Thank you Netgalley, publisher Macmillan Audio (Tor Books) and author Cixin Liu for providing this audio review copy (advanced listening copy? Whatever you wanna call it!) All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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My first audio review copy! Also my first Cixin Liu (although The Three Body Problem is on my TBR). Also my first collection of essays and short stories. Lots of firsts! I'm excited. Can ya tell?

It doesn't hurt that I also read a book narrated by the same narrator, Brian Nishii, earlier this month. Nishii is a fantastic narrator and it was pleasantly surprising to see his range when I went from listening to The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang, an upbeat but heartfelt and vulnerable rom-com, to this collection of short stories and essays that, while are sci-fi in nature, actually seem to trend closer to sci-fi-suspense-thriller with maybe even a sprinkling of horror.

In much the same way Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and 1984 mess with one's sense of reality, so too does A View From the Stars. Many of the short stories have that old, classic sci-fi feel of existential dread that is just done so well. Cixin Liu is really a master at building suspense. At times, I even had chills. Most of the short stories were vignette style, like we, the outside reader, were being offered a glimpse into a scene inside a larger story. Some had ambiguous endings, some had catastrophic endings, and frankly I don't think any had actual happy endings, but all were enjoyable. There was only one short story I didn't particularly love because I felt it leaned far more philosophical than scientific (to clarify: many short stories explore the idea of humanity and science in a somewhat philosophical way, but one was definitely more philosophical), and I came here for quarks and wormholes, not "What is the meaning of life, the universe, everything?" (FORTY-TWO, BABY, IT IS FORTY-TWO.)

For the essays, I honestly was so surprised. This is, I'm pretty confident, a testament to my age, but I was surprised just how long some of these sci-fi concepts have been around, and again surprised to listen to some of the earlier essays, from around the time I was born (yikes) and I would think to myself "Hey, we have that tech now!" and that's pretty neat. Or, in other cases, we're exploring the implementation of such tech, and developing theories and prototypes behind it. It's weird, but neat. Cixin Liu frequently compared science fiction to dreaming, and he's not wrong. Just look at Star Trek: everyone thought video communications was so wild and abstract, but everyone has the capability these days stored in a pocket-sized device.

If you enjoy classic science fiction, and you enjoy content that might make you stop and think and scratch your head, this is absolutely a must-read. That feeling of the dangerous and reckless pursuit of knowledge (in the vein of Jurassic Park: just because you can, doesn't mean you should) echoes through most of the short stories and even some of the essays. One could even say, like Jurassic Park, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and 1984, A View From The Stars is not just a collection of essays and short stories but also a collection of brutally honest-- and at times hopeful-- observations, and cautionary tales. It could keep you up at night.

Audiobook production was awesome. I liked how the chapters intertwine with each other, where there are short stories and essays. It allowed me to know the author a bit better in his world view.

If you have not read Cixin Liu’s work before I do not recommend this as a starting point. (If you are looking to start reading his work I recommend:
Supernova Era - if you enjoy apocalyptic style science fiction - It’s lord of the flies meets end of the world.
Ball Lightening - It’s a good starting point for hard science fiction to see if you would enjoy the Three Body Problem series
The Cretaceous Past - It’s an interesting and thought provoking short story about aunts & dinosaurs co existing.)

I feel like this was a little disjointed in the way it was put together. I know it followed a type of theme leading into one another but it didn’t feel that way. I also have a hard time with having both non fiction (essays) & fiction (short story formatting) all mixed together. I would’ve loved for this to be two separate volumes, one for all Liu’s essays and thoughts, and one for his short stories.

This is not to say I did not enjoy it. I did find it interesting at times. I enjoyed learning more about the history of Chinese science fiction and a “behind the scenes” look at some of his previous novels. I also enjoyed the short stories. However, unless you know it’s a mix of essays, thoughts of various topics, and fictional short stories, this is not an easy one to jump into.

I was so excited and thankful when I received this earc from NetGalley and the publisher! Especially right about the same time as The Three Body Problem series dropped on Netflix - one of the greatest sci fi series! This collection is mostly short essays which are non fiction. Science isn’t my favorite topic by any means but I still found it fascinating to learn about various topics from this great writer!

