Waste Tide, Chen Qiufan
Waste Tide, Chen Qiufan
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Waste Tide

Author: Chen Qiufan, Ken Liu

Narrator: Ewan Chung

Unabridged: 12 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/30/2019


Synopsis

A LOCUS AWARD FINALIST FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL

Award-winning author Chen Qiufan's Waste Tide is a thought-provoking future vision of how climate change affects the world.

Translated by Ken Liu, who brought Cixin Liu's Hugo Award-winning The Three Body Problem to English-speaking listeners.

Mimi is a 'waste girl.’ A member of the lowest caste on Silicon Isle, located off China’s southeastern coast, and home to the world’s largest electronic waste recycling center. There, thousands of miles from home, Mimi struggles to earn a living for her family and dreams of a better life.

Luo Jincheng is the head of one of three clans who run the island, a role passed down from his father and grandfather before him. As the government enforces tighter restrictions, Luo in turn tightens the reins on the waste workers in his employ. Ruthlessness is his means of survival.

Scott Brandle has come to Silicon Isle representing TerraGreen Recycling, an American corporation that stands to earn ungodly sums if they can reach a deal to modernize the island’s recycling process.

Chen Kaizong, a Chinese American, travels to Silicon Isle as Scott’s interpreter. There, Kaizong is hoping to find his heritage, but finds only more questions. The home he longs for may not exist.

As these forces collide, a dark futuristic virus is unleashed on the island. Against the backdrop of a gritty near-future Chinese landscape, in a world of body modifications and virtual reality, a war erupts -- between the rich and the poor; between ancient traditions and modern ambition; between humanity’s past and its future.

About Chen Qiufan

Chen Qiufan is an award-winning science fiction writer. He grew up near Guiyu, China, home to the world’s largest e-waste recycling center, an area the UN called an “environmental calamity.” His experiences there inspired the Waste Tide. He currently lives in Shanghai and Beijing and works as the founder of Thema Mundi Studio.

About Ken Liu

Ken Liu is an award-winning author of speculative fiction. His books include the Dandelion Dynasty series (The Grace of Kings), The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, and the Star Wars tie-in novel, The Legends of Luke Skywalker. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on topics like futurism, machine-augmented creativity, the mathematics of origami, and more. He lives near Boston with his family.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Justine on May 06, 2019

An interesting book about class oppression and the progression of human use and integration of technology. The environmental aspect was of course a significant part of the story, but the damage caused by recycling of e-waste came across so matter of factly that it simultaneously became both more and......more

Goodreads review by Thomas on November 11, 2019

There is a refrain from certain corners of science fiction fandom that science fiction has gotten “too political,” a phrase that is usually a good indicator that you’re dealing with a reader who has never understood the genre. Science fiction has always held up a mirror to our times, and whether an......more

Goodreads review by Emily on April 29, 2019

Disclaimer: I’m writing this post, voluntarily, as an ordinary reader and it has nothing to do with the fact that I know the writer personally! I have read the book in its original Chinese years ago, and have liked it a lot since. TW about the book: violence, abuse, torture, death If you’re craving ha......more

Goodreads review by Oleksandr on January 26, 2020

This is a near future SF novel from a Chinese author. Previously I’ve re read The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin and decided to try another author from China. My interest in not only in non-Western SF but also on trying to see what Chinese censorship allows these days (as a person that grew in the......more


Awards

  • Locus Awards - Nominee