These are stories about the ways things can be different.

This was a fantastic collection, with stories about the past, and the future.. as it could be. Cixin Liu, as usual, presents entirely unique visions full of elements of hopeful science fiction. This isn't my favorite of his story collections, but it was still absolutely excellent.

4.5 rounded to 5!

Thank you Netgalley & Tor/Forge for this e-ARC!

Cixin Liu is a famous Chinese sci-fi author, with Three Body Problem being his most notable work for which he received a Hugo Award in 2015.

This book collects his short stories originally published between 1985 and 2014. I personally think that short stories are a great media for sci-fi and that they can sometimes be more expressive than full-length novels.

It was interesting to read these, especially because I am not familiar with Chinese culture and this point of view was very refreshing to me. The stories are varied in themes, from the galactic wars to speculative fiction about Earth's Future. I would choose The Time Migration, Mirror, Ode to Joy, Sea of Dreams and The Thinker as my favorite.

I liked the fact that most of the stories provoke the reader to think about their topic, which for me especially happened with the story called Mirror, in which our Universe is computer-simulated and all the secrets of the past are revealed at the click of a mouse. The topic of how such technology can be used was very interesting to me.

Overall, I enjoyed this collection, even though some stories moved too slow for me compared to some others. I would recommend this book to people who want to read sci-fi but don't feel like dedicating themselves to the full-length novels as each story provides a kick of sci-fi enough to fulfill the readers' needs.

An amazing collection of 11 first time published in USA stories .... mostly novella length. A heady mix of thought provoking tales that blends hard science fiction with social and philosophical issues. I recommend reading one at a time and let the depth of meaning and purpose percolate in your mind at least a day, before tackling the next. Travel across space and time with Cixin's elegant prose and world building. It's certainly not surprising that Liu has won so many awards here and in the People's Republic of China. Thanks to NetGalley and Macmilan-Tor/ Forge for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review. I eagerly await the publication on October 20, so I can add a hardcopy of this significant work to my library. ( at readersremains.com)

Exploring the mind of a science-fiction writer

Although I have heard about Cixin Liu’s novels, I haven’t read any of them before this one. This book is a collection of short sci-fi stories that explore various subjects.

Each story does a great job at quickly presenting the characters and the new setting. The ideas presented are fun and inspire to think about the future of humans on earth. Some stories were better than others, but they all convey a very different message so nothing felt repetitive. My favorite story was “The Time Migration” because of the way it presents humankind through time from an engaging perspective!

The only thing I disliked about these short-stories was that they are short. Almost every story deserves an entire book to explore the plots in more depth. However, it was a lot of fun reading a variety of different themes about technology, space or the future of humans through the eyes of Cixin Liu. This collection inspired me to add some other novels by the author to my reading list for the future!

In my review of Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Project, I stated I thought the novel had gone on too long and noted that while it wrestled with “a lot of big ideas … I just wished such questions had been surrounded by richer characterization and a defter writing style.” It turns out I had pretty much the exact same reaction to his recent collection of short stories, To Hold Up the Sky.

To speak generally of the collection, Liu offered up a lot of intriguing thought experiments and created some truly evocative imagery. Unfortunately, these strengths were, for me, mostly outweighed by a paucity of engaging or compelling characters, a lot of heavily talky exposition in nearly every story, and some frequently stilted language (which may be the effect of translation and not a weakness of the original text). Typically with short story collections I’m satisfied if I enjoy more than half of them (I’m thrilled if it reaches three-quarters), but while there were a few that I liked, I can’t say this collection of eleven tales reached that minimum standard, and even among the ones I enjoyed none of them blew me away. A few specifics on some of the better stories; unnamed ones didn’t do it at all for me:

“The Village Teacher”
This was a rare story in the collection where the human element was stronger than the sci-fi one. Here, a story of a dying teacher and his background was quite touching, but the way in which his story intersected with an alien contact felt both forced and too blunt.

“The Time Migration”
A neat method of showing humanity’s progression (or not) over time as a group of time refugees go in and out of stasis until they can find a suitable time period/environment. One of the better stories, though not a lot of human connection here.

“Sea of Dreams”
A strong story about the necessity of art (not the only story with art at its core), though one that goes on too long (again, not the only one), though somewhat paradoxically, I wish had gone more slowly. I guess what I wanted was for it to not go so far forward in time and explore more deeply some of the repercussions of its events on the characters and the world.

