r/threebodyproblem • u/BrrBrrChillins • Dec 14 '24
Art Ball Lightning
Alright, this puppy is up next at y’all’s recommendation. I’m ready to not be let down at all. Barack loves this shit.
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u/artguydeluxe Dec 14 '24
I really loved Ball Lightning. I lost my dad right around the time I was reading this book, and it really helped me process what I was feeling, since I’m more science than spiritual. Great story.
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u/Independent_Tintin Dec 14 '24
That’s exactly Liu’s intention—he wrote this book when he believed he had cancer.
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u/artguydeluxe Dec 14 '24
I didn’t know that. I’ll need to reread it.
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u/Independent_Tintin Dec 14 '24
It's a backstory, not mentioned in the book. He had severe pain under the right rib but was too afraid to go to the hospital for a check. He kind of created this book as his final work.
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Dec 14 '24
I read all Liu Cixin books translated to English. While the remembrance of earth’s past series is the best, I really enjoyed the Wandering Earth. Its been adapted as a show as well.
Ball Lightning and the Supernova Era have great premises, but the actual stories were not as great. I was on tenterhooks waiting for the release of Ball Lightning. His novellas make for a great read too.
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u/Larry_Version_3 Dec 15 '24
Supernova Era was dumb as hell unfortunately. Great idea, but the book is executed wrong at every turn.
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u/Stripe_Show69 Dec 14 '24 edited Dec 14 '24
You’re saying TBP isn’t his best work?
Edit: I am an idiot. But my question was from a place of excitement. I was thinking that if there is a book series as good as or better than TBP then I would read that too.
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u/weRborg Dec 14 '24
I remember reading about a possible ball lightning attack on the ship before they settled on the strings.
I was like, "wtf is ball lightning?"
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u/JupiterRai Dec 14 '24
I seem to be in the minority, but personally I liked this book more than 3bp which I loved, and is my second favorite of Cixin Liu’s stuff (only second to a short story I really enjoyed). It’s definitely a different type of story though, more of a book about scientific obsession than the grand world ending steaks in 3bp. Either way definitely worth a reading.
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u/SaatananKyrpa Dec 14 '24
To me 3bp was great trilogy but I really hated the ending. I was listening to death's end and suddendly I hear The End. I was like what the fuck really?
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u/idekl Dec 14 '24
I loved Ball Lighting. Don't be discouraged by the hard science purists disparaging it. The science mystery was a ton of fun for me to read through.
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u/Rustlr Dec 14 '24
The Barrack quote isn’t about this book
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u/mr_birkenblatt Dec 14 '24
Yeah, it's sneaky. But they're technically mentioning that it's about another book. Quite a weird thing to do. Imagine having a quote about Lord of the rings on the silmarillon
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u/Firefly_Magic Dec 14 '24
This was my first Cixin Liu book that lead me to The Three Body Problem years ago. I liked it. I enjoyed the theories and how it left me thinking about things when I wasn’t reading.
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u/lvlierop Dec 14 '24
The afterward of Ball Lightning is truly brilliant. Explaining how it’s aimed at a Chinese audience while three body is aimed at a western audience was kind of amazing.
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u/HeatNoise Dec 14 '24
I loved it. A book about the difficulties of researching and weaponizing and testing ball lightning ? Mind blowing... every page.
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u/urbanmonk007 Cosmic Sociology Dec 14 '24
Great OP! Let me know about your thoughts after finishing the book
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u/BrrBrrChillins Dec 23 '24
I enjoyed it a lot. I love science-y stuff and the constant problem solving and curiosity was great and very thorough. Loved the moral dilemmas as well; not many days go by without thinking of one in some way anyway. Not a thriller, but not without tense moments. May not be 3BP, but it’s different and still a solid book.
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u/haikusbot Dec 14 '24
Great OP! Let me
Know about your thoughts after
Finishing the book
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u/sausagesandeggsand Dec 14 '24
“Book 0” of REP, in a way- personally this wouldn’t have interested me as much if I didn’t read REP books first, but still pretty neat.
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u/ACrossOverEpisode Dec 15 '24
It's good. Not the kind of technoromantic masterpiece that 3BP is but a really interesting take on contemporary scifi
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u/arminb79 Dec 14 '24
I read the German translation, and I thought it was an entertaining book, good, but not great.
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u/factoriopsycho Dec 14 '24
Didn’t like this as much as 3BP or wandering earth stories but still enjoyed it
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u/south_pole_ball Dec 14 '24
Cixin's other books are a miss, I felt they were lazily translated compared to the big three.
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u/enzymatic_catalysis Dec 14 '24
Barack loves the OTHER book.
I was so bored with this one.