Used to watch SG-1 back to back with X-Files on Syfy.
Star Wars & Sc-Fi Talk
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
Used to watch SG-1 back to back with X-Files on Syfy.
Equation
Lieutenant General
I've seen it on CCTV the other night. No I haven't read it yet.
JayBird
Junior Member
Never heard of it before. But I did a search after reading your post and find it on chinese wikipedia with all the information and story line. It sounds kind of interesting from the description. And there is a NYtimes article on it from a year ago.
)
BEIJING — With a state-owned power plant in nearby Shanxi Province temporarily shut down to reduce air pollution, one of its engineers, Liu Cixin, is using the free time to work on his hobby: reigning as China’s best-selling science-fiction author.
Along with working on a new novel and advising on screenplay adaptations of his earlier fiction, Mr. Liu, 51, has been promoting the English translation of “,” the first book in his best-selling apocalyptic space opera trilogy. Translated by Ken Liu, an award-winning science-fiction writer in his own right who is based in the United States (the men are not related), it is one of the few Chinese science-fiction novels to be translated into English. It will be released in the United States on Tuesday by Tor Books.
The success of the “Three-Body” series, as it is called in China, has gained a following beyond the small but flourishing science-fiction world here. Since the third book was published in 2010, each entry in the series has sold about 500,000 copies in the original Chinese, making Mr. Liu the best-selling Chinese science-fiction author in decades.
In addition to the usual high school and college-age fans of science fiction, China’s aerospace and Internet industries have embraced the books. Many interpret the battle of civilizations depicted in the series as an allegory for the ruthless competition in the nation’s Internet industry.
The series has also breathed new life into a genre that, here as elsewhere, the literary establishment often marginalizes.
For decades, science fiction was subject to the whims of Communist Party rule. The genre went from being a vehicle for popularizing science for socialist purposes to drawing criticism in 1983 from party newspapers for “spreading pseudoscience and promoting decadent capitalist elements.” When the prestigious People’s Literature literary magazine published four of Mr. Liu’s short stories in 2012, it was a sign that the genre was back in official good graces.
At its core, science fiction capitalizes on uncertainty about the future to push the boundaries of the reader’s imagination. In fast-changing China, stories that lay out what coming years may hold in store have therefore found deeper resonance among readers.
“China is on the path of rapid modernization and progress, kind of like the U.S. during the golden age of science fiction in the ’30s to the ’60s,” Mr. Liu said. “The future in the people’s eyes is full of attractions, temptations and hope. But at the same time, it is also full of threats and challenges. That makes for very fertile soil.”
Chinese science fiction serves another purpose in the eyes of Xia Jia, a science-fiction writer and professor at Xian Jiaotong University. “Chinese science fiction, in a way, has borne the weight of the ‘Chinese dream’ since the genre first appeared in China in the late Qing dynasty,” she said, referring to the turn of the 20th century.
“The dream is about wanting to overtake the Western countries and become a very powerful modern China while still preserving these old elements,” she added. “This is what we who write science fiction in China have to grapple with.”
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, whose work Mr. Liu says he grew up reading. “Everything that I write is a clumsy imitation of Arthur C. Clarke,” he said.
The first book in the series explores the world of the Trisolarans, an alien civilization on the brink of destruction. When a secret military project in China attempts to make contact with aliens, the Trisolarans capture the signals and decide to invade Earth. Back in China, people split into two camps: those who welcome the aliens and those who want to fight them.
The series is likely to be a change of pace for science-fiction fans in the United States, where many leading contemporary writers in the genre are rejecting classic alien-invasion plots in favor of those that take on real-world issues like climate change or shifting gender roles.
“I don’t think the demand for this kind of classical golden age science fiction has necessarily gone away,” Liz Gorinsky, an editor at Tor Books, said of the decision to introduce the series to American readers. “The ‘Three-Body’ series sort of scratches the same itch that harkens back to the kinds of books people read when they were kids.”
Some experts link the popularity of the “Three-Body” series to a growing confidence among Chinese about their country’s growing role on the world stage.
“There have always been science-fiction stories that contemplated China as a leader in the world,” said , a science-fiction scholar and professor at Beijing Normal University. “People may have liked them, but, in their hearts, they didn’t truly believe them, or they thought it was really far off in the future. Now, with the ‘Three-Body’ series, people think, ‘Wow, it really could be possible that China might be given a say in the fate of humankind.’ ”
In the book, scientists attempt to solve the traditional in physics, in which the otherwise stable gravitational interaction between two objects in space becomes random and unpredictable when a third object is introduced.
Mr. Liu’s revered status in the genre was evident this month at a book signing at the fifth annual Chinese Nebula Awards, one of the largest gatherings of science-fiction writers and fans in China. More than 2,000 people attended the events, held in an empty museum space on the western outskirts of Beijing.
Mr. Liu stepped out of the elevator and made his way through the throngs to the table. Gasps and excited whispers were audible among the hundreds of fans who had lined up around the building. Two hours later, more than 100 fans, mostly college-age, were still waiting for a chance to meet him. One, Wu Liang, 27, trembled with excitement after her encounter with Mr. Liu.
“You just bury your head in the ‘Three-Body’ books, and all of a sudden you feel so energized,” said Ms. Wu, who works at an Internet company in Beijing and attended the event in full Jedi attire. “It’s really a milestone in Chinese science fiction.”
)
BEIJING — With a state-owned power plant in nearby Shanxi Province temporarily shut down to reduce air pollution, one of its engineers, Liu Cixin, is using the free time to work on his hobby: reigning as China’s best-selling science-fiction author.
