The Supernova Era

By: Cixin Liu

Narrated by: Bruno Roubicek

Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

From Cixin Liu, the New York Times best-selling and Hugo Award-winning author of The Three Body Problem, comes a new science fiction masterpiece in Supernova Era. 

In those days, Earth was a planet in space. In those days, Beijing was a city on Earth. On this night, history as known to humanity came to an end. Eight light years away, a star has died, creating a supernova event that showers Earth in deadly levels of radiation. Within a year, everyone over the age of 13 will die. And so the countdown begins. Parents apprentice their children and try to pass on the knowledge they'll need to keep the world running. But the last generation may not want to carry the legacy of their parents' world. And though they imagine a better, brighter world, they may bring about a future so dark humanity won't survive.

©2004 Liu Cixin (P)2019 Head of Zeus

Starts off well but ...

The premise is fascinating and I was hoping for an interesting read. However the very masculine take on things was very disappointing. It's given me plenty of food for thought though!
The narrator of this and Liu's other works is very flat, I would hesitate to chose him again unless it was a 'must read' book.

An insight into Chinese thought

If this book is typical of those from Chinese authors then it serves as a window into how the people of that country think. For that reason this and the other books from this author are useful and in a way interesting.

The book itself is to be blunt awful. It reads like a bad children’s book. The concept is flawed, the plot is underdeveloped and the characters lack any depth at all.

Yet is recommend it for that window into there thought. For that it does have some value.

A statist's wet dream

Nightmarish CCP vision of the world. With no trace of irony, the citizens are children, and their desires are selfish and laughably unfeasible. The unelected, one-party leaders are benevolent geniuses -- but with the common touch. This book made me want to puke.

China manages to navigate the transition to a child world with some acts of casual genius, but America immediately descends into anarchy.

A belligerent America forces the whole world into a world war in Antarctica for fun. Despite the US being the vastly superior military force, China wins because...... the Chinese leaders are geniuses. Of course. This despite the treachery of the Yanks, who break every rule in the game.

The country-swapping was an interesting idea, but still seemed to be used simply to show how devious the Americans are. Sigh.

When I get to The Three-Body Problem, I hope he's not so bent on Chinese exceptionalism.

Great start - loses its way - never comes back

Earliest of the author's major works - so he was still finding his feet.
Some great ideas - but quickly gets preposterous.
Ignore unless you are on a mission.

Nope. 3-body/others were good. Not this cash grab!

Quick, pick up the cast off rubbish from the cutting room floor, the author has risen to fame through one of his other series. Now we can sell this trash, and people will buy it before realising we suckered them.
Or perhaps this was earlier stuff, before the author had imagination.
I thought the bad reviews mainly due to the narrator, who I have no problem with personally and does a good job of inferring the tone of this author,
Read the 3 body problem if you like different variants of sci-fi, and maybe some other of Cixin Liu's books, but don't think that makes their other works worth reading.

Interesting but not great

It is something else.
The culture influence is really interesting, seeing how the author envisions the world.
Close to a young adult novel but a great idea.
The end was a little... disappointing and there is a huuuge missed opportunity in my opinion.
There is this incredible AI that pretty much makes the entire story move along in the middle but then it is gone. Just gone.
I did expect that to be more of a pivot point but it feels like the writer just changed his mind in the middle of the story and went in another direction.