【Goodreads】英文版《球状闪电》书评之一 [美国媒体]

Reviews on Ball Lightning

【Goodreads】英文版《球状闪电》书评之一

Aug 22, 2018
Ursin Raffainer rated it 4星
As expected, once again a brilliant book by Cixin Liu.

与期待的一样，又是一本刘慈欣的佳作。

Ok, you dont necessarily bond with the MC but his life between Obsession and the search for purpose in his life easily make you care enough. I read the book in 2 days because i wanted to know what happens next. Its a real page turner.

你不必寄情于主人公，但他一边寻找人生意义一边又执迷不误，这样的人生轨迹会让你对他关注有加。我两天读完这本书，就是想知道后来发生了什么。真是本好看的书。

Also as expected from Cixin Liu, the book has a few very technical parts which might be hard to understand/follow for some. Especially the Quantum Physics parts.
But i loved how he explores the possibilities of physics in his charateristic imaginative way.

与期待的刘慈欣作品一样，本作同样有一些非常科技的部分，可能对某些人来说难以理解/跟上，尤其是量子物理部分。
但我非常喜爱他用极富个性的想象方式来探讨物理学的可能性。



Aug 20, 2018
BridgetT rated it 3星
2.5 stars.
Maybe just a bit too much science in the SF mix for me.
But it made me aware of the phenomenon of ball lightning.
It made me think about the mysterious 'min min lights' in Australia.
I even googled it.
This is a good read even though I skimmed some words.

2.5星
或许对我来说，这本科幻小说科学方面太多了点。
但让我意识到有球状闪电这种自然现象。
让我想到澳大利亚的神秘的“min min光”。
我甚至谷歌了它。
这本书不错，即使我略过了一些看不懂的词。

Aug 20, 2018
Nilesh rated it 4星
Every author can have only one best work! This is going to be Cixin Liu's biggest, forever problem. Three Body series was so extraordinary that it is nearly impossible to surpass, and yet everything before or after from the author will be compared against this impossible yardstick.

每个作家最好的作品只能有唯一！这将是刘慈欣最大的永恒的问题。三体系列如此超凡脱俗，几乎无可超越，作者之前之后的所有作品都会被拿来与这不可能（被逾越）的标杆相比较。

Ball Lightning is tremendously imaginative. Unlike in the Trilogy though, the creativity is largely based on a single strand of sci-fi thought. The story, however, is full of good twists and turns until at the climax where it turns almost over-the-top conventional. Despite the author's great narrative skills, the technical details get overbearing too at times, and yet, some of the ball lightning selective destructions or macro quantum states have been left inadequately explained.

《球状闪电》非常的有想象力。尽管与三体三部曲不同，本书的创意很大程度上基于科幻思路的单一分支。高潮之前的故事充满一波三折柳暗花明，然而高潮部分太太太常规了。此外尽管作者有着高超的叙事技巧，但科技的细节有时也让人不堪重负，而且关于球状闪电的选择性毁灭以及宏量子态的部分并没有充分阐释。

All this takes nothing away from either the author's brilliant imagination or the novel's overall fun/reading value. Nothing that one reads here is available in almost any similar form anywhere in the wide world of global literature of any kind. I feel that I would have given the book the full rating if I had not read the 3BP or if 3BP and this were written by separate authors! (less)

当然这些不会抵消作者美妙的想象力或是小说总体的娱乐/阅读的价值。在全世界任何文学类型的任何作品里都不会读到类似本书的内容。如果没有看过三体或是这两本作品非同一作者所着，我认为我会给本作打满分。



If I may keep Three Body Problem as the reference, Ball Lightning can be considered as a story co-existing in or parallel to that timeline, with plot opening in modern China, post Cultural Revolution. Book is written in first person, except for later half, through the eyes of Dr. Chen who has dedicated his life for understanding the phenomenon of ball lightning, having lost his parents to the same as a child. The fictional narrative is intertwined in post Cold War era, with real people, diplomacy and confrontational events like Vietnam war, Zhenbao island incident etc. making cameo appearances. An imminent or on-going war keeps China restive, focusing its energy and resources towards weapon research; and Cheng finds himself applying his atmospheric science expertise into that domain with other scientists as Lin Yun and Ding Yi. From this premise, author ups the game by challenging our fundamental understanding of laws of Physics, often opening the constraints and repeatedly changing the boundary conditions. It’s both ridiculous and amazing at the same time.

