刘慈欣在《死神永生》里描绘处于危难的宇宙 [美国媒体]

Book Review: Cixin Liu portrays a universe in peril in 'Death's End'
 Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 2:02 p.m. CDT September 23, 2016



In Cixin Liu's novel "Death's End," the only human embedded in a hostile alien culture tells the woman he has long adored a fairy tale about an ancient kingdom where an artist does away with people by imprisoning them in his exquisite paintings.

在刘慈欣的小说《死神永生》里，唯一融入敌对外星文化的人类给他钦慕已久的恋人讲了个童话故事：从前有个王国，那里有个画家大变活人把人关在他的精美绝伦的画里。

Later, the brightest minds of the woman's world study the story from every angle, looking within it for the secrets that will allow them to save humanity, maybe even the entire universe, from annihilation. They find remarkable things, including the possibility of changing the speed of light. But they never exhaust the story's gifts.

之后，那个恋人所处的世界里最聪明的头脑从各个角度研究分析这个故事，从中探究能拯救人类甚至整个宇宙免遭涂炭的秘密。他们发现了不得了的东西，包括改变光速的可能性，但未能彻底研究出故事里所有的秘密。

Like those scientists, I can pull many marvels out of "Death's End," the final book in Liu's mind-blowing science-fiction trilogy: space cities orbiting Jupiter, an unexpected view of our reality from inside the fourth dimension, the deliberate bursting of a star — and the tender regard of a man for a woman (and vice versa) that carries each through centuries of struggle. But, unlike the malevolent artist of the tale, I'll never be able to contain Liu's riches in a simple document.

就像前面说的科学家一样，我也能从刘慈欣大开眼界的科幻三部曲的最后一部《死神永生》里扯出许多啧啧称奇的内容：围绕木星的太空城、从难以预料的四维角度观察我们自身、故意炸掉一颗恒星、还有一对男女跨越千年传递的柔情问候。但是，我没法像童话里的邪恶画家一样，把刘的丰富内容用一纸尽揽。

Instead, I'll simply gape in amazement at a trilogy that belongs in the pantheon with the greatest works of Arthur C. Clarke, one of Liu's self-declared precursors. Liu offers brain-busting thrills for the reader who thrives on hard-science speculation, but has plenty of love for the troubled human conscience, too.

相反，我只能对着这部能够比肩刘慈欣最崇敬前辈之一的阿瑟·C·克拉克的最优秀作品，一起配享于艺术万神殿的三部曲，欣喜得目瞪口呆，

Liu, 53, a former power plant engineer, has sold more than 1 million copies of the novels in this trilogy in his native China. Ken Liu's English translation of "The Three-Body Problem," the trilogy's first novel, won the 2015 Hugo award. Ken Liu, a graceful writer of speculative fiction himself (and no relation to Cixin Liu), also translated "Death's End."

现年53岁曾是电厂工程师的刘慈欣，在他的祖国中国售出该三部曲超过一百万册。由刘宇昆翻译的英语版《三体》，获得了2015年雨果奖。刘宇昆本人亦是一位优秀的幻想小说作家，《死神永生》也是由他翻译。

In "The Three-Body Problem," humanity makes first contact with the Trisolarans, whose harsh, unstable world is approaching destruction. Unfortunately for people, the technologically superior Trisolarans have decided to colonize Earth and wipe out the human vermin. In the second novel, "The Dark Forest," creative-thinking astronomer Luo Ji lands on a deterrent that will slow the Trisolarans down: He demonstrates that exposing the position of the Trisolarans' home planet in space leaves them to open to destruction by unknown, superior entities.

《三体》里，人类首次接触三体人，他们的严酷又混乱的世界濒于毁灭。对人类不幸的是，占科技优势的三体人决定殖民地球并消灭人类害虫。在第二部《死神永生》里，有创新思维的天文学家罗辑发出了让三体人彳亍的威慑：他演示了如何向太空暴露三体母星的位置，使其可能招致未知高级文明的毁灭打击。

"Death's End" plays out the implications of the "dark forest" theory that stellar civilizations, in the effort to ensure their own survival, would tend to destroy any other civilizations whose existence they discovered. For a time, humanity is in a tense stalemate of non-exposure with the approaching Trisolaran fleet, while pursuing multiple possible solutions to its own survival.

《死神永生》将“黑暗森林理论”的暗示进一步展开，星际文明为确保自身的生存，会倾向于毁灭其他已知存在的文明。人类曾一度同不断接近的三体舰队保持着紧张的僵局，而三体人为了生存而追求所有可能的解决方案。

While Luo Ji returns in "Death's End," the novel's chief (but far from only) viewpoint character is Cheng Xin, a young woman who will several times be placed in the position of making critical decisions about human survival. Through long periods of hibernation, she lives over centuries, bringing a world view not unlike our own into futures dizzyingly changed.

尽管罗辑也回归《死神永生》，但书中主要（并非唯一主要）的人称视角是程心，这个年轻女子将数次被安排在为人类存亡作关键决定的位置上。经历漫长的冬眠，历经千年的生命，她让我们一窥这个不同于我们世界的变迁得令人目眩的未来。



Either through conscious homage or contact with the archetypal substrate, "Death's End" evokes great moments of classic science fiction: the black monolith of Clarke's "2001," Larry Niven's "Ringworld," and particularly the interdimensional thought experiments of Edwin A. Abbott's "Flatland." (In a most surprisingly place, the novel also quotes "Gone With the Wind.")

《死神永生》让我们想起经典科幻小说的伟大时刻：克拉克的《2001太空漫游》里的“黑石”，拉里·尼文的《环形世界》，尤其是埃德温·A·艾博特的《平地：多维的浪漫》这件跨维度思想实验作品。（在最令人吃惊的地方，这本小说还引用了《飘》）

While I enjoy these touchstones, as an American reader I also relish what Liu brings to the novel as a man who grew up during China's Cultural Revolution (a painful period dramatized in "The Three-Body Problem"). Scientific questions in the trilogy are scrutinized by some characters from political or right-thinking points of view; people go from being viewed as heroes to public enemies in a short time for the same action. Distinctive Trisolaran technologies monitor everything humans say and do everywhere, forcing creativity on the part of those humans who would conspire together.

我欣赏这些试金石作品，作为美国读者我也很欣赏刘慈欣以一个中国文/革时期（在《三体》里戏剧化的痛苦时期）过来人带给本书的经历。三部曲里的科学问题由部分角色从政治角度或正直角度仔细审视；同样的行为可以让一个人短时间内从英雄沦为全民公敌。独特的三体科技监视每一个角落的每一个人的言行，迫使这些人类同谋者别出心裁。

Cheng Xin lives out Sheldon Kopp's sobering dictum that important decisions must be made on the basis of insufficient data, but we are still responsible for everything we do. I would not want to be in her shoes, but I am grateful for the ride that she, Luo Ji and Cixin Liu have taken me on, and highly recommend it to you.

Sheldon Kopp有句深刻的名言“重要决定往往是在数据不充分的基础上作出的”，程心熬过了这样的人生，但我们还是要为自己的所作所为负责。我不愿处在她的位置，但感谢她、罗辑还有刘慈欣带我看过一路的风景，也强烈推荐给你们。
【Sheldon Kopp是着名的美国心理学家和作家】