A View from the Stars

Stories and Essays

By: Cixin Liu

Narrated by: Brian Nishii

"Narrator Brian Nishii perfectly conveys the author's joy and feelings of isolation at discovering science fiction as a child, the exhilaration of world-building as a science fiction writer, and the imaginative process of predicting our world in 50 years."—AudioFile

"We’re mysterious aliens in the crowd. We jump like fleas from future to past and back again, and float like clouds of gas between nebulae; in a flash, we can reach the edge of the universe, or tunnel into a quark, or swim within a star-core. . . . We’re as unassuming as fireflies, yet our numbers grow like grass in spring. We sci-fi fans are people from the future."—Cixin Liu, from the essay "Sci-Fi Fans"

A VIEW FROM THE STARS features a range of short works from the past three decades of New York Times bestselling author Cixin Liu's prolific career, putting his nonfiction essays and short stories side-by-side for the first time. This collection includes essays and interviews that shed light on Liu's experiences as a reader, writer, and lover of science fiction throughout his life, as well as short fiction that gives glimpses into the evolution of his imaginative voice over the years.

"Science fiction without guile, without snark, without ironic disaffection and all its exhausting modern baggage. It just asks what would happen? Waits for someone to answer. And then it asks again."—NPR on the works of Cixin Liu

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

Critic reviews

<p>"[This collection] will give new context to old fans while introducing new readers to a true genius of the genre [and] leave readers refreshingly excited not just about sf but about humanity’s future."—Booklist, STARRED review<br><br>Praise for the Three-Body trilogy:<br><br>“Wildly imaginative.”—President Barack Obama<br><br>“The War of the Worlds for the twenty-first century . . . Packed with a sense of wonder.”—<i>The Wall Street Journal</i><br><br>“A breakthrough book . . . A unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, politics and history, conspiracy theory and cosmology.”—George R. R. Martin<br><br>“Tackles politics, philosophy, and virtual reality in a story that moves at a thriller's pace.”—<i>The Washington Post</i><br><br>“Evokes the thrill of exploration and the beauty of scale.”—<i>The New Yorker</i><br><br>“Stunning, elegant . . . A science fiction epic of the most profound kind.”—NPR</p>

This was an awesome read!

I love the authors perspective on science fiction and science fiction fans. So glad I picked this up.

Heard it in the Morning is epic!

Cixin Lui continues to astonish me. He was able to write an epic in short story form! In A View from the Stars, the short story Heard it in the Morning invokes the passion of the pusuit of the Unified Field Theory in physics and wraps it into the struggle of life trying to examine itself from the early universe to present day. It is beautifully written with great imagination and a practical Chinese sensibility that I have grown to appreciate.

Great view of science fiction!

I loved this because interwoven between the mind blowing, Cixin Liu short stories are enthralling essays about the genre itself from his Chinese and 1980s sci-fi perspective.

Excellent collection from an amazing Hugo award winning SciFi author! ⭐️⭐️🪐🛸🚀🌟☄️🌎