Science fiction literature: a forward-looking reflection of the characteristics of The Times

In 2016, a total of 179 full-length science fiction, novellas and related books were published on the Chinese mainland, with diverse themes, stories, languages and technological Settings.

In 2016, a total of 179 full-length science fiction, novellas and related books were published on the Chinese mainland, including 102 local works and 77 imported translated works. From the published works, themes, stories, language and technological Settings are all emerging in a pluralistic situation, it is difficult to summarize in one direction or the other.

In terms of full-length works, Han Song's novel "Hospital" is the most prominent. The novel continues in the vein of previous works, such as Subway, High-speed Rail and Rail, as it shifts its focus from China's world-leading high-speed rail system to its much-criticized medical system in the process of reform. By his own admission, Han Song went to the hospital a lot over the years, and it was his real experiences that inspired him to write the novel. In the story, the hospital projects the universe, and the universe enters the hospital. To walk on the edge of a knife at the entrances and exits of soul and life does offer ineffable prohibitions. If there is such a thing as "science fiction realism", then Han Song is undoubtedly the leading figure of this genre.

Unlike Han Song, who probes into real life with a thistle-like burr, Jiang Bo's The Heart of the Galaxy is a masterpiece of sci-fi futurism that is completely free of reality. The novel is the conclusion of the trilogy. The story depicts the war and drifting that human beings have experienced in the large-scale universe background. It focuses on the grand beauty and is an important aspect of Jiang Bo's science fiction.

Liang Qingsan's "Xin Xin Daily News: Rise of Machinery" is a meta-science fiction. Story to a newspaper in the Republic of China era as a scene, all kinds of magical new inventions as an opportunity, tells the story of the failure of the reform movement, the land of China up a stock of new science and imagination of strange clouds. The novel adopts beaded structure, the whole article has the characteristics of light humor and thrilling suspense. This is the author after "Literary girl Detective" try light novel another kind of exploration.

Chen Yi-lu's "The Deleted People" describes the remote Venice every 100 years back and forth of the crowd, this group of people have a common secret, that is the obsession with the story. Why do they need stories? How does the story help them buy immortality? These are the attractions of the novel. Chen Yilu story in the kind of unique female feeling, is worth appreciating.

Wang Jinkang's "Heavenly Father and Earth Mother", adhering to the old writer's usual deep approach, and focused on imagining the situation of the human beings on another planet with highly developed technology and extreme moral scarcity. To some extent, the novel should be a response to the question of Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem.

This year, a number of original online literature with explicit science fiction characteristics appeared. Of these, Rainbow Gate's Age of Earth is hard science fiction. The novel is characteristically expansive, particularly in the second volume, which describes the 1,000-year Odyssey of a lone astronaut who alternates between sleeping and waking. Yubumi's book, Tales of Abnormal Creatures, has attracted millions of hits by blending the core aesthetic elements of science fiction with a light-hearted and entertaining style. My long and not lonely "Into the immortal" implanted in the world of the development of contemporary physics and mathematics, the beauty of science is vividly. In addition, Tiger Skin's "Sal Planet" and Zhao Yang's "Facebook" are also interesting works this year.

2016 saw an explosion in the number of science fiction novellas, with Zhang Ran's When the Sun Goes Down depicting the complex battle between terrorism and individual survival in a high-tech state. The novel's plot is unconventional, especially in portraying individual images and psychological development under extreme circumstances. Baoshu's "My College Entrance Examination" closely combines the present reality with the "singularity" shrouded in the near future, conceiving an amazing vision of the future while allowing readers to uncover hidden potential crises from the present. "Chimera" by Gu Shi merges the time span of one hundred years into the perspective transformation of the three main characters, and the ubiquitous clues of family love and desperate obsession are closely blended, making it an excellent story. In addition, Jiang Bo's "The Way of the Machine", Wang Kanyu's "Clouds and mist", are also worth seeing.

In terms of short stories, Chen Chuifan combines the currently extremely popular virtual reality technology with the local human feelings in Chaoshan area, the author's hometown, to write "Palin", trying to express the complex relationship between father and son with a biological body that looks like human but not human. The novel makes a valuable exploration of the emotional depth of science fiction. Xia Jia's "Goodnight, Melancholy" is the third story in the author's "Encyclopedia of China" series. The author seeks a tipping point between science fiction and high technology inspired by the Turing test for artificial intelligence. Xia Jia has said that she wants to create a "porridge" style of science fiction that is neither soft nor hard science fiction. This is not an intermediate state, but a state of innovation. We'll see what happens with Chagall.