“Cloud of Poems”
Probably my favorite though again, a bit too long. Another story of the intersection of art and science, this one focuses on the “unsurpassable” nature of poetry, even for an alien whose technology makes them a god.

“The Thinker”
One of the quieter, more human-centered stories that spirals outward in grand fashion. I liked the intimate set-up and the cosmic (literally) close.

This collection of short stories is exactly what you would expect from the author of The Three Body Problem. Its hard SF, and very much filled with conceptual physics. But he tempers the hard science with humanity and how humanity interfaces with the universe through technology, time, and art.

I enjoyed most of the stories and what surprised me was that even if I didn't connect with the subject matter, such as coal mines or warfare, I was ultimately able to connect with the characters and see their worldview. My favorites were "The Time Migration", about how technology may change human society over the centuries, "Mirror", which is a crime case with implications about how perfect ethics can change society, and "The Thinker" about connections between people and the smallest and most vast parts of the universe.

I will caveat, this is physics concepts and math heavy, some more than others, but it can make it hard to read. However, if you can let that flow through you this is a nice collection of short stories.

Thank you to @netgalley and @torbooks for an early e-book copy in exchange for an honest review! This collection is being published on October 20th!!!

I thought this collection of short stories was a lot of fun to read. Liu has a very diverse imagination, with stories that don't resemble each other at all. I enjoyed some more than others, but I always admired the way he navigates the current scientific knowledge we have and the potential for creativity in stories.

Liu Cixin is one of my favorite writers and will remain so, even if not all his stories are mind-blowing. And he's to blame for this, because after his famous trilogy, my expectation in SF skyrocketed.

That is the case with this collection: it's a mixed bag with some mind-bending ideas and some less so. Most of them are novelettes, not short stories, and I think some of them would have been greater had they been shorter. Nonetheless, his tales are always fresh, totally different from the usual sci-fi, and the way he intertwines hard SF ideas with Chinese culture is always enthralling and fascinating.

There are 11 stories in this collection, from which only one, "Sea of Dreams", I had previously read in Asimov's Science Fiction, January/February 2018,

The recurent theme is the humans' place in the universe, insignificant and yet, at the same time, so important.

Here are some thoughts on them:

1. The Village Teacher (2000, tr. Adam Lanphier) - an ode to knowledge and how it can save lives. The teacher's story moved me to tears, but the alien involvment seemed to me too artificial. 3/5

2. The Time Migration (2014, tr. Joel Martinsen) - 8 million people chose to be frozen and wake up 120 years in the future. Their ambassador did not like what the world was at that time and chose to set it further, and further, and further. What they discover at the end of the journey is for you to discover. 3/5

3. 2018-04-01 (2009, tr. John Chu) - in an era when it's possible to prolong life, a guy stole the money to make it happening. Was it worth it? 3/5

4. Fire in the Earth (2000, tr. Joel Martinsen) - taming the fire is a dangerous business. 2/5

5. Contraction (1985, tr. John Chu) - that's the kind of story I want to read, ming-bending idea about what will happen when the universe contracts instead of expanding. 10/5

6. Mirror (2004, tr. Carmen Yiling Yan) - another incredible tale woven around a string computer. 5/5

7. Ode to Joy (2005, tr. Joel Martinsen) - my favourite. It tells an alternate history of the Sophon, and how amazing is the music of the universe. 10/5

8. Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming (2001, tr. Carmen Yiling Yan) - dedication to the people of Russia and their literature, which influenced the author a great deal - military sci-fi through and through. I don't really like war stories, but this one was nicely wrapped up. 3/5

9. Sea of Dreams (2002, tr. John Chu) - reread. One more larger than life idea and an allegory for creation, art versus life. Brilliant. 5/5

10. Cloud of Poems (2003, tr. Carmen Yiling Yan) - close related to the story "Devourer" from The Wandering Earth: Classic Science Fiction Collection. Another allegory on how art (poetry here) surpases technology, and that's not the only idea. 5/5

11. The Thinker (2003, tr. John Chu) - a bitter sweet story about two people who shared a strong connection in close relation to a certain event related to the stars. 5/5.

Overall, a great collection, with something in it for everybody: genuine ideas, emotions, art, love, war - the most prominent features that make us human, good and bad.

