Book: Ball Lightning
Author: Cixin Liu (Translated by Joel Martinsen)
Themes:
Two of the main characters are greatly affected by events that happened to them as children. Most of the focus of their lives is around dealing with a traumatizing childhood event.
It’s impossible to make scientific or technological progress in civilian areas that won’t become somehow weaponized for the military. On the other hand, swords can be turned back into plowshares as well.
Notes:
Just like the Three Body Problem there’s a lot of hard science.
The idea of macro electrons and macro nuclei was fascinating and it leading to the ability for macro fusion was a cool touch.
I really liked the idea that there are weapons potentially more destructive than atomic weapons but not because they’re more blatantly destructive but because they’re able to target the weaknesses of modern societies, such as going after our dependence on technology. The idea that a group could hold the world hostage by pointing a gun at itself or its own technology was really interesting.
