Liu Yukun in 2014.
Its fans include former US President Barack Obama and "Game of Thrones" author George RR Martin.
He is the author of the Qur ’ an.
Liu Cixin won the most prestigious Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015, and the book and its two sequels have sold nearly 9 million copies worldwide.
Today, Liu Cixin is credited with bringing Chinese science fiction to the world.
This is an incredible feat considering China ’ s historical suppression of science fiction.
The English translation begins with the words: “In more than 40 days, in Beijing alone, more than 1,700 victims were beaten to death at a protest meeting ” and“ many others have chosen an easier path to avoid this madness. ”
Set in 1967, the novel kills as many as 2 million people in the Cultural Revolution over the next decade as the student-led radical Red Guards gradually turned violent in support of the Communist policies of then-Communist leader Mao Zedong.
Many of the victims committed suicide to “end their suffering. ”
The report believes that, in the modern episode of the “Three Bodies, ” the unexplained suicides that have occurred in the scientific community hint at this fact.
But what ’ s more striking than how this real history shapes events in Liu ’ s work is how the Mao regime shaped the course of science fiction in the real world.
It was dormant in the 1960s.
Liu Cixin was born in 1963, three years before the Cultural Revolution.
Li Hua, a professor of Chinese at Montana State University, said that in that era, scientists, writers and other intellectuals were branded “counter-revolutionaries ” and sent to labor camps for“ ideological transformation, ” with few literary works published, “Chinese science fiction remained dormant from the early 1860s to 1967, ” and it was especially difficult to survive the turbulent political situation, with many common themes being taboo, such as Mao ’ s. Marxist-Leninism makes no provision for the existence of aliens in the universe.
But as the “three bodies ” postscript reveals, after witnessing China ’ s first artificial satellite painting the sky in April 1970, six-year-old Liu Cixin will still be moved by“ unspeakable curiosity and longing. ”
A few years later, he found a box of books under his father ’ s bed, including Jules Verne ’ s “Journey to the Heart of the Earth. ” Liu found that he had a determination, like the character in his book, Ye Wenjie, that would ultimately have a profound impact.
Mao Zedong died in 1976, and Ye Wenjie described that year in “The Three Bodies ” as“ the horrors experienced during the Cultural Revolution gradually subsided ”. After Deng Xiaoping came to power in 1977, science fiction flourished for a short time. Deng Xiaoping said that “science and technology are the first productive force. ” Creation.
Fearing a greater spread of Western ideas to China, the CCP launched a campaign in 1983 to “clean up mental pollution. ”
Li said: “It aims to eradicate the Western-inspired trend of ‘ bourgeois liberalization ’.
The Propaganda Department singled out specific literary genres to attack and suppress, including sci-fi works of ghost stories, violence, sex, anti-scientific assumptions, and veiled criticisms of socialism, and classified them as “spiritual pollution. ”
Leading writers such as Ye Yonglie, who wrote stories about space travel when China launched its first satellite into orbit, were condemned, and Science Literary magazine was forced to publish non-fiction works, and in the process renamed the more unobtrusive “Strange Tales. ”
Li said that after a few months, Deng Xiaoping ended the event, but "many science fiction writers, disappointed and emotionally hurt, left the field."
Even if science fiction is revived again, political sensitivities are holding back its development.
Liu Cixin ’ s first full-length novel, China 2185, in 1989, describes cyberpunk fantasies about Mao ’ s resurrection in virtual reality.
This suggests that sci-fi narratives “were prevented from appearing in print due to sensitive sociopolitical topics, but were later published online, ” Li said, but many such works would soon be removed.
Most writers are self-censoring.
With its rapid economic growth in the 1990s, China is now a modern and prosperous country, and science fiction has flourished in China. In the 1990s, with films such as Jurassic Park and The Hacking Empire, Western works by Hugo Award winners Philip K Dick and Arthur C Clarke hit bookshelves.
By the turn of the century, “Science Fiction World ” had reached 400,000 copies, the largest of its kind. In 2019, another film,“ Wandering Earth ”, directed by Liu Cixin, became a hit in China, marking a watershed moment for Chinese science fiction films.
Li Hua believes that the change during this period is that the Chinese government's censorship system is relatively strict on social and political issues, but relatively lax on technical issues, so most writers will self-censor their works and avoid mentioning sensitive topics.
But the report believes that sociopolitical criticism is not impossible for Chinese writers.
Liu Yukun, a translator, said at the Reddit “Geek ” conference in 2015 that“ criticism of the Cultural Revolution is not a forbidden topic in China. ”
Liu Tsz Hin became the first Asian to win a Hugo Award, but his book nonetheless exposes the sensitive nature of his ideas. After all, chapters with a Cultural Revolution background were moved to the middle part of the original Chinese version for fear that government censors might find them too politicized, which is the beginning of the English version of the “Three Body ”.
Netflix ’ s new series “Three Bodies ” starts in the same way as the English version of the book, and they don ’ t worry about censorship.
But the new series is based on Liu Cixin ’ s original novel, and unlike the original novel, they will face the critical judgment of the audience.
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An example of a classic science fiction novel is "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" by Mary Shelley.

What is considered the first true science fiction novel of the modern era, which foreshadowed genetic tinkering?

Liu Cixin is a Chinese science fiction author who has gained global recognition, particularly with his bestselling novel "Three Bodies", for which he won a major award in science fiction literature.