As someone who more recently got into the sci-fi genre, I was both excited and nervous to pick this collection up — it’s certainly hardcore sci-fi concepts (I’ve read mostly what I consider “gateway” sci-fi) but I was excited to check out the genre in the realm of Chinese culture and tradition. While I’ve spent most of my life in the US, it’s important for me to learn more about my Chinese heritage through the stories like Liu’s.

Liu is a magnificent storyteller, with his ability to create worlds both achingly familiar yet imaginatively different than our own — which I feel makes for strong sci-fi world-building. While I overall enjoyed each story, what I think stuck out so much about his writing was how intricate art, culture, imagination, and humanity play a role within densely scientific, technological, and futuristic settings. I don’t think all sci-fi accomplishes that well, and as a reader, it made this heavy sci-fi much more accessible. I also appreciated the forward he provided, where I learned more about his motivations behind pursuing the sci-fi genre and his impact for Chinese culture, where sci-fi was what he calls a “marginal pursuit.” It was a great educational piece for anyone unfamiliar with sci-fi in Chinese culture, like myself.

I think any sci-fi fans or those wanting to learn more about the genre within the Chinese landscape should certainly check out this collection. I think each story is truly incredible in its own right and incredibly though provoking, but I personally felt drawn to The Village Teacher, The Time Migration, Contraction, Mirror, Ode to Joy, Cloud of Poems, and The Thinker. Some were downright mind blowing, while others just made me in awe of the universe or the power of art. Additionally, I think the order of stories was well-considered and kept me engaged as a reader.

To Hold Up the Sky is a collection of short stories written by the one and only, Liu Cixin. As with the rest of her works, these stories dive into a world of science fiction that only Liu Cixin could dream up.

Included in this collection are eleven amazing stories: The Village Teacher, The Time Migration, 2018-04-01, Fire in the Earth, Contraction, Mirror, Ode to Joy, Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming, Sea of Dreams, Cloud of Poems, and The Thinker. All of which I'll discuss in more detail below, as well as rating them individually.

What I love about this collection is that it shows a range of writing and ideas, any of which can touch the spirit of those reading. Personally, I found myself falling in love with three stories, in particular, The Village Teacher, Contraction, and The Thinker. I'm sure that everyone will have their own favorites, however.

“In my sci-fi, I challenge myself to imagine the relationship between Small people and the Great universe – not in the metaphysical sense of philosophy, nor as when someone looks up at the starry sky and feels such sentiment and pathos that their views on human life and the universe change.”

The Village Teacher
Rating: ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
“The children and firelight, the children and firelight. It was always the children and firelight, always the children at night, in the firelight.”
As mentioned above, this is one of my absolute favorites from this collection, if not the favorite. Having it come first sets the tone for this entire collection, and I firmly believe that it was the right choice.
It's a somber tale, but it is also beautiful and thought-provoking. It's an interesting blend, featuring a smaller town in China, as well as a larger universe (and what that means for everything and everyone that comes in contact with it).


The Time Migration
Rating: ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
“When did the war start?”
“This one? Two years ago.”
“This one?”
“There've been a few since you left.”
The Time Migration was another fascinating story from this collection and the ideal follow-up to The Village Teacher. At least, in my mind.
In some ways, this plot felt familiar, but in many other ways, it was something wholly unique. It is yet another story written to be thought-provoking, discussing the concept of humanity and its evolution. It is wonderfully done.

2018-04-01
Rating: ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
“By removing those gene segments that produce the aging clock, humanity's typical life span can be extended to as long as three hundred years.”
2018-04-01 is an interesting read. I had a bit of trouble getting into it, but once I did...the impact of the story is unavoidable. Yet another example of Liu Cixin's rich writing style – even unlikable characters have a story worth telling.


Fire in the Earth
Rating: ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
“All he heard, echoing in his brain, was that noise, every syllable engraved on his memory as if etched on a record.”
Fire in the Earth is a chilling, but wonderfully written, addition to this collection. At first, I wasn't sure what to think of it, but wow did it get me by the end! I wavered a bit on giving this one four or five stars, and could very easily see my mind being changed at some point.

Contraction
Rating: ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
“The universe had been expanding for about fourteen billion years would, in two years, start collapsing. Now, out of those two years, there's only one hour left.”
Wow. Out of all the stories in this collection, I think Contraction made me stop and think the most. It dives headfirst into the world of physics, the expanding universe, and so much more. All while providing a new perspective on it all. Wonderfully done.

Mirror
Rating: ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
“Every time we take action, the target escapes one step ahead of us. They know what we're going to do.”
This was another great addition to the collection, though in many ways it felt completely different from the rest of the stories. I believe that to be a good thing, showing the depth of range once again!

