Ball Lightning

June 11, 2018
In Chinese folklore, ball lightning is known as “ghost lanterns,” and ghosts of a quantum kind haunt this thoughtful technothriller about the science of the next war. Chen, traumatized when ball lightning invades his birthday party and kills his parents, resolves to understand the elusive phenomenon, despite discouragement from his similarly hurt advisor. Encountering evidence that others have been struck by ball lightning but survived, he teams up with Lin Yun, a young major in the Chinese army with her own obsession: “new concept” weapons. Together, they track down a lost Russian research base and an eccentric Chinese genius, bringing together the clues that reveal ball lightning’s secrets in time for it to be weaponized for a conflict with America. Liu (the Three-Body Problem trilogy) pits the quest for theoretical knowledge against the push for practical, if deadly, applications. Without tilting the debate, he moves his characters through both their fears and their desires, showing how neither purity nor repudiation will bring more than a measure of personal relief. Readers intrigued by cutting-edge and slightly speculative science, and the philosophy of scientific ethics, will want to pick up this fine novel.

June 15, 2018
A new science-fiction venture from the award-winning Chinese author of the brilliant alien-contact trilogy concluded with Death's End (2016), whose readers, hopefully, learned to expect the unexpected.As a boy, Chen--we're offered no other name--watches in helpless horror as ball lightning engendered by a powerful electrical storm incinerates his parents. He dedicates his career to studying this baffling but well-attested natural phenomenon. His investigations take him to a remote mountaintop where he encounters Lin Yun, a young and extremely attractive army major obsessed with weaponizing such forces of nature as lightning. Encouraged by Lin's enthusiasm and single-mindedness after years of futile theoretical modeling and pursuing dead ends, Chen glimpses the beginnings of a breakthrough, while his compulsive need for answers helps him suppress doubts about Lin's ultimate goals. But neither Lin nor her superiors suffer from any such inhibitions, and they bring in Ding Yi, a brilliant physicist utterly indifferent to any real-world consequences his discoveries and conclusions might have. Fascinating conundrums and intriguing extrapolations abound--Liu demands a basic scientific literacy of his readers--but the story lacks the visceral tension, generated by the existential threat of hostile aliens, that gave the previous trilogy its edgy brilliance. What's of greater import here is the way Liu's approach differs from what we might expect. When, for instance, philosophical considerations arise, Liu tackles them head-on, as few English-language writers care to do. We might expect such a complementary pair of protagonists to become romantically involved--but no. When Liu writes of war breaking out, we would certainly ask why and against whom: questions that hold no interest for Liu, who declines to enlighten us. And what other writer would select a first-person narrator who later proceeds to write himself almost completely out of the narrative?Consistently surprising and absorbing--just not for the usual reasons.

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September 1, 2018

Hugo Award winner Liu (The Three-Body Problem) crafts a story that at times feels like a procedural drama, supernatural mystery, military thriller, and romance novel. It's fast paced and based heavily in science yet never overwhelms readers who might be unfamiliar with the foundational concepts. The narrative centers on Chen, whose life goal is to unravel the mystery of ball lightning after witnessing his parents killed by the phenomenon on a childhood birthday. Through his research, he meets a military woman driven by an obsession with weapons, along with many of the world's smartest scientists. As Chen is forced to confront his past, he also deals with moral quandaries, such as how scientific advancements initially intended to help humanity can also be used as a weapon of war. VERDICT Liu's wildly imaginative, skillful use of imagery, metaphor, and analogy will appeal to fans of sf and science-based mysteries, as well as YA readers, owing to its lack of sexually explicit content and minimal violence.--Matt Schirano, Univ. of Bridgeport Lib., CT

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2018
The latest novel from acclaimed Chinese sf novelist Cixin Liu (The Three-Body Problem, 2014) follows Chen, a young man whose parents are tragically taken from him on his fourteenth birthday by the mysterious phenomenon, ball lightning. After devoting himself to studying this strange and unexplained atmospheric occurrence, Chen comes into contact with the beautiful but ruthless Lin Yun, an army major whose obsession and devotion to creating and using strange new weapons matches Chen's own obsessive quest. As they delve deeper into the nature of ball lightning and explore its history and its explosive and dangerous possibilities, Chen is haunted by the consequences of his research and the inexplicable and possibly ghostly phenomenon that surrounds each and every new victim of a ball lightning incident. While on a smaller scale than his previous trilogy, Ball Lightning continues Liu's combination of intriguing scientific speculation and engaging, evocative prose. Highly recommended for fans of Liu and any general readers looking for an exciting and breathtaking new sf read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)