"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