Ode to Joy
Rating: ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
“You've erected a bridge from classical music to the masses, and so much we bring humanity's highest ideals directly to the common people.”
I think out of all the stories in the collection Ode to Joy stuck out as the oddest of the bunch. I don't mean that in a negative way, though I did struggle to get into this one a bit. I love that music was the common theme for this story, and wouldn't have minded reading more of it, if only to see where else it could have gone.

Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming
Rating: ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
“The fallen city had already disappeared from view.”
Set in Russia, and written with all of the love and passion of somebody fascinated with another country, Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming is undoubtedly the most graphic story in this collection. By graphic, I mean gory. Not that this is a bad thing, mind you. It fits in with the tale itself, and thus I have no complaints about it. It is about war, after all.

Sea of Dreams
Rating: ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
“No matter how many years passed by, the scene when the low-temperature artist arrived remained clear in her mind.”
Sea of Dreams was another fascinating read. I love the idea of using art and ice sculpture as a way of starting this particular conversation. It was totally unexpected, but it worked rather nicely in this instance.


Cloud of Poems
Rating: ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
“Oh, yes, humanity lived inside the Earth nowadays.”
Fans of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy will probably appreciate Cloud of Poems – I know I did! It's got that classic science fiction vibe, while also pulling in a bit of that humor that is so well known to The Hitchhiker's Guide universe.


The Thinker
Rating: ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆
“He still remembered how he felt the first time he saw the Mount Siyun Astronomical Observatory thirty-four years ago.”
Last, but certainly not least, there's The Thinker. The final short story in this collection. This was another one of my favorites. It was wonderfully done, covering the slow passage of time between two characters, their shared connection, and a twinkling in the stars. It was powerful, thought-provoking, and sweet, all in one. I absolutely adored it. It was the perfect conclusion for Liu Cixin's collection.

I have read Cixin Liu's first book of his series the three body problem and while it was good, it was a bit complex, but I love his prose and how he tells his stories and I am glad to know that this short story collection didn't disappoint me. Although these stories reflect on the past, it feels very futuristic and I enjoyed taking a trip through time with his stories and I didn't expect to enjoy this so much!

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! Thanks to the author too!

If you’re in the mood for a hard sci-fi short story collection, To Hold Up the Sky by Cixin Liu (translated by Joel Martinsen, Adam Lanphier, John Chu, and Carmen Yiling Yan) certainly delivers. Liu’s writing style often makes these stories feel very present-day even when they’re obviously not, and his prose is beautiful. Many of these stories read like fables reminding us not to underestimate humanity, showing us the larger-scale impact of seemingly small gestures and our (compared to the universe) fleeting lives.

“The Time Migration” reminded me of all the philosophical stuff I love about Star Trek: The Next Generation, Doctor Who, and The Little Prince, but 10x more in depth. “Ode to Joy” is where sci-fi meets music in the most imaginative way, and “Sea of Dreams” was thought-provoking cli-fi. Liu incorporates physics, astronomy, geometry, the environment, the arts—basically any discipline we humans have explored—into some impressively creative stories.

But there were three stories, unfortunately also the longest in the collection, that I really, really slogged through, all translated by the same person. I was so bored I had to fight the urge to DNF, and to be honest it speaks a lot for the other stories that I didn’t. So overall, this collection was kind of frustrating for me. Is it just the nature of short story collections, that there will always be a few you don’t like? Is it due to there being eleven stories with four different translators, instead of just one, maybe two? Is it just that sci-fi can cover such a huge breadth of topics, and this collection shows off Cixin Liu’s versatility in that regard, that I was bound to come across subjects I simply don’t like reading? I’m not sure.

Regardless, the eight stories in To Hold Up the Sky that I did enjoy were completely and utterly dazzling. They blew me away, and convinced me to pick up a copy of Liu’s The Three-Body Problem soon, which has been on my to-read list for a while. I would say, if you are a fan of hard sci-fi, go ahead and give this collection a try.

I haven’t read Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem yet because hard science fiction intimidates me, but I’m still intrigued by his work, so when I saw this short story collection on NetGalley I thought it might be a good opportunity to see if it’s something I might be into.

