Readers may draw their own conclusions about the politics behind all this.Ī hardworking but uninspired early novel, wholly overshadowed by Liu's later masterpiece.Īre we not men? We are-well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).Ī zombie apocalypse is one thing.
The book as published stresses the competency and forethought of the older generation and downplays the inability of children to understand and anticipate consequences. Imagine how much darker it must have been. If it seems dark-indeed, the premise immediately demands comparison with William Golding's Lord of the Flies, right down to the singular lack of female perspective-Liu reportedly revised it several times before it was finally published in 2003, to avoid possible issues with officialdom. Liu wrote this tale in 1989, the year of Tiananmen Square, he says in an afterword. Tellingly, young America, which loves its guns, proposes live-ammo war games on Antarctica, which has rapidly melted. Other nations come to similar conclusions. The Chinese child nation creates a digital forum and decides that what it really wants to do is play, not slavishly attempt to keep the adult model functioning. Fortunately, China has just invented a supercomputer named China Quantum which helps out when the child executives-dreamer Huahua, intellectual Specs, and mature, practical Xiaomeng-become overwhelmed with the enormity of their task. These developments may seem weirdly unreal when viewed from a non-Chinese perspective, as might the prospect of 13-year-old airline pilots, nuclear engineers, or doctors achieving competency after a year's training. Governments worldwide immediately grasp the facts, draw accurate conclusions, and make plans for parents and caregivers to rapidly teach their children the skills they'll need in order to keep civilization going.
Apocalyptic yarn from the celebrated author of the Three-Body Problem trilogy ( Death's End, 2016, etc.).Ī nearby star explodes, hammering Earth with radiation that within a year will kill every person older than 13.
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