![]() ![]() ![]() Time is as much a character in Liu’s work as any human, and indeed Liu often is more interested in exploring time’s curious properties than describing human relationships, psychology, and interactions. Many of his stories, including a few in To Hold Up the Sky, feature cataclysmic events that set off what characters call the “ Era”: in “Sea of Dreams,” the alien who removes all the water from Earth’s oceans sets off the “Ring of Ice Era,” while in “Mirror,” the discovery of a computer program that accurately predicts the future initiates the “Mirror Era.” “Eras” are a key feature of The Supernova Era and the books in the Three-Body Trilogy as well, as humanity must wait hundreds of years between, say, finding out that an alien species is headed for Earth and then actually meeting that species. ![]() How will we live in ten thousand years? What will the earth look like in a hundred thousand years? What would happen if time ran backward? Like historians who study eras and civilizational arcs, Liu is interested in how large swathes of time can help humans think about the future of our species and planet. Macromolecules, vast time spans, galaxies, and universes: these are just some of the materials Liu plays with (often virtuosically, I might add) in the Three-Body Trilogy, Ball Lightning, Supernova Era, and his many short stories, especially those eleven collected in To Hold Up the Sky (some of which have never before been translated into English). ![]()
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