Along with working on a new novel and advising on screenplay adaptations of his earlier fiction, Mr. Liu, 51, has been promoting the English translation of “,” the first book in his best-selling apocalyptic space opera trilogy. Translated by Ken Liu, an award-winning science-fiction writer in his own right who is based in the United States (the men are not related), it is one of the few Chinese science-fiction novels to be translated into English. It will be released in the United States on Tuesday by Tor Books.
The success of the “Three-Body” series, as it is called in China, has gained a following beyond the small but flourishing science-fiction world here. Since the third book was published in 2010, each entry in the series has sold about 500,000 copies in the original Chinese, making Mr. Liu the best-selling Chinese science-fiction author in decades.
In addition to the usual high school and college-age fans of science fiction, China’s aerospace and Internet industries have embraced the books. Many interpret the battle of civilizations depicted in the series as an allegory for the ruthless competition in the nation’s Internet industry.
The series has also breathed new life into a genre that, here as elsewhere, the literary establishment often marginalizes.
For decades, science fiction was subject to the whims of Communist Party rule. The genre went from being a vehicle for popularizing science for socialist purposes to drawing criticism in 1983 from party newspapers for “spreading pseudoscience and promoting decadent capitalist elements.” When the prestigious People’s Literature literary magazine published four of Mr. Liu’s short stories in 2012, it was a sign that the genre was back in official good graces.
At its core, science fiction capitalizes on uncertainty about the future to push the boundaries of the reader’s imagination. In fast-changing China, stories that lay out what coming years may hold in store have therefore found deeper resonance among readers.
“China is on the path of rapid modernization and progress, kind of like the U.S. during the golden age of science fiction in the ’30s to the ’60s,” Mr. Liu said. “The future in the people’s eyes is full of attractions, temptations and hope. But at the same time, it is also full of threats and challenges. That makes for very fertile soil.”
Chinese science fiction serves another purpose in the eyes of Xia Jia, a science-fiction writer and professor at Xian Jiaotong University. “Chinese science fiction, in a way, has borne the weight of the ‘Chinese dream’ since the genre first appeared in China in the late Qing dynasty,” she said, referring to the turn of the 20th century.
“The dream is about wanting to overtake the Western countries and become a very powerful modern China while still preserving these old elements,” she added. “This is what we who write science fiction in China have to grapple with.”
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, whose work Mr. Liu says he grew up reading. “Everything that I write is a clumsy imitation of Arthur C. Clarke,” he said.
The first book in the series explores the world of the Trisolarans, an alien civilization on the brink of destruction. When a secret military project in China attempts to make contact with aliens, the Trisolarans capture the signals and decide to invade Earth. Back in China, people split into two camps: those who welcome the aliens and those who want to fight them.
The series is likely to be a change of pace for science-fiction fans in the United States, where many leading contemporary writers in the genre are rejecting classic alien-invasion plots in favor of those that take on real-world issues like climate change or shifting gender roles.
“I don’t think the demand for this kind of classical golden age science fiction has necessarily gone away,” Liz Gorinsky, an editor at Tor Books, said of the decision to introduce the series to American readers. “The ‘Three-Body’ series sort of scratches the same itch that harkens back to the kinds of books people read when they were kids.”
Some experts link the popularity of the “Three-Body” series to a growing confidence among Chinese about their country’s growing role on the world stage.
“There have always been science-fiction stories that contemplated China as a leader in the world,” said , a science-fiction scholar and professor at Beijing Normal University. “People may have liked them, but, in their hearts, they didn’t truly believe them, or they thought it was really far off in the future. Now, with the ‘Three-Body’ series, people think, ‘Wow, it really could be possible that China might be given a say in the fate of humankind.’ ”
In the book, scientists attempt to solve the traditional in physics, in which the otherwise stable gravitational interaction between two objects in space becomes random and unpredictable when a third object is introduced.
Mr. Liu’s revered status in the genre was evident this month at a book signing at the fifth annual Chinese Nebula Awards, one of the largest gatherings of science-fiction writers and fans in China. More than 2,000 people attended the events, held in an empty museum space on the western outskirts of Beijing.
Mr. Liu stepped out of the elevator and made his way through the throngs to the table. Gasps and excited whispers were audible among the hundreds of fans who had lined up around the building. Two hours later, more than 100 fans, mostly college-age, were still waiting for a chance to meet him. One, Wu Liang, 27, trembled with excitement after her encounter with Mr. Liu.
“You just bury your head in the ‘Three-Body’ books, and all of a sudden you feel so energized,” said Ms. Wu, who works at an Internet company in Beijing and attended the event in full Jedi attire. “It’s really a milestone in Chinese science fiction.”
ABC78
Junior Member
Let's not forget when Ensign Kim hooks up he has to go through a phone book's worth of medical regs before he can get some. But you never ever see them do that to any other male or female characters that are hooking up.
ABC78
Junior Member
I wouldn't say I loved these Transformers movies the first one was ok Transformers 4 was the worst of them all. For me these movies don't capture the spirit of the original animated series. These movies are more like the Transformers from the Marvel comic book series of the 80s.
But I think for many the stories have just not been good the performances by the actors are not great either. And as someone who did storyboards for a couple of movies the action sequence are not well composed. Either the storyboard artist stunk or no one looked at their boards.
But maybe the biggest issue is Optimus Prime threatening to kill humans something the character would never do in the tv show or comic book.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Miragedriver
Brigadier
This southern elephant seal pup managed to make itself look just like Star Wars villan Jabba the Hutt by taking an all-encompassing mud bath. Photographer Frans Lanting, 64, of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, who now lives in Santa Cruz, California, USA, photographed the mucky creature while visiting South Georgia Island
Picture: © Frans Lanting/Photoshot/Solent News & Photo Agency
Back to bottling my Grenache