A View from the Stars: Stories and Essays
by Cixin Liu
A collection of essays, and stories from the phenomenal author Cixin Liu. He speaks not only of Science fiction in China but through out the world. His expressed inspiration, reasoning, and diligence for the genre in China and around the world. He shows the future nature of Chinese Science fiction, but also the struggles of the past that many of its authors and fans had to conflict with. The book is something that should be read by authors, inspiring authors and students of literature. The dynamics of his stories is broad, and based in physics more than any other scientific field.

A Glimpse into the Mind of a Sci-Fi Master: A Review of A View from the Stars
Cixin Liu, the Hugo Award-winning author of the "Three-Body Problem" trilogy, offers a unique perspective into his creative mind with "A View from the Stars." Published in April 2024, this collection isn't a novel, but rather a treasure trove of Liu's short stories and essays, presented for the first time in English.

Here's what you can expect:

Genre-Bending Stories: The short fiction showcases Liu's mastery of science fiction. He tackles diverse themes, from mind-bending concepts of time travel ("Time Enough for Love") to the societal impact of technological advancement ("The Whale Goes Up in the Sky").
A Window into the Author's Journey: Interspersed among the stories are essays and interviews. Liu reflects on his experiences as a reader and writer, giving readers a glimpse into the inspirations and philosophies behind his work. He delves into his thoughts on the role of science fiction in China and the genre as a whole.
Evolution of a Sci-Fi Visionary: As the stories span Liu's career, they offer a fascinating chance to see how his writing has matured over time.
Things to Consider:

Format: Be aware that this isn't a single, linear story. It's a collection with varied themes and styles.
Content Focus: While some stories are action-packed adventures, others are more philosophical explorations. The essays delve into literary criticism, which might not appeal to all readers.
Overall:

"A View from the Stars" is a must-read for fans of Cixin Liu and anyone interested in the development of modern science fiction. It provides a captivating journey through the mind of a visionary author, offering intriguing stories alongside insightful commentary on the genre itself.

This is a great mix of solid sci-fi short stories and thoughtful essays on the role of sci-fi in society. Cixin Liu is a master of alien encounters but has great range including a submarine bubble for drug smuggling via remote-controlled whale, contemplating topics like evolving smaller to make your world bigger and exchanging life for the secrets of the universe.

His thoughts on how sci-fi compares to fantasy and how it tends to be a young person's game due to the need to always look ahead is interesting if perhaps more based on his native market or at least has many notable exceptions. However, his perspective as a writer (and a part time one at that, with demands from his engineering day job getting in the way of longer form writing, at least at the time of that essay -- probably not the case anymore with his Netflix $!), and how he approaches storytelling and framing is fascinating.

This collection of essays and short stories was so interesting!! Liu gives us some background knowledge on sci-fi literature, specifically in China, gives us a few examples of his writing, and speculates about the future of science fiction AND what scientific strides we could conceivably make in the real world over the next several decades.

I highly enjoyed the musings on sci-fi - perhaps a bit more than his short stories? But they were all interesting!! It was great on audio, though I might have liked a print companion, tbh. It takes a certain type of write to nail a short story within the limits of the genre, and these felt a bit too intense for me in that constraint, but it’s possible I’d love his full-length works.

All in all I liked the essays best! Recommended for all sci-fi lovers, for sure.

I was provided and audio ARC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own. I did enjoy the narrator, he did a good job with the voice acting for the fictional works.

If you are a fan of the author's work, this is a nice compilation of fiction and non-fiction short stories and essays that he has written over his career from various publications. I would not recommend this as a starting point for the author's work if you are a new reader. This complication includes a mix of short stories tied to novels he has written, complete standalone short stories, and essays and interviews composed for magazines and other outlets. I have previously only read the Remembrance of Earth's Past series (Three Body Problem) and was able to follow along with his writing style, which I do enjoy.

The author has very particular opinions on sci-fi and expresses them in his essays. You also have to keep in mind that many of the works are translated, and there is often something lost in the translation of a work because the translator will put their own "spin" on things. If this is where you start with the author's writing, I can see a new reader to his work being turned off by this compilation of interviews, essays, and short fiction. This is a more thought provoking insight into his life and works and how he sees science and science fiction based on his experiences.

Overall, I very much enjoyed the fictional short stories, but the addition of the non-fiction essays felt a bit disjointed. I feel like it should have been all essays or all short stories, I thought it was all short fiction but I misread the synopsis. There was no flow between the fiction and the non-fiction, at least in the audio version. Perhaps in the print book, where you can pick the book up and put it down between stories and articles it makes more sense to compile the book in this way.

