Ball Lightning

By: Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen - translator

Narrated by: Feodor Chin

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

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

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

When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of the 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.

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

©2005, 2018 Liu Cixin; Translation copyright by China Educational Publications Import & Export Corp., Ltd. (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Interesting idea...just not very gripping story

I chose Ball Lightening because I heard such good things about The Three Body Problem, and I wanted to start with this in as "book 0" in the series before I began the others. Although the ideas and science are interesting, I struggled to stay engaged in the story. I think a different narrator could have inspired more enthusiasm. I'll probably give Cixin Liu another try, eventually, but I have to admit that I'm a little lukewarm on the prospect right now. If you're interested in The Three Body Problem, maybe start reading there and circle back to this one when you're done with the series.

Interesting story

I enjoyed the story, although I my eyes admittedly glazed over a bit during the physics discussions. Too bad I'm not smarter.

Fresh and New

A must read before the Three Body books ! I thoroughly enjoyed the whole book,no dull moments.

Electrifying

A delightfully winding tale about one man's obsession spanning a lifetime. Cixin Liu is a master of the long time scale science fiction effortlessly whisking us through decades.

ok

solid story, plot, and development. sad that the quantum physics concepts got butchered so horribly

terrifying

this book is scary.

thanks for ruining everything.

loved it. am a huge fan of three body.

looking forward to more!

wow !

wow this story is so good !
I wasn't sure how I'd feel about it however i found myself really loving the character ling , so much character development was put into her the good and bad and all of her character flaws put out there . im American and even though this story takes place from a Chinese point of view where America is clearly a bad guy I could still really appreciate the story . half way through the book I found myself recommending it to coworkers at that point already . im going on to buying the next books in the series I know this is basically a precursor to those stories but I can't wait !

starts slow, but rewards persistence

the novel starts slow, especially if you read the three body trilogy. but it picks up the pace and gets a lot better about halfway through. recommended for hsf fans.

An interesting read.

The author has a great imagination and grasp of theoretical science (most of which was over my head). His trilogy the three body problem, is a masterpiece. So much more to read.

good book bad reading

I don't get why in this day and age you teach a narrator how to pronounce chinese names correctly. zheng, xu, etc. sorry but this lazy and unprofessional.