Review: Good stuff!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 27, 2012
Let me begin by saying that this is the first piece I've read by Liu Cixin and I've never met nor corresponded with the author. In other words, I'm not a shill.That said, I will definitely be picking up another of his books as soon as I complete this post. Why? Well...First, it's fairly obvious once the reader gets a few pages into the story that this author, "ain't from around these parts." That's not a bad thing either. Reading books - especially speculative fiction - by writers that are from a different cultural background than the one I'm accustomed to is often extremely refreshing. Said writers weren't raised with the same cliche'd rules and constrictions as most people that grew up immersed in American culture and education. In fact, it usually means they have a tendency to write stories with an entirely different set of rules etc. A terrific example of this is in some of the fables and stories of authors from the Middle East that tend to lean more heavily on last-second twists or surprise moralistic endings than many western writers."Of Ants and Dinosaurs" does in some ways remind me of another work of speculative fiction that was written by Harry Harrison. His "Eden" trilogy is set in a realm where humans and slightly larger, bipedal reptiles developed and evolved in different regions of the world, only to be eventually thrust together by the descending glaciers of the encroaching ice age. In Liu Cixin's prehistoric world however, the two races of creatures develop a more symbiotic relationship than the antagonistic interactions of Harrison's books.I don't want to reveal plot spoilers so I'll not go into great detail regarding the story itself. I will however mention that, while some of the science itself is a bit of a stretch, it isn't so twisted and pretzelled that it pulls you out of the story or hampers with suspension of disbelief - although it does come close in a couple of areas. The author wisely chose to keep the ants at appropriately insect-sized dimensions so there aren't any questions about how 20 foot tall bugs would sustain themselves despite the picture on the cover.One of the things I admired most about the story itself is that none of the "characters" in the tale makes disproportionately intelligent or stupid decisions. The decisions made by the creatures of both species are surprisingly human in not only their logic, but also in regard to the sometimes myopic conclusions they draw. There are some definite (and apparently intentional)similarities in the situations faced by the creatures of the story and what we as humans are grappling with in modern society. Yet, because of the culturally different approach that the author takes the tale seldom seems as heavy-handed or politically judgemental as it might have in the hands of an American writer such as myself. That aspect alone makes it worth your time and let's face it, many of the books available for the Kindle are so inexpensive that the value of the time spent reading one often exceeds the actual monetary costThe editing and pacing of the story are crisp and professional, with none of the typographical errors that are so frequent in inexpensive Kindle books. This too was a pleasant surprise. I hadn't realized how weary I had become of figuring out for myself whether the author meant "their," "they're," or "there" in the text until I read "Of Ants And Dinosaurs."The story did leave me wishing for more - which we're taught is a good thing when it comes to stories, but in this case it was actually the reason for the one-star deduction in my rating. I felt as if the author could have easily written another hundred pages or perhaps even a second entire novel about what the emergence of early man would have done in the furtherance of the narrative. The ending itself was a bit of a surprise because of the seemingly abrupt way it concluded prior to the brief final chapter/epilogue. Everything had accelerated to a fairly frenzied pace and all the various plot contrivances came together nicely and then suddenly, it was over. Metaphorically I almost felt like a crash test dummy going from 80 mph to 0 upon hitting the brick wall.But that was my sole complaint and, as quibbles go, it's an extremely minor one. One final note - the publishers are apparently wanting to expand their presence in the American marketplace. When you reach the actual end of the book, keep paging forward and you will find a very generous offer presenting you with the opportunity to try more of Liu Cixin's work, or if you prefer, a book by one of their other authors free of charge. I write quite a few reviews for Kindle books and decided not to take advantage of the offer lest it color my perspective in any other reviews I write of books from this publisher, but it is still an offer that I'm sure a lot of people would like to take the company up on, so be sure to check out the specifics!