I was given a book for my birthday: Earthbound, by Milton Lesser. The book was “hard” science fiction, written in 1952 and I received it in 1964. I was so fascinated by it that I would read it and immediately return to page one and read it again. Over and over. I couldn’t get enough. When I finally tired of it I started looking for other authors to read and regularly visited the local library to borrow books by Patrick Moore, and many others. That started a lifelong love affair with the genre, though admittedly that love has withered in later years. Until Herbie tipped me off about Cixin Liu a couple of years ago. Liu is a Chinese engineer and author who has written three of the best SF books that I’ve ever read. And that’s saying something, as I’ve read hundreds.
It’s tough coming up with a new idea. Especially in a genre like hard sci-fi – speculative fiction grounded in physics, chemistry, and some biology. Many of the best writers have been engineers or physicists. It was in the 1950s and 60s when authors like Asimov, Larry Niven, A.E. Van Vogt, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein were at their best. They were all good storytellers, created believable characters and came up with original ideas. Not necessarily their own, but they always put them to good use. Many of the ideas hatched by sci-fi authors 50 or 60 years ago or more have become reality today. And in many cases those ideas inspired researchers to investigate possibilities.
To give just a few examples: Arthur C. Clarke came up with the idea of geostationary communications satellites way back in 1945 in a published article (Wireless World). 12 years before the first test satellite was sent up (Sputnik, in 1957). In 1974 Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle predicted in The Mote in God’s Eye, a mini iPad-like tablet which contained a camera, microphone and a cloud connection to a planetary library. In Asimov’s Foundation (five short stories first published as a book in 1951), includes Encyclopedia Galactica, which describes something very similar to Wikipedia (or maybe even Google). Incidentally, Foundation was passed around from person to person as THE book to read in early 70s London. I lent my copy to someone many years ago, never got it back but found it again in a second-hand bookshop in Calgary a few years ago.
What’s so astounding about Cixin Liu is that his trilogy The Three-Body Problem presents new ideas about space travel and even the universe. Things I’ve never read or heard before. The books are mostly set in China and offer insights into everyday life, as well as some history. Over three thick volumes the books never lose focus. There’s also a plan to release a film, which has apparently been postponed indefinitely due to “internal shuffling and rumoured bad quality of the first cut”. A TV series might be a better idea anyway, as the story is so long. Too much will be lost condensing it into a 2-hour film.
If you’ve been a sci-fi fan, but lost interest in the genre, I can recommend Cixin Liu to pull you back on track.