Head of Zeus

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Ball Lightning

by Cixin Liu, translated by Joel Martinsen

'Cixin Liu is the author of your next favourite sci-fi novel' WIRED

On his fourteenth birthday, right before his eyes, Chen's parents are incinerated by a blast of ball lightning. Striving to make sense of this bizarre tragedy, he dedicates his life to a single goal: to unlock the secrets of this enigmatic natural phenomenon. His pursuit of ball lightning will take him far from home, across mountain peaks chasing storms and deep into highly classified subterranean laboratories as he slowly unveils a new frontier in particle physics.

Chen's obsession gives purpose to his lonely life, but it can't insulate him from the real world's interest in his discoveries. He will be pitted against scientists, soldiers and governments with motives of their own: a physicist who has no place for moral judgement in his pursuit of knowledge; a beautiful army major obsessed with new ways to wage war; a desperate nation facing certain military defeat.

Conjuring awe-inspiring new worlds of cosmology and philosophy from meticulous scientific speculation, Ball Lightning has all the scope and imagination that so enthralled readers of Cixin Liu's award-winning Three-Body trilogy.

Praise for Cixin Liu:

'Your next favourite sci-fi novel' Wired

'Immense' Barack Obama

'Unique' George R.R. Martin

'SF in the grