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keywords

1. • value: world literature
2. • value: Physics
3. • value: short story collection
4. • value: Aliens
5. • value: speculative fiction
6. • value: China
7. • value: first contact
8. • value: chinese literature
9. • value: outer space
10. • value: Chinese Authors
11. • value: translated literature
12. • value: military sci fi
13. • value: chinese science fiction
14. • value: hugo award winning authors
15. • value: realistic scifi
16. • value: hard sci fi short stories
17. • value: sf short story anthology

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Liu, Cixin
   • bioText: CIXIN LIU is the most prolific and popular science fiction writer in the People's Republic of China. Liu is a winner of the Hugo Award, an eight-time winner of the Galaxy Award (the Chinese Hugo) and a winner of the Chinese Nebula Award. Prior to becoming a writer, he worked as an engineer in a power plant. His novels include The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End.
   • name: Cixin Liu

imprint

Tordotcom

publishDate

2020-10-20T00:00:00Z

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title

To Hold Up the Sky

fullDescription

From New York Times bestselling author Cixin Liu comes a short story collection of captivating visions of the future and incredible re-imaginings of the past.

In To Hold Up the Sky, Cixin Liu takes us across time and space, from a rural mountain community where elementary students must use physicas to prevent an alien invasion; to coal mines in northern China where new technology will either save lives of unleash a fire that will burn for centuries; to a time very much like our own, when superstring computers predict our every move; to 10,000 years in the future, when humanity is finally able to begin anew; to the very collapse of the universe itself.
Written between 1999 and 2017 and never before published in English, these stories came into being during decades of major change in China and will take you across time and space through the eyes of one of science fiction's most visionary writers.
Experience the limitless and pure joy of Cixin Liu's writing and imagination in this stunning collection.
Stories included are:
Contraction
Full Spectrum Barrage Jamming
The Village Teacher
Fire in the Earth
Time Migration
Ode to joy
Cloud of Poems
Mirror
Sea of Dreams
Cloud of Poems
The Thinker
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Publishers Weekly, on To Hold Up the Sky
   • content:

     "An innovative and compassionate look at how knowledge shapes and changes humanity. Liu grounds his tales in contemporary Chinese life and society, using he sci-fi genre to tackle questions about humanity's place in the universe . . . a must have for readers of hard science fiction."

2. • premium: False
   • source: Booklist, starred review, on To Hold Up the Sky
   • content: "A well rounded view of Liu's work, showing him both in the mode familiar to readers of The Three-Body Problem trilogy as well as in other, perhaps more unexpected, styles. Highly recommended for fans of Liu's work or for those interested in Chinese sf in general."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Shelf Awareness on To Hold Up the Sky
   • content: "These stories excel at linking hard science fiction with global humanism and quiet moments of emotion. Liu's writing maintains a calm, matter-of-fact demeanor, even as it conveys inventive cruelty and beautiful imagery . . . [This collection] will appeal to readers of literary fiction and classic science fiction alike."
4. • premium: False
   • source: Shelf Awareness on Supernova Era
   • content: "This audacious and ultimately optimistic early work will give Liu's English-reading fans a glimpse at his evolution as a writer and give any speculative fiction reader food for deep thought."
5. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     May 1, 2020
     

     New York Times best-selling, Hugo Award-winning Liu, one of China's preeminent sf writers, reenvisions the past even as he reconfigures the future in this collection of short fiction. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

     Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

6. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     August 10, 2020
     These 11 stories, taken from the beginning of Liu’s career in the early 2000s when, per his introduction, “sci-fi was still a very marginal pursuit in China,” offer an innovative and compassionate look at how knowledge shapes and changes humanity. Liu (The Three Body Problem) grounds his tales in contemporary Chinese life and society, using the sci-fi genre to tackle questions about humanity’s place in the universe. “The Village Teacher” (trans. by Adam Lanphier) starts off the collection on a strong humanistic note, as one teacher’s dying lesson to his students saves the galaxy. Other standouts include “Ode to Joy” (trans. by Joel Martinsen), in which a space mirror uses the sun as an instrument to play a symphonic history of the universe; “Contraction” (trans. by John Chu), which brilliantly plays with form to create the effect of time flowing backward; and “The Thinker” (also translated by Chu), which convincingly links neuroscience and astrophysics. Though the science will be too technical for some casual readers, Liu’s gift for juxtaposing long passages of exposition with emotional moments and beautiful imagery makes this a must have for readers of hard science fiction.

7. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from August 1, 2020
     This collection presents readers with an assortment of short fiction by the most prominent voice in Chinese science fiction. Most of the stories collected reflect Liu's interest in large-scale, high-concept sf stories featuring ideas such as a digital duplicate of the universe that can eliminate crime, a vast mirror-like entity that plays a concert on the sun, or the complete reversal of space-time by the contraction of the universe. Two stories that stand out are "Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming," a near future story where a resurgent Communist Russia must use EMP technology to repel an American invasion, and "Cloud of Poems", where humanity has become the livestock population for a society of sentient dinosaurs but may be freed when a god-like alien becomes fascinated with classical Chinese poetry. With a writer as prolific and varied as Liu, it is hard to say whether or not this collection is completely representative; however it does provide a well-rounded view of Liu's work, showing him both in the mode familiar to readers of The Three-Body Problem trilogy as well as in other, perhaps more unexpected, styles. Highly recommended for fans of Liu's work or for those interested in Chinese sf in general.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

popularity

1404

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languages

1. • code: en
   • name: English

subjects

1. • value: Fiction
2. • value: Science Fiction
3. • value: Short Stories

publishDateText

10/20/2020

otherFormatIdentifiers

1. • type: ISBN
   • value: 9781250306081

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shortDescription

From New York Times bestselling author Cixin Liu comes a short story collection of captivating visions of the future and incredible re-imaginings of the past.

In To Hold Up the Sky, Cixin Liu takes us across time and space, from a rural mountain community where elementary students must use physicas to prevent an alien invasion; to coal mines in northern China where new technology will either save lives of unleash a fire that will burn for centuries; to a time very much like our own, when superstring computers predict our every move; to 10,000 years in the future, when humanity is finally able to begin anew; to the very collapse of the universe itself.
Written between 1999 and 2017 and never before published in English, these stories came into being during decades of major change in China and will take you across time and space through the eyes of one of science fiction's most visionary writers.
Experience the limitless and pure joy of Cixin...

sortTitle

To Hold Up the Sky

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classifications

publisher

Tor Publishing Group

bisacCodes

1. • code: FIC028020
   • description: Fiction / Science Fiction / Hard Science Fiction
2. • code: FIC028040
   • description: Fiction / Science Fiction / Collections & Anthologies
3. • code: FIC028050
   • description: Fiction / Science Fiction / Military