I’m glad I did, because I absolutely loved Liu’s writing. I appreciated his foreword, where he explains his approach to science fiction, and the themes that he mentioned, particularly the theme of connecting humanity with the larger universe, definitely came through in most if not all of his stories. I think the best way for me to review this collection would be to write a few sentences about each story, so this will probably be a pretty long review, but bear with me. I’ll also have to keep things vague because many of the stories in this collection have unexpected twists that made them infinitely more interesting.

The Village Teacher: ★★★★★
This was the perfect story to start things off. It was one of the longer stories, and it touched on an impressively long list of themes that, at least from my understanding of the country, are extremely relevant to twenty-first century China. It also touched on more universal themes. I found it moving and inspirational and knew right away it would be one of the highlights of this collection.

The Time Migration: ★★★★
This story was weird but thought-provoking. It incorporated and explored many different sci-fi technologies. None of them were new to me but the combination of all of them was unique and interesting. The themes the story did touch on were masterfully explored. I liked it, but not as much as the previous story; the emotion and connection to the characters just wasn’t there.

2018-04-01: ★★
The best thing I can say about this story is that it was short. It included some interesting sci-fi technologies, two that I’d call sci-fi classics and one that was new to me. There were two reasons I didn’t like this story anywhere near as much as the previous two: First, I found the protagonist unlikable, and second, there was way too much exposition. This one was a miss for me.

Fire in the Earth: ★★★★★
Following on the heels of a disappointing story was this five-star read, another longer one. It gave me chills, and I felt a constant sense of foreboding throughout. For the majority of this story I assumed it wouldn’t have a twist, because I easily predicted what would happen, but it turns out there was room for some surprise, and I think it was that element of surprise that took this story to the next level.

Contraction: ★★
This story was unremarkable compared to some of the others. It featured another character I didn’t like, a genius scientist called Ding who was a real condescending jerk. Again, I felt like there was too much exposition in this one, and I found it too convenient that all the characters happened to have enough of a background in physics to grasp the complex scientific concepts the story explored.

Mirror: ★★★★
This was a three-star story until the end, which blew me away. It had the same issues of too much exposition and everyone conveniently knowing everything they need to know to converse intelligently on complex topics. But it also had several very strong characters, introduced an interesting technology that I’d never read about, and explored the technology’s impacts on humanity in a haunting way.

Ode to Joy: ★★
I mentioned that one of the earlier stories in this collection was weird but thought-provoking; this one was just weird. I came away from it not understanding most of what happened. The main theme was music’s ability to bring people together, which to me is overdone, and didn’t bring anything new to that theme. And it continued the trend of characters with inexplicable scientific expertise.

Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming: ★★★★★
Back on track with a longer, five-star read. This one was gory, so be warned. The ending, in particular, was well-written and impactful, and the writing was strong throughout, with good use of imagery and metaphor. War stories are always either a big hit or a major miss with me, and this one was definitely a hit because of its focus on characters and their relationships.

Sea of Dreams: ★★★
This was another weird one, but it had its good parts, particularly in the latter half. It had a bizarre blend of the ridiculous and the grim that I’m not sure if I liked or disliked. There was a pretty dire situation facing humanity in this story that I didn’t think was treated with enough weight or urgency. It was an interesting concept, but I wish it had been explored further.

Cloud of Poems: ★★★
This was definitely the weirdest story in this collection, which is saying something. But it was kind of fun too. If you’ve read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you know the sort of weird-but-fun vibe I’m talking about. There were some interesting sci-fi concepts as well. It would have needed a lot more humor to possibly reach Hitchhiker levels of entertainment, but it was okay.

The Thinker: ★★★★
If the first story in this collection was the perfect beginning, this was the perfect ending. Whereas many of the previous stories took place on a large scale, impacting all of humanity, this one told the story of a connection between just two people, and yet it still brought in that universal connection that Liu mentioned in his foreword. It didn’t knock me off my feet, but it was nice.

Overall I think this was an interesting and diverse collection of stories. Some looked into the far future, others explores the present and very near future, and they explored a variety of deeper themes and incorporated an even wider variety of science fiction technologies or concepts. I think most science fiction readers will find something they enjoy in this collection.