如果仍以三体作为参考，《球状闪电》可被认作同时存在或平行时间线的故事，发生在文/革之后的现代中国。以第一人称视角描写，而在书的后半部分，则是通过陈博士的视角。陈博士幼年因球状闪电失去双亲，所以将毕生精力投入研究球状闪电这个自然现象。此虚构的叙事内容将后冷战时期与真实的人物、外交、冲突事件如越战和珍宝岛事件交织在一起。一场迫在眉睫的战争让中国寝食难安，在武器研究上倾尽全力和资源。陈发觉自己的大气科学的专长，连同其他科学家如林云和丁仪，被应用于武器领域。以此为前提，作者通过挑战物理定律的基础认知、不时打破限制、并反复转变边界条件
来提升精彩程度，使得本作即荒谬又奇妙。

As usual, fleshed narratives, developed characters and poetic embellishments aren't Liu's selling point. It is the idea, and the science he uses to back it up. This book isn't any different; he translates the hard science into a palpable language using analogies, passing references and seemingly insignificant details that make up the very knot binding the whole plot up later. His portrayal of scientific community and research campaigns were quite realistic, except for certain things such as protagonist's idealistic PhD defence or peers who are too open for their own good. Yet, many a times, I found myself shaking my head in concurrence with author, like Ding Yi, unsure whether it's my own lack of understanding or Liu’s fiction going off the scientific reservations. He then turns the narrative and scope by applying quantum mechanics and uncertainty into the very realm that made them enigmatic and outlandish- classical mechanics. And plays Heisenberg on macroscale, by making uncertainty as something observer based, a binary, switchable by state function. Soon, ball lightning is not a phenomenon that needs a physics solution nor the book is an invention story about the very tech those explanations made possible. Whole narrative becomes a Schrodinger's cat, one that turns definite events into probabilities collapsible by observer based state functions. The realization leaves readers in a collapsible state as well, similar in terms of digesting the idea. Then on wards, the nit-pickings on writings and translation seem rather insignificant; reasons might vary from an overwhelmed reader to new fodder to rant on though.

如往常一样，有血有肉的叙事内容、生动塑造的人物角色、以及辞藻华丽的修辞手法并非刘慈欣的卖点；新奇点子和科学性才是他作品的主心骨。本作也不例外，为了将硬科学转化为浅显的语言，他采用类比的修辞手法，并带入注释和看似不重要的细节，这些细节作为节点将后文的情节紧密联系在一起。他对科学界和科研任务的描摹大体上相当真实，部分情况例外，比如主人公那理想主义的博士论文答辩或是太过心直口快的同僚。然而有许多次，当我发觉自己与作者不约而同地一起摇头叹气，不清楚到底是我自己缺乏理解能力还是刘慈欣的小说脱离了科学疆域之时，他随即通过将量子力学和测不准原理应用于特定范畴，使其变为高深又荒诞的类经典力学，从而将故事内容和视野范畴改变。

他还在宏观上用到海森堡的理论，将测不准原理释作某种基于观察者的、二重性的、根据状态函数而转换的东西。很快你会发现，球状闪电既不是需要物理方案解决的自然现象，本作也不是合理解释某项技术的“发明故事”。整个故事内容变成了薛定谔的猫，将确定的事件变成基于观察者的状态函数所决定的坍缩概率。意识到这点，会让读者同样进入坍缩态；能否消化这个点子，读者亦如此（进入坍缩态）。进一步看，在写作和翻译方面吹毛求疵似乎相当无关紧要；打心底折服的读者或是抨击谩骂的弃坑新人，对此的看法会因人而异。

I came to find respect in the fact that the book withheld a lot of temptations in terms of scope. It kept its prime focus is on Meteorology and Atmospheric Science without indulging into the popular temptation of climate change. It terms of genre, if we may consider the book a military sci fi, it didn't even nudge towards the boundaries of space opera. Even while invoking an Interstellar 'Murph' moment, the book kept itself in the so called quantum realm (a bit Antman-ish), well away from crowd favourite FTL or relativity. I also liked story's commitment to the events described; almost or everything had a purpose and book was keen to attach a scientific aspect to them all. Even emotional scenes that easily get passes had explanative appendages like, "from the perspective of quantum mechanics, death is the process of transitioning from a strong observer to a weak observer, and then to a non-observer”. Well, there were things that were too coincidental even for fiction, and annoyances like characters being too formal, lyrical or poetic in normal conversations; sometimes, too conspicuous to blame translation as a get out jail card.

