Ball Lightning
By Cixin Liu
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Three-Body Trilogy, Cixin Liu's Ball Lightning is the story of what happens when the beauty of scientific inquiry runs up against the drive to harness new discoveries with no consideration of their possible consequences.
When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of this mysterious natural phenomenon. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station.
The more he learns, the more he comes to realize that ball lightning is just the tip of an entirely new frontier. While Chen’s quest for answers gives purpose to his lonely life, it also pits him against soldiers and scientists with motives of their own: a beautiful army major with an obsession with dangerous weaponry, and a physicist who has no place for ethical considerations in his single-minded pursuit of knowledge.
"Wildly imaginative."—Barack Obama on The Three-Body Problem trilogy
Tor books by Cixin Liu
The Three-Body Problem Series
#1 The Three-Body Problem
#2 The Dark Forest
#3 Death's End
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Cixin Liu
Cixin Liu is China's #1 SF writer and author of The Three-Body Problem – the first ever translated novel to win a Hugo Award. Prior to becoming a writer, Liu worked as an engineer in a power plant in Yangquan.
Read more from Cixin Liu
To Hold Up the Sky Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Artificial Intelligence Revolution: How AI Will Change our Society, Economy, and Culture Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Ball Lightning
Related ebooks
The Jar that Holds the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Nano Kid Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRise of the Arcane Fire Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Venomous Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sunlight and Shadow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Empath of The Empire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Alienation of Courtney Hoffman: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mystery of Firefly Field Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScribblers In the Grove Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Kite Moon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRise of Gaia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Almond in the Apricot Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Necromancer's Book of Magic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Elite: Collective Underground, #2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Lack of Good Sons Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Weight of Air: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNorthern Star Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWithering Rose (Once Upon A Curse Book 2) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love Affair: A Memoir of a Forbidden Father-Daughter Union Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Way Better Than Popcorn: A True Story of Survival and Healing Beyond All Odds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stanzas and Stuff Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Paths Between The Stars: Book One of the Many Skies Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMask Me: Empyrean Club, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe First Chronicles of the Moksha. Re-Awakening Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVampires & Underwires Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLayered: Self-Created Demise Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFirebolt: The Dragonian Series, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daughter of Time Trilogy: Reader, Writer, Maker: Daughter of Time Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A Sign of Light Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Forever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Science Fiction For You
This Is How You Lose the Time War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wool: Book One of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Camp Zero: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silo Series Collection: Wool, Shift, Dust, and Silo Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories of Ray Bradbury Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cryptonomicon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Am Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Institute: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Annihilation: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Who Have Never Known Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Psalm for the Wild-Built Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dust: Book Three of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shift: Book Two of the Silo Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sarah J. Maas: Series Reading Order - with Summaries & Checklist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Troop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frankenstein: Original 1818 Uncensored Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How High We Go in the Dark: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5That Hideous Strength: (Space Trilogy, Book Three) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brandon Sanderson: Best Reading Order - with Summaries & Checklist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rendezvous with Rama Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prophet Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Perelandra: (Space Trilogy, Book Two) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Ball Lightning
122 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A hard slog.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another good book by Liu. Worth reading, but sometimes gets a little pedantic. Discovering Cixin Liu's science fiction has been a high-point of my recent reading experiences. If you haven't read his books, now is a good time to begin.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Not worth reading. I loved the Three body problem. Poor English translation also.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The story of a scientists quest for understanding the ball lighting phenomenon. Really great world building and fascinating characters.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A well paced science fiction novel with some strange interpretations of quantum and uncertainty effects. I don't think observation works the way it does in this novel in a sort of abstract way. The pace works well with the material with only a bit of drag, but the agency of the young major Lin Yun seems way beyond any sense, especially with general dad. A real treasure appears on pg 153 - Diaoyutai State Guest House. All those vowel vastly outnumbering the consonants.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Like the collapse of the probability function into the tast of gunpowder tea.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I recently read Cixin Liu’s science fiction Three Body Problem trilogy, and was pretty much blown away. The second book in the series, The Dark Forest, may be the finest science fiction work I have ever read (and I’ve read hundreds). I was anxious to read more of his work and purchased a collection of short stories as soon as I found it. Overall, it was a good read, just not up to the level of the trilogy. This novel, while recently translated into English, was actually written prior to the Three Body Problem. The subject is the atmospheric phenomenon of ball lightning and a group of researchers and military personnel that study it, capture it and attempt to weaponize it. I found the early parts of the novel to drag somewhat, but then advance strongly to a powerful ending. The story has a good amount of highly technical language and theories concerning quantum mechanics, which are obviously over the head of almost anyone reading the book, however the author does a masterful job of making the story readable and understandable, without the necessity of a graduate level degree in physics. Cixin Liu is a fantastic story teller and a master in the field of science fiction.
1 person found this helpful