To Hold Up the Sky by Liu Cixin My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars When The Three Body Problem was published in an english translation, SFF fans were immediately enamoured by Cixin Liu and his fascinating imagination that flirted with both the possible and the far-fetched in equal measures. In this anthology the reader will find eleven works of short fiction by this prolific author, translated by different individuals including Joel Martinsen, the translator of The Dark Forest. All these translations are new, as these works have never been published in english before, but the stories themselves are not with the oldest one called Contraction, copyrighted in 1985 and published in 1999. The newest of the stories, The Time Migration, was published in 2014. The author draws a parallel theme in his stories also evident in his famous Three-Body Problem trilogy, namely the challenges that concern all of humanity. He also explores the relationship between humanity’s smallness in comparison to the greatness of the universe. Although as he explains, humanity is small collectively and individually, it is apparent in many of his stories that Cixin Liu has a strong love for humanity and will always root for it to succeed against the biggest of the challenges. It is maybe a challenge for the skeptics out there to always side with humanity after all that has been said and done over the years including wars and the continuous destruction of our planet but it can also be seen as a breath of fresh air, to side with people, to not immediately condemn them. As is the case with most anthologies, some stories are better than others and some have stuck with me for the fascinating ideas and implications that Cixin Liu has put on the table. Still, most of the stories did not live up to my expectations. One of the criticisms many reviewers had for Liu’s trilogy was his writing of characters. Liu’s characters do not feel like real people and many times do not talk like real people but more like a device that moves the plot and is there only to serve the progression of the plot. This is also certainly true in many of his short stories in this collection as well. Yes, Liu has a great imagination and he can create an ingenious and visionary story but the characters are severely lacking in..character. This could be attributed to the collectivistic culture of China versus the individualistic culture Westerners are more accustomed to. In a collectivistic perspective the story would make the story while in Western cultures people are more familiar with following characters through a story. Certainly, a balance between a great story and great characters would be the best potion for success but although Liu’s characters were severely lacking in his trilogy, his incredibly imaginative story made up for it. Unfortunately, this is not the case with his short stories, at least not all of them. Some of the stories felt boring and flat like Sea of Dreams which was more of a fantasy than a science fiction story. In Sea of Dreams, an alien appears during the Ice and Snow Arts Festival and is inspired by the ice sculptures it sees to create a magnificent work of art made of the entirity of the Earth’s oceans. “I have been inspired. I want to create! I must create!” says the low-temperature alien artist and then a few moment later says: “What? Your form of art is as pitiable as bacteria. Do you think my form of low-temperature art is anything like that?” So, the alien was inspired by a pitiable form of art to create that same form of art in a grander scale. He lifts the water of the oceans and freezes it high above Earth and nowhere do we see the sea life that resides in this body of water. And what happens to Earth when the water from the oceans is gone? We have come to expect that Liu will have thought above and beyond about the concequences of actions, so this story felt like a poor mixture of fantasy later turned into science fiction that failed to land. Still, there were two fascinating stories in this collection. One of them is called Contraction and it involves the discovery of professor Ding Yi of the exact moment that the universe stops expanding and starts contracting. Liu comes up with an imaginative thought-experiment story, one I am still thinking about. In another story called Mirror, a superstring computer can predict every single thing that has ever happened to the universe since the Big Bang. Liu comes up with this great idea of people rediscovering history under a completely new light, but what about the fact that were such a supercomputer possible, the future of humanity would also be absolutely predictable down to the finest detail. People would know when and how they would die, however such an implication is never explored. There is definitely entertainment value in these short stories by Liu Cixin but comparing them to his novels it falls short both in terms of imagination and execution. I would still not discourage fans of thought experiment from giving it a try.

To Hold Up the Sky by Liu Cixin is a collection of short stories.

Generally there were quite interesting SF ideas presented in most stories, although the delivery is dry, as are most of the characters (something I found in his novels too). The reader also has to suspend belief at times- eg world leaders together discussing relatively technical scientific topics - but there's a common thread of how immense the Universe is, and how small we are on this planet, and that relationship.

The introduction by the author was nice to read too to, as he describes his fascination with SF and how it has only picked up in the last 10 years or so (from when this was originally published) in China - and how it can open people's minds and help become less inward looking.

A couple of favourites were The Village Teacher, which was told from the point of view of an advanced race from the other side of the galaxy, scanning for inhabited planets, and the teacher in a small village in China. It was quite good, highlighting the wonder of intelligent life on Earth.

Also The Time Migration - travellers to the future witness changes to the Earth become more profound as they advance, but the final destination 10,000 years in the future proves to be the best choice, and Contraction - a scientist has calculated when the Universe will stop expanding and start contracting, and when it does the implications are more profound than expected (interesting but implausible).