In terms of science fiction for children and young adults, Yang Peng's new book, The Flight of a Blowhard, is unique. The book consists of four sci-fi stories, including The Flight of a Blowhard, Adventures in the Micro World, Waves of Love and When a Computer falls in love with a Computer. "Braggart aerospace" fantasy magnificent, vivid story, for the growth of young children will bring positive significance. Lin Yin's epistolary science fiction novel "Xu Xing Guang Guang" combines space exploration with summer camp life, which has a unique charm. Zhou Jingzhi's teen science fiction "Star Falls" series is a positive response to similar excellent works abroad. The story tells that 150 years later, all the satellites sent into space by human beings are infected with a virus and fall together. The plot twists and turns of the novel and the image is full, which has triggered a craze among readers.

Summary and Harvest

Classic works by well-known contemporary science fiction writers such as Liu Cixin, Wang Jinkang and Zhang Zhilu have been collected or republished in 2016. The recognition of Chinese science fiction writers at the international level shows that the development of Chinese science fiction literature does have sufficient strength.

In addition to enriching original works, classic works of contemporary famous science fiction writers are constantly being collected or republished. Liu Cixin's "Three-Body Problem" trilogy, "Supernova Age", "Ball Lightning", "The Wandering Earth" and "Caring for Humanity" remain on the list. Wang Jinkang's "The Cross", Jiang Nan's "Shanghai Fortress", Hao Jingfang's "Wandering Heaven", "Deep Loneliness", "To the Distance", Zhang Zhilu "Thunderbolt Beibei" and "Magic Watch" all achieved good results. In addition to the namesake novella, Feidei's Long Journey to Die also selects three short sci-fi stories on the theme of robots to explore the meaning of life in a very personal style. "Fire Dance" in the early morning contains nine important works since 1998, which clearly shows the evolution of the author's style. "2015 China's Best Science Fiction Works" edited by Yao Haijun and "2015 China's Annual Science Fiction" edited by Xing He and Wang Fengzhen continue to summarize the previous year's creation situation. "Tipping point: 2015 future science fiction master awards TOP15" and other award-winning works compiled by the organizing committee of future science fiction masters awards also reviewed the sci-fi creations of the new talent of the year.

Last year, the Gold Award for novel of the World Chinese Science Fiction Nebula Award went to Jiang Bo's Heart of the Galaxy 3: Chasing the Light from Shadow to Shadow, while the Gold award for novella went to Zhang Ran's When the Sun Goes Down and Gu Shi's Chimera, and Chen Chufan's Palin won the Gold award for short story. The Water Drop Award is more complex, micro films, scripts, comics and so on have been awarded. Among them, Feng Zhigang's script "Day after day", the universe of comics "the city of innocence" respectively won the first prize.

What surprised us most, of course, was the coronation of young writer Hao Jingfang by the Hugo Award Committee for Science Fiction. The fact that both young science fiction writers and the older generation of science fiction writers can win awards in the United States shows that the development of Chinese science fiction does have sufficient strength.

The past year has also been a boom year for imported science fiction. Different publishing houses also show different tastes. It is impossible to list all the imported books here. Just pick up some of the works we have seen for readers' reference. In the past year, sales of Orson Scott Card's "Ender" series have also continued to soar, in addition to the continued publication of the series co-produced by Sichuan Science and Technology Press and Science Fiction World. Ray Bradbury, Kim Stanley Robinson, Marissa Mayer, Scott Hawkins, Hanu Rayaniemi, Sakyo Komatsu and other works of different nationalities, eras, and styles have all been tested in the market. In particular, Rising Star's four-volume "Ray Bradbury Selected Short Stories" was the best bound. The quality of selected translations in the anthology is excellent. In addition, the Hundred Sons of Earth series published by Sichuan Tiandi Press, Star Trek series published by Sichuan People's Publishing House and Star Wars series published by Tsinghua University Press all echo with the release of films and TV series of the same name, which are good attempts of simultaneous films and TV series.