BOTM January 2008 - 球状闪电

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roddy -

I agree about that great big 林云 bit near the end - almost felt like the author was trying to

get up to a certain character count before ending. But I did like the way it ended overall, as I'd

been kind of expecting them to just come up with some usable super-weapon and win, rather than the

rather dubious victory they actually got.

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zhwj -

I was satisfied with the way things ended up. There's not much continuity in the later book; as

far as I can recall, when Ding Yi shows up, someone mentions that he's heard of him before, but

that's as far as it goes - I guess civilization got right back to normal and the whole catastrophe

was covered up...

But actually, the ending and the involvement of the post-Soviet scientists were two places where

the story completely subverted my expectations. I wasn't thrilled at first by the SETI@home bit -

it was too obviously clever, and I couldn't see it going anywhere good. So it was a pleasant

surprise when they got the message from the Russians. It's nice when the author is thinking a few

steps ahead of me.

I kind of agree with you that Ding Yi was too clever, but I felt that Chen's retreat to basically

observer status was a nice bit of characterization that upended the traditional "hero-protagonist

saves the day" framework. Lin Yun's weepy farewell is an unfortunate example of the excessive

sentimentality that sometimes crops up in Liu Cixin's fiction - he must actually like that kind of

scene.

imron -

Quote:

I'd been kind of expecting them to just come up with some usable super-weapon and win, rather than

the rather dubious victory they actually got.

To be honest, I don't think the threat to use the macro-fusion bomb would have had that much of an

effect. Mostly because they had a difficult enough time convincing their own side that such a

thing was even possible, and I think they'd really have to use it against the enemy for the enemy

to be convinced. Otherwise how else do you convince them? You can't explain the physics involved,

because then the enemy can use that to build their own similar weapon, and at that point in time,

from the outside, it would just have looked as if an accident in testing had caused the weapon to

be used against China themselves - who would believe that the range of the weapon could reach

globally, or that it would only destroy electronics? I think it's a bluff the enemy side probably

would have called, because in a worse case scenario they'd have had the confidence that they could

recover more quickly.

I guess it all comes down to suspension of disbelief, and if the author can convince me that a

macro-fusion bomb that only destroys specific objects and leaves everything else untouched is

possible, then it's a bit of let down when he can't do the same for simpler more mundane matters.

Quote:

I wasn't thrilled at first by the SETI@home bit

I wasn't either, especially because I don't believe that SETI@home would be so easy to hack, or

that the hack would have gone unnoticed for so long. It was good when they finally got sent the

message from the administrator telling them off and kicking them out (and it was good to see him

turn up again at the end).

Also, if the quantum-state 林云 and other characters can have an effect on the real world (e.g.

张彬's wife with the graveyard and the notebook, and 陈's father with the painting), how come

the quantum-state terrorists aren't causing havoc in the nuclear reactor? (hmm although perhaps

that's the story for a future novel) And yeah, I know, I know, it's just a story, but once again

it comes down to being able to suspend disbelief, which I had no problem doing for the more

extraordinary things, but just kept being let down by the simpler ones.

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