I didn't read the synopsis of this audiobook correctly and I was expecting a full sci-fi novel so when the first chapter/intro of this started off with something like an autobiographical essay, I was mildly disappointed and confused. So, perhaps that's why this just didn't appeal to me as much as it could have otherwise.

It's important to understand, not all points of view about the realm and genre of Science-Fiction, come from the same foundation. I think, we as readers, sometimes forget the way we define things is not going to be the same as other cultures. With all of that being said, I loved this book and the perspectives we get from Cixin Lui regarding the genre and culture surrounding Sci-Fi, especially from the perspective of someone who saw it as a way to further scientific though and to speculate on the "What if's".

After reading Three Body Problem a few years ago at the recommendation of a close friend, I found myself lead to read more of his works. His perspectives are often unique and not always happy. There is a lot of thought which goes into these stories as well as some actual science. I enjoy the opportunity to understand subjects from the view of some of my favorite authors. Where I often turn to Neil Gaiman for gritty fantasy who also talks about some of the darker aspects of the human condition; I find Cixin Liu does something similar with the genre of Sci-Fi. Asking us not only to question the science we know and how far we can push it (or should we push it) But also highlighting some of the failings of being human when science gives us the opportunity to go "too far."

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher Tor Publishing group for allowing me the opportunity to read and provide and honest review of this book. I felt it was thought-provoking and helped to bridge some of the gap between sci-fi, fantasy, and even a bit of science.

1.5 stars rounded up

Having never read from Liu before, I thought this collection might be a good introduction to his work. Unfortunately, I can't say it made me anxious to read more from him. This is a mix of short stories and essays about science fiction.

I don't know how closely this mirrors his typical writing, but I found most of the stories to be kind of boring. Focused more on nebulous ideas and daily minutia than on interesting and nuanced characters or exciting plot. I also found most of the essays to be rather pretentious, assuming that his experiences and opinions of science fiction are universal rather than personal. Opinions I generally disagree with. He also talks about the fantasy genre in a way that makes me think he hasn't actually read modern fantasy- that it's all medieval sword and sorcery or Harry Potter - and he's very condescending about it. In general it seems that he is a proponent of hard sci-fi and doesn't think that anything else is "real" science fiction. Which again, is incredibly condescending.

The final story in the collection was the most interesting - all these scientists give up their lives in exchange for the answers to their biggest questions- but I'm still not sure I liked it exactly. It's very possible this is just not the author for me. This collection certainly put me off, which is really unfortunate. I was hoping it would grab my interest instead. I received an audio review copy via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

I decided to try out this audiobook as many people have recommended this authors books to me especially “The Three body Problem” - I was hoping that this book would help me decide if this authors style was for me or not . — I am still undecided and will probably try out another book by this author.

This book is a combination of non fiction essays on science fiction and the authors experiences interspersed with his syfy short stories. The audiobook narration was good and there was a stark contrast in the style of narration between the fiction and non fiction .
This author is definitely writes intellectually and creatively and has a good balance of both in his fiction stories.
I can’t say I was overly invested in the non fiction essays — though I enjoyed the ones that relates to his own life more than the others .
The fiction stories were creative and had differing styles in my mind — some styles of his rewriting I liked for example “The Messenger”— but over all it was either hit or miss for me.
This would be best those who enjoy translation, science fiction and multicultural interest.

Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for this ARC. this is my honest review.

Liu Cixin is an author who has been on my TBR for awhile, mainly because I keep hearing great things about his work, “The Three Body Problem,” and it turns out that “A View from the Stars” serves as both a great introduction and retrospective to the author’s work.

AVFTS features a selection of Liu’s short stories spanning the decades of his career, paired with essays introducing the ideas laid out in each. The essays shed light on the historical development and popularity of science fiction, in which different eras focus on what troubles the human mind, as seen through the lens of speculative fiction, such as the threat of warfare. Reading through this collection, written over many years, reminded me of many hardships humanity has faced — many self-inflicted — and also reminded me of what humanity has survived.

What makes Liu’s work unique is that as a scientist, he embodies his stories with true calculations, hard science and working theories (though it should be noted that not all the 'science' featured within is factual, as this is still sci-fi, though the author crafts the stories such that even the wild still seems plausible). As a fan of the genre, I am usually willing to suspend disbelief regarding ‘out there’ science for the sake of a good story, but the author is uncompromising, adding dashes of calculations and explanations to make the worlds he builds that much more real. Overall, I felt this collection is suitable for both readers and writers who wish to study the science fiction genre more closely.

