Ball Lightning

Author: Cixin Liu
Genre: Science Fiction

Summary: When Chen was 14, his parents got incinerated by mysterious ball lightning in front of him. After this experience, Chen devotes his life to learn the secrets of this mysterious force of nature. On his quest, he slowly unfolds the mystery of ball lightning with the help of Major Lin Yun, a smart and beautiful woman who is obsessed with weapons and war, and Ding Yi, a renowned physicist. All three of them wants to uncover the secrets of Ball Lightning, but each of them have different ethics. Where Chen is idealistic and curious, Lin is driven and goal-oriented and wants to weaponize Ball Lightning and Ding Yi is just in the pursuit of knowledge without any moral inclination.
As the research progresses, they discover Ball Lightning is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a whole new universe to explore. Chinese military piles resources into ball lightning weapons and this bring the conflict between Chen and the other two in the forefront. But by the time he realizes the implications, the fate of the whole world has been already changed.

My Thoughts: “The Remembrance of Earth’s Past” (aka Three Body Problem) trilogy by Cixin Liu, is my all-time favorite science fiction series. It has every ingredient for excellent science fiction. It was bold, hugely ambitious, imaginative, full of complex yet exciting physics, fast paced and had a great story. It was so good that even, while it was set up in the backdrop of China and very local in its roots, it transcended the borders and became an international phenomenon. It brought Liu a very well-deserved international fame and fan base. I am part of that fandom. Liu is good at taking up an aspect and building a complex theory around it which powers his story and this makes him one of the finest hard science fiction writers out there. 
So, it was quite natural for me to go into this book with huge expectations after all this book followed the Three Body Problem (TBP) series.
There are a lot of things to like in this book. Let me begin with Science. I have already said; Liu has a gift to create hard and elaborate science fictions. He hasn’t disappointed here either. The science of Ball Lightning might not be as grand as The Three Body problem, but it’s in no means less visionary. Liu took an unexplained phenomenon, whose existence has been accepted and has weaved a very astute theory around it. As soon as he establishes Ball Lightning as a macro electron, he opens a whole new avenue for him to explore. And it’s not very difficult to think how this is going to unfold because once he establishes this link between microparticles and macroparticles, he just needed to apply the current quantum physics principles on macroparticles. And voila! You have an entirely new universe which is grander and fascinating. As the mystery behind Ball lightning unravels, the implications of this new particle’s existence become more mind-blowing. His love for science fiction is visible when he describes the different aspects of macroparticle theory. The way he uses metaphors to convey the complex arguments is almost poetic. And a special shout out to Joel Martinsen for preserving this while translating the book from Chinese to English. 
The use of Ball Lightning in technology is also quite brilliant. The weapons which can selectively target electronics or organic things or just the structure of the building. Doesn’t this sound amazing?
One more thing that Liu excels is embedding some profound social commentary and philosophies in his narration. Just like TBP he has incorporated some of the issues that have marred our society in recent years. One of such topics that he has raised is weaponization of technology and science though he has presented some conflicting arguments supporting both the fronts.

“True beauty needs to be supported by an internal strength and develop itself through sensations like terror and brutality, from which you can both draw strength and meet your death. In weapons, this beauty is expressed to the full.”

“Fearsome things may fell your countrymen and your family or strike the tender flesh of the child in your arms, but the best way to prevent this from happening is to create them yourselves, before the enemy or potential enemy has that chance!”

I am sure; now you must be thinking; this sounds like a fantastic book, then why just 3.5 out 5!

This brings me to the part where I tell you what didn’t work in this book.
I’ll start with the Story. In TBP you had a great alien invasion story accompanied by some cool science, there both were complimenting each other well. But in Ball Lightning, the story never develops fully, and at times it feels like, the science is carrying the story but not vice versa. Some great books suffer from this as well, e.g. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Also, a lot of things are not explained very well, especially the tension between China and some country (which I am sure is the USA). There are several mentions of the current state of international conflicts and a brewing war. But there is no explanation of why there is tension between the USA and China, what global events caused the battle between two countries and this being a driving force for a significant part of the story, one would expect it to be well explained. Apart from the story, the pacing of the book is also very inconsistent. Sometimes things happen fast, and sometimes the story moves at snail’s pace and this at times tests reader’s patience, and it tends to become a little annoying.
One more thing which is also a shortcoming in two of the books from TBP (The Three-Body Problem and Death’s End) is the characters. They are not very convincing. They don’t engage you with their story and motives. Chen being the main lead is at times not even a central part of the storyline. He becomes a mere narrator. Lin Yun’s character has some arc, and she’s one of the more complex female characters that I have come across, especially in science fiction. Still, she becomes very predictable and hardly surprises you. And Ding Yi is your quintessential nerdy, awkward and curious physicist.

I might have loved this book more if I didn’t have such high expectations and it is quite evident in this book review. But after TBP, I couldn’t help myself. Still, it is good standalone science fiction with some impressive and imaginative applications of physics, which are mind-boggling and will leave you scratching your head at several times. And, even with so many issues, this is still a good read for Cixin Liu fans or someone who likes good hard science fiction.

PS: A fun fact, Liu has mentioned this book as a loose prequel to The Three-body problem series. Which is something that might excite you if you are a fan of the series.

My Rating: