Supernova Era - by Cixin Liu (Paperback)

About the Book

"Eight light-years away, a star has died, creating a supernova event that showers Earth in deadly levels of radiation. Within a year, everyone over the age of thirteen will die. And so the countdown begins. Parents apprentice their children and try to pass on the knowledge needed to keep the world running. But when the world is theirs, the last generation may not want to continue the legacy left to them. Will the children shaping the future usher in an era of bright beginnings or final mistakes?"--Back cover.

Book Synopsis

From science fiction legend Cixin Liu, the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Three-Body Problem, comes Supernova Era, a vision of the future that reads "like Ursula K. Le Guin rewriting The Lord of the Flies for the quantum age." (NPR).

In those days, Earth was a planet in space.
In those days, Beijing was a city on Earth.
On this night, history as known to humanity came to an end.

Eight light years away, a star has died, creating a supernova event that showers Earth in deadly levels of radiation. Within a year, everyone over the age of thirteen will die.

And so the countdown begins. Parents apprentice their children and try to pass on the knowledge needed to keep the world running.

But when the world is theirs, the last generation may not want to continue the legacy left to them. And in shaping the future however they want, will the children usher in an era of bright beginnings or final mistakes?

"This audacious and ultimately optimistic early work will give Liu's English-reading fans a glimpse at his evolution as a writer and give any speculative fiction reader food for deep thought." -- Shelf Awareness

Review Quotes

"Stunning concepts and a contemplative tone that provides vital insight into the formative years of one of the genre's masters. In Liu's hands, 'the children are our future' becomes far more than a cozy cliché; it's a springboard for the kind of agile and relevant thought experiment that science fiction, at its best, manifests."--NPR

"This audacious and ultimately optimistic early work will give Liu's English-reading fans a glimpse at his evolution as a writer and give any speculative fiction reader food for deep thought."--Shelf Awareness

Praise for the Three-Body trilogy

"Wildly imaginative."--President Barack Obama

"The War of the Worlds for the twenty-first century . . . Packed with a sense of wonder."--The Wall Street Journal

"A breakthrough book . . . A unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, politics and history, conspiracy theory and cosmology."--George R. R. Martin

"Tackles politics, philosophy, and virtual reality in a story that moves at a thriller's pace."--The Washington Post

"Evokes the thrill of exploration and the beauty of scale."--The New Yorker

"Stunning, elegant . . . A science fiction epic of the most profound kind."--NPR

About the Author

CIXIN LIU is a prolific and popular science fiction writer in the People's Republic of China. Liu is a winner of the Hugo Award and a multiple winner of the Galaxy Award (the Chinese Hugo) and the Xing Yun Award (the Chinese Nebula). His novels include The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End. He lives with his family in Yangquan, Shanxi.

JOEL MARTINSEN is the translator of The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu and (with Alice Xin Liu) of The Problem With Me, a collection of essays by Han Han. His translations of short fiction have appeared in Pathlight, Chutzpah, and Words Without Borders. He lives in Beijing.