本作拒绝了很多领域里的诱惑，对此我肃然起敬。它将注意力着重放在气象学和大气科学上，并没有受到诱惑去写时髦的气候变化。它定义了新的文学体裁，我们可以认为这是“军事科幻”，连太空歌剧的边都不沾。即使本作能让人联想到电影《星际穿越》主人公墨菲那段经典场景，但仍自我克制在所谓的量子领域（有点类似《蚁人》），完全避开了大众青睐的超光速等科幻元素。我也喜欢故事里描绘的历史事件，几乎所有人事物都有明确作用，且各自与科学方面相关联。即使能轻易忽略的情感场面也起到解释作用，比如“从量子力学的角度来讲，人的死亡过程就是由一个强观察者变为弱观察者再变为非观察者的过程”。唔，有些部分即使就小说而言也太巧合了，还有恼人的是人物在正常对话时的用语也太正式太抒情，有时很明显是翻译的锅。

“If you are really able to prove that a super-observer is watching our world, then human activity becomes very indiscreet....?You could say human society is in a quantum state, and a super-observer will force it to collapse to a state of reason again.”

“如果真的能证明存在一个超级观察者在观察着我们的世界，那人类的行为就检点多了……真的，人类社会也很像是处于不确定的量子态，一个超级观察者能令它坍缩回理智状态。”




Aug 19, 2018
Eric rated it 5星
Another really great story from the leading Chinese author of sci-fi. What a fantastic and novel explanation he came up with for ball lightning. The book even acts as a bit of prequel to the Three Body series.

又一本中国顶尖科幻作家刘慈欣的好书。他给球状闪电想出来如此美妙新奇的解释。本作可略微看作三体系列的前传。


Aug 18, 2018
Claudia rated it 3星
Three Body is my favorite SF series of all times. It surpasses everything I ever read. The protons theory, the two and four dimensions universes, the scope, the droplet, the Singer, in a word The Imagination blew my mind. I expected nothing less from this one, but it did not quite raise to the expectations.

三体系列是我永远的科幻最爱。它超越了我曾读过的所有科幻。智子、二维和四维宇宙、宏大的范围、水滴、歌者等等，用一个词形容就是想象突破天际。对本作，我的期待不亚于三体，但还是离我的期待有些距离。

Chen, as a fourteen-year-old boy, watched his parents turn to ashes from a ball lightning. From that moment on, he dedicated his life in understanding it. Later on, in order to pursue his lifetime obsession, he gets coopted in some military experiments, each striving for something else out of them. The story is just the base on which Liu Cixin builds his amazing ideas.

十四岁男生的陈，目睹双亲被球状闪电化为灰烬。从那一刻起，他将此生献给了研究球闪的事业。后来，为了追逐毕生的执迷，他获得指派参与几项别有所图的军方试验。故事内容就基于刘慈欣奇妙的点子之上。

Ball-lightning is a natural phenomenon, not quite understood to this very day. What the author does here is to provide the most unlikely and mind-boggling explanation for its nature. Extrapolating on this, he reaches into macro quantum physics and beyond, providing some awestruck moments. The current take on Schrodinger’s paradox gave me the creeps.

球状闪电是一种自然现象，至今仍所知不多。作者在这本书里给出了最天方夜谭难以置信的解释。于此之上，他推导出宏量子物理等等，真是让人肃然起敬的片段。而薛定谔悖论那段情节让我毛骨悚然。

Most readers complain about the flat characters. If you really pay attention to the story, you realize that characters are just secondary, a mean to advance the story and give it a plot of some sort. The main character is science fiction, not necessarily in genre, but in setup construction.

许多读者抱怨扁平的人物角色。如果你真的关注故事内容，会意识到人物只是次要的，是用来推动故事前进赋予故事剧情的手段。主人公其实是科幻本身，科幻不一定是文学体裁，而可以是组成结构。



Aug 18, 2018
Azeem Azhar rated it 5星
Recommended

值得推荐

Liu’s writing combines a hard science fiction with a Chinese perspective. It gives the characters and lot a quality we don’t often get in the UK.

刘慈欣的文字将中国人的视角与硬科幻结合起来，赋予了角色许多英国读者不常见的特质。

Aug 16, 2018
Mario Lopez rated it 3星
The first half of the book was a bit weak, but right at the middle there’s some heavy science fiction thrown in that’s fantastic.

书的前半部分有点弱，但从中间开始，就有很棒的硬科幻内容。

Cixin Liu is one of my favorite authors. I’ve read almost all of his English translated short stories, and I’ve read the Remembrance of Earth's Past (Three Body Problem) trilogy twice.

刘慈欣是我最喜爱的作家之一，他的几乎所有英译版的短篇我都读过，我还读过地球往事（三体）三部曲两遍。

This book, however, was probably his weakest one from the bunch. The second half makes it worth reading, but I wouldn’t rush to go read it.

然而，本作应该是他的作品集里最弱的一本，后半部分让本作值得一读，但我不会急着看完。