To Hold Up the Sky by Liu Cixin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having been a long-time fan of Liu Cixin, it isn't much of a surprise that I fell into his short story collection. That being said, I *have* read a number of these from within other collections. This may have affected my overall impression of the entire thing.

THAT being said, his stories ARE generally consistent. The strongest ones are the ones that mix high-SF with down-to-earth characterization. The most notable of these is the first story. The Villiage Teacher.

I admit I have a soft spot for the close ties to Chinese culture with the vast Space-Opera themes. If any of you have read his massive trilogy, you'll know what I mean.

Equally notable are the stories that pick up some mind-blowing technology themes. I feel lots of love with the crazy-cool universal dimensional stuff and string-computing (as opposed to regular quantum computing) but there's plenty of all of it to wet your chops.

Hard-SF is Cixin's forte. When he combines it with rather close-tied Chinese themes, including traditional poetry set against universe-shattering themes, I think he's pretty mind-blowing.

But I'll be honest here: Fewer than half of the stories in this collection thrilled me to death. They're decent and some are really good, but I prefer his longer fiction. By far.

I really enjoy books by Cixin Liu. This was no exception.

This is a collection of stories and I really enjoyed all of them. That almost never happens to me with short story collections but these stories were all so unique and interesting that I found them all good.

I really liked this collection and would recommend this book if you short story collections that you can read at your own pace.

I've only read one other book by Liu Cixin, The Three Body Problem, but he's quickly become one of my favorite sci-fi authors. As an engineer with strong background in academic research, Liu's writing style match both my interested in in-depth science explanations and well written sci-fi quite nicely.

In the forward, Liu talks about balancing the Big, the vastness of the universe and its unknowns, and the Small, individual human desires. On that front, I think he's done a fantastic job. To Hold Up the Sky has been simultaneously the most grounded short story collection, yet one of the most fantastical I've read. Even while the science is thoroughly in-depth and well explained, the human emotion hits equally as hard. For a short story collection with four different translators, the writing is quite cohesive in between shorts.

For me, my three standouts are "The Village Teacher", "Fire in the Ground", and "The Thinker". "The Village Teacher" explores dying wish of an old teacher in rural China. "Fire in the Ground" examines the folly of the idealism of the recent graduate and the pure academic, while "The Thinker" follows the glancing meetings between two academics over almost forty years. What I loved about these stories are both how intrinsically Chinese they are in setting and mood. "The Village Teacher" and "Fire in the Ground" both also act as social commentary on the quality of life in rural, poorer regions of China. All three focus on the Small of humanity while using the Big as a vehicle to further explore those human ties.

I'm also going to give a quick shoutout to "Ode to Joy" for giving me the most laughs while reading. Not only did either the translator or Liu himself drop a unit (unforgivable! ~my engineering professors), but the entire short revolves around a conversation between several heads of state, including China and the US, as well as the UN Secretary General, calmly and intelligently discussing celestial mechanics, astrophysics, and music theory. Truly combining both the "science" and "fiction" of science fiction.

Overall, I rate this collection a 4/5. Obviously some stories hit harder than others, but overall this collection is definitely worth a read for fans of Liu Cixin and fans of sci-fi short stories. I will say that with the level of specificity Liu goes into describing some of the science, it was sometimes hard to bring myself to read more engineering after coming back from a 10 hour workday of engineering.

Review will be posted to my blog on 16 October 2020

A great collection of short stories of this master of especulative science fiction. I enjoyed more The Wandering Earth, but it's a great book that all must scifi lovers should read.
Full review in spanish: https://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/2020/10/to-hold-up-sky-cixin-liu.html

Cixin Liu is an almost auto-buy author for me, but I've heard mixed reviews about Supernova Era, and Wandering Earth waa very hit-or-miss. I was so excited to get the chance to read this upcoming short story collection! Unlike Wandering Earth, these stories were consistent from start to finish, and although each story was written at very different times and set in different Liu-universes, they had cohesive themes. Art. Humanity. How to react when faced with the slow but inevitable end of the world. They are incredibly thought-provoking and intelligently written (as well as beautifully translated).

As usual, some of the stories stayed with me long after I finished reading them. However, several were just a little too lofty for light reading. If you want to dig super deep into scientifix theories and the nitty gritty details, you will love this set. I only felt connected to characters in two of the.stories.

All in all, I will probably add the physical copy of To Hold Up the Sky to my Liu bookshelf someday, but it's not an auto-buy for me.