If there was any harsh critique I might raise, it would be that in some of the stories, rich as they were, the scientific aspects and world-building were a greater part of the story than the depth of the characters. While I enjoy the genre, I'll take a well-fleshed out character in a wacky world over a well-planned world any day.

The narrator, Brian Nishii, also adds color to the reading with nuanced portrayal of the many characters in these diverse short stories. I always appreciate when a narrator adds extra depth to an already outstanding work, and Nishii delivers to complement Liu.

A View From the Stars gathers select short works from Chinese Science Fiction author Cixin Liu. It includes both nonfiction in the form of introductions, speeches, interviews and other writers alongside short stories. For much of the book it alternates between the two.

Cixin Liu is best known for The Three Body Problem, and even though this work is focused on short works, many of the stories are about some of societies biggest questions or issues. A View From the Stars allows for a broader perspective of Cixin Liu as he reflects on his journey as a writer, his philosophy of science fiction and the genre in China. In speaking of the science fiction genre, Liu describes it as a literature of the youth or the present, particularly as much of it ages poorly with the pace of technological and societal change.

The short fiction shows a master at work. Themes at play are stopping or pausing a war using the butterfly effect, smuggling drugs with bio-engineering, a time-space traveler visiting near the end of his targets' lives or the seeking of true knowledge and its costs. All of the stories have a key revelatory moment.

Recommended to any fan of the science fiction genre.

Is Liu Cixin intelligent? Of course. Do I find the ways he discusses most issues very interesting? Not particularly. Do I tend to agree with him? Not really.

This was a weird project, because the interplay between short stories and essays felt poorly handled and a lot of the "essay" parts were pretty short and were clearly written for other things. Maybe a first half of fiction and a second half of nonfiction would have felt smoother? Regardless, I didn't really love any of it. Some of the stories were nice, and I liked his essay about Ken Liu's short stories, as well as the one where he talks about various sci-fi ideas. But largely I found the stories not long enough to sustain interest and the essays either something I disagreed with his thoughts on or just found kinda obvious. Overall, this collection made me slightly less likely to read this author more, which is not what you hope for.

"We sci-fi fans are people from the future."
A View from the Stars is a collection of short stories and essays from Chinese science fiction writer Cixin Liu, best known for the Three-Body Problem. I found the essays compelling - even if i disagreed with many of them. The short stories are all interesting.

Many of the essays are older, dating from the late 90s and early 00s. This is fascinating nearly 25 years later, as the shape of science fiction and Chinese science fiction has changed with radical acceleration in a way I'm not sure Liu could have imagined. Liu's SF is rooted in a classical style, drawing on the themes from Jules Verne and Arthur C Clarke as starting points for his own fiction. Several of the essays reflect on their worldbuilding. There is some musing on fantasy vs science fiction, and Liu acknowledges that he chose an extreme stance for that piece at the suggestion of the editor, but to me it's a limiting view of the superiority of science and the limit of his own imagination.

Notably absent is any engagement with women writers. From an anthology I read several years ago on women science fiction writers in translation from Chinese, this is typical of the gender divide still persistent in the genre and why many women writers prefer to write anonymously online.

I have mixed feelings on Cixin Liu - I loved Three-Body Problem, but disliked the trilogy by the time i reached Death's End, finding the female character development problematic. That said, Liu is an intelligent thinker and I admire the way he engages the genre and gives me something to think about.

I don't often go in for essays, the word makes me flashback to a lot of uni. But when I saw "A View from the Stars" by Cixin Liu was was curious. I've read his stories but I don't know much about the man himself or how he thinks. Glad I listened.

Narrated by Brian Nishii, conveying the wonder of sci-fi and the concepts Liu evokes had me watching the sky while I listened.

Reasons to read:
-It made me ponder
-There are short stories, one of which is a li rle targeted towards me
-A non-comical moment in Liu's life had me howling because of the exact same event occurred in my father's life with Gene Roddenberry
-Made me question what I enjoy about sci-fi and be happy about it

Cons:
-Dang, snuck in another science horror on me

Great collection of short stories, loved them all. Looking forward to reading more of his stories and all his work