Liu Cixin

Liu Cixin (simplified Chinese: 刘慈欣; traditional Chinese: 劉慈欣; pinyin: Liú Cíxīn, IPA: [ljǒu tsʰɨ̌ɕín]; born 1963) is a Chinese science fiction writer.^[1] He is a nine-time winner of the Galaxy Award (China's most prestigious literary science fiction award) and winner of the Hugo Award.^[2] Liu's work is considered hard science fiction. In English translations of his works, his name is given in the form Cixin Liu.

Life

Liu Cixin was born on 23 June 1963 in Yangquan, Shanxi. Liu's parents worked in a mine in Shanxi. Due to the violence of the Cultural Revolution he was sent to live in his ancestral home in Luoshan County, Henan.^[3]

Liu received technical training from North China University of Water Conservancy and Electric Power, graduating in 1988. He has worked as a computer engineer for a power plant located in Yangquan, Shanxi.

Liu is married and has a daughter. His wife and daughter almost never read his works. ^[4]

Writing

Liu's most famous work, The Three-Body Problem, was published in 2007. It was translated into English by Ken Liu and published by Tor Books in November 2014, and won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel.^[5] He was the first Asian writer to win "Best Novel".^[6] A more complete and faithful translation into German followed in 2016.^[7]

A film adaptation of The Three-Body Problem is scheduled to be released in 2017.^[8]

Bibliography

Novels

• The Devil's Bricks (魔鬼积木) (2002)
• The Era of Supernova (超新星纪元) (2003)
• Ball Lightning (球状闪电) (2004)
• The Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy (published in English by Tor Books since 2014):
  • The Three-Body Problem (三体) (2007)
  • The Dark Forest (黑暗森林) (2008)
  • Death's End (死神永生) (2010)

Short story collections

• The Longest Fall (地球大炮) (1998)
• The Micro-Age (微纪元) (1998)
• The Whale's song (鲸歌) (1999)
• With Her Eyes (带上她的眼睛) (1999; republished 2004)
• Inferno (地火) (2000)
• The Wandering Earth (流浪地球) (2000)
• The Rural Teacher (乡村教师) (2001)
• Full Spectrum Barrage Jamming (全频带阻塞干扰) (2001)
• Devourer (吞食者) (2002)
• The Glory and the Dream (光荣与梦想) (2003)
• Of Ants and Dinosaurs (白垩纪往事) (2003)
• The Wages of Humanity (赡养人类) (2005)
• Mountain (山) (2006)
• Migration across Time (时间移民) (2014)
• 2018 (2014)
• Sea of Dreams（梦之海） (2015)
• "Weight Of Memories" (2016)

Awards

• Nine-time winner of Kehuan Shijie ["SF World"] Yinhe (Chinese Galaxy) Award: 1999–2006, 2010.
• World Chinese Science Fiction Association's Xingyun (Nebula) Award for best writer: 2010.
• 2015 Hugo Award in Best Novel, for English language version of The Three Body Problem
• 2015 Xingyun Award for Best Achievement^[9]

References

External links

• Liu Cixin's blog
• Entry in Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
• Books By Cixin Liu
• Liu Cixin at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Starosta, Stuart (17 November 2015). "Interview at Fantasy Literature". FantasyLiterature.com.