Ball Lightning, Cixin Liu
Ball Lightning, Cixin Liu
1 Rating(s)
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Ball Lightning

Author: Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen

Narrator: Feodor Chin

Unabridged: 12 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/14/2018

Synopsis

"Wildly imaginative." —Barack Obama on The Three-Body Problem trilogy

A new standalone military science fiction adventure from the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the Three-Body Trilogy.

This program is read by Feodor Chin, voice of Zenyatta in Overwatch.

When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of mysterious natural phenomenon. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station.

The more he learns, the more he comes to realize that ball lightning is just the tip of an entirely new frontier in particle physics. Although Chen’s quest provides a purpose for his lonely life, his reasons for chasing his elusive quarry come into conflict with soldiers and scientists who have motives of their own: a beautiful army major with an obsession with dangerous weaponry, and a physicist who has no place for ethical considerations in his single-minded pursuit of knowledge.

Ball Lightning, by award-winning Chinese science fiction author Cixin Liu, is a fast-paced audiobook about what happens when the beauty of scientific inquiry runs up against a push to harness new discoveries with no consideration of their possible consequences.

Tor books by Cixin Liu

The Three-Body Problem Series
The Three-Body Problem
The Dark Forest
Death's End

About Cixin Liu

CIXIN LIU is the most prolific and popular science fiction writer in the People’s Republic of China. Liu is a winner of the Hugo Award, an eight-time winner of the Galaxy Award (the Chinese Hugo) and a winner of the Chinese Nebula Award. Prior to becoming a writer, he worked as an engineer in a power plant. His novels include The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End.

About Joel Martinsen

Joel Martinsen is research director for a media intelligence company. His translations have appeared in Words Without Borders, Chutzpah!, and Pathlight. He lives in Beijing.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Petrik

3.5/5 stars Cixin Liu greatly examined the effects of obsession, science, and weaponry in Ball Lightning. I’m a fan of Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth Past trilogy. The second book in that series, The Dark Forest remains in my personal top three sci-fi novels of all time and will most likely stay the......more

Goodreads review by Bradley

When I got this book, I freaked out. I mean, let me put it this way: Cixin's imagination is heads and shoulders above most of the crap out there. Maybe even a large portion of a torso. :) So the moment I got it, I started dancing around and played the fool because anyone who puts so many AWESOME ide......more

Goodreads review by Baba

It finally happened, I read a Cixin Liu book that didn't dazzle me, and just like with poor Stephen King reads, I know this book is better than I think it is, but Liu set such a high standard for his work to be judged on. I've probably done myself no favours by reading five of his books this year pr......more

Goodreads review by Lena

Typical Liu Cixin novel: a bold fantasy based on the unconventional scientific theories with a bunch of mentally unstable characters.......more

Goodreads review by Rachel (TheShadesofOrange)

4.0 Stars Video Review: [URL not allowed] This was such a gripping sci fi thriller. If you love the Three Body Problem, I strongly suspect you will love this other work by the same author. I thought this book created a wonderful sense of suspense and wonder. The beginning read like a beautif......more

Quotes

Praise for The Three-Body Trilogy

"Wildly imaginative, really interesting." —President Barack Obama on The Three-Body Problem trilogy

"The Three-Body epic concludes with sweep and scope and majesty, worthy of Frederik Pohl or Poul Anderson, Scholar Wu or H. G. Wells. The universe is likely to be a rough neighborhood. See just how rough...and how life might still prevail." —David Brin on Death's End

“If you thought The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest were expansive, they're nothing compared to Death's End.... A testament to just how far [Liu's] own towering imagination has taken him: Far beyond the borders of his country, and forever into the canon of science fiction.” —NPR on Death’s End

“Compelling reading...the most mind-bending of them all.... Liu’s picture of humanity’s place in the cosmos is among the biggest, boldest and most disturbing we’ve seen.” —The Los Angeles Times

Liu Cixin's writing evokes the thrill of exploration and the beauty of scale.... Extraordinary. —The New Yorker

[Cixin h]as gained a following beyond the small but flourishing science-fiction world here [and] breathed new life into a genre . . . The "Three-Body" tomes chronicle a march of the human race into the universe set against the recent past, the tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution. It is a classic science-fiction story in the style of the British master Arthur C. Clarke. —The New York Times

Utterly, utterly brilliant. The Three-Body trilogy is nothing short of a masterpiece. —Lavie Tidhar, World Fantasy Award winning author of Osama

“A breakthrough book . . ., a unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, politics and history, conspiracy theory and cosmology.” —George R. R. Martin on The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem deserves all of its plaudits. It's an exceptional novel, and Ken Liu's translation is both smooth and unintrusive. —Mike Resnick, multiple Hugo Award winner

"Ken Liu's excellent translation combines fluid clarity with a continuous view into Chinese worldviews, adding to the fun and making this the best kind of science fiction, familiar but strange all at the same time.I hope we'll get to read more by Cixin Liu, and for now applaud this great entry." —Kim Stanley Robinson on The Three Body Problem

A tour-de-force walk through Chinese and world history. The Three-Body Problem merges virtual realities, alien invasions and exciting science, and manages to make them all fresh. —Aliette de Bodard, Nebula Award winner

Cixin Liu brings to the reader a deep and insightful vision of China past and future. First-rate work by a powerful new voice. —Ben Bova, multiple Hugo Award winner, on The Three Body Problem

Awards

  • NPR Best Book of the Year
  • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Guide to the 100 Best Books of the Year
  • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Best Books of the Year
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