Oh heck! Did these stories live up to all my expectations? OH YES.

Cixin Liu has once again shown that he is a master genius who's clever, smart and thought-provoking stories are up there with the best. Dare I say, even the best? I continue to be astounded with the scope of this man's imagination. I only semi recently read his Remembrance of Earth's Past series, and it was a giant ball of incredible, so I naturally had high expectations going in to reading these stories - and those expectations were met and more.

I had a difficult time trying to think of ways to explain how Cixin Liu's collection of science fiction short stories, The Wandering Earth, affected me. But in the end, I have to say it was sheer awe at his writing ability that was the overwhelming factor in my decision to go buy more of his books. (And I have!) This was indeed the first work I'd read by him, being personally more enamored of 'softer' sci-fi. I prefer more rollicking space adventures usually, so this book of novellas was a departure for me. I worried that the "hard" sci-fi within would lose me, or that the science would be so esoteric as to leave me feeling cold. I am happy to say that this was not the case! The characters in the stories captured my attention first, then my heart as I came to care for each one, even those who were not as immediately likable as human beings, such as the narrator of the story "Mountain". When first faced by aliens, this man asks not "Why are you destroying our planet", nor does he scream "Stop killing us!". Instead, he begins a long discourse with them on explorations and thereby finally finds a common link between humans and aliens. Now that did shock me out of my usual mindset a bit. I expected more an immediate alarmist response like the yelling and screaming at the aliens who were killing us all by sheer accident of their arrival. However, that isn't really what the story was about, and as soon as that was obvious (really quickly so) then I settled in for a more philosophically enlightening read. The narrator might have felt initially cold, but this was a man so profoundly affected by his personal history of mountain climbing and the tragedy he suffered during it, that he decided to basically punish himself forever. Many of the people and beings found within Liu's stories are traumatized in some way. Their tragedies propel actions and carry us along for the ride. One of the most moving tales in the book was "With Her Eyes", a tale of a man exploring a world using the 'eyes' of a woman trapped within said world, yet unable to see it anymore. I dare not explain further as it would spoil the story too much.

Not all is tragic, however. There is plenty of humor to be found amidst the debris and destruction in these stories. "Curse 5.0" had me chuckling and shaking my head at the quickly spiraling events caused by one little computer virus. There were moments of humor amongst the pathos of the story entitled "Of Ants and Dinosaurs", a tale which originally felt as though the moral would conk me over the head a little too hard but became one of my favorites as it irresistibly drew me into an alternate Earth and it's vastly changed history.

Overall, the language of Liu's writing captured my mind and heart most of all, more so than his possible worlds or characters. His writing is absolutely lyrical at times, and intelligent throughout. One of my favorite sections of the book is in the first, title, story:
"I’ve never seen the night, nor seen a star; I’ve seen neither spring, nor fall, nor winter. I was born at the end of the Reining Age, just as the Earth’s rotation was coming to a final halt.

The Sun is about to unleash a helium flash, threatening to swallow all terrestrial planets in the solar system. On Earth, the Unity Government has erected Earth Engines. With them it plans to propel our planet out of the solar system, setting it on a journey into outer space in search of a new sun. The Earth begins its centuries-long, wandering travels through outer space.

Just as we began our journey, my grandfather passed away, his burnt body ravaged by infection. In his final moments, he repeated over and over, “Oh, Earth, my wandering Earth...”"

Just like *that* I was sucked into the story and carried along on an epic journey of hopes and fears.

I highly recommend "The Wandering Earth" for anyone who appreciates the 'what if's and 'maybes' that are presented in science fiction. The sci-fi within these pages may be considered 'hard' by some but was easily understandable by this layperson with only a passing interest in the depths of physics and genetics (to name two) dealt with here. The science may have driven a lot of the action, but it was never the entire centerpiece of any story, which makes this writing readable, relatable, and wonderful.

This review is an unbiased and faithful personal view of a book in return for a free copy from NetGalley. It also refers to a newly released English language edition of a collection previously released in China and once before years ago. The latest publisher, Head of Zeus, is releasing much of the author's work to the delight of us new fans in beautiful new editions with excellent translation.

The eleven hard sci-fi stories in this collection are smart, thought provoking and intellectually chewy, with a healthy dose of absurdity.

The characters are just the merest of sketches, and the prose strictly functional. As a result the stories are presented almost as technological parables, with the main focus on the concepts and ideas. Stories include:

- Earth is converted to a bio-spaceship with which to transport humanity to a new star
- Aliens arrive from a bubble world, totally different from our own (or is it?)
- Civilisations of super intelligent ants and dinosaurs at war with one another (these crop up more than once)
- The gods who created us (aliens of course) return to earth to be looked after by humans in their dotage

As a collected work, the book is unusual in that the length of each tale is somewhere between short story and novella, around 40-50 pages, with no real variation in length. I found that these snack-sized stories were best enjoyed by breaking them up and spacing out between reading other things.

I've probably made the book sound a lot sillier than it is, there's actually a great deal of socially observant wit in there as well. If you like a bit of inter-galactic travel with your talking dinosaurs while you mull over society's problems, you'll enjoy this.

There are good words on a page, there are bad words on a page. Then there is beauty on a page, and Cixin Liu embodies that. The new anthology of his shorter works titled The Wandering Earth is a beautiful book. From the first paragraph of the first story I was drawn in. Once I had started, I could not put this down.

There is a visual, visceral quality about these stories that tugs at me in a profound way. I am jealous of the quality of the writing, but enamoured by it at the same time. It makes me want to perfect the art form, like Mr Liu has.

The translation of these stories is sublime. There is no doubt that the translators love these stories and take such care to do the best possible job from the source material. I would love to be able to read the original book to see the elegant differences between the two.

There are eleven stories in here, and they cover a wide range of topics. Each story feels complete and whole, making each one an experience. This is close to perfection.

This is my first 5 star review in a long time. Thank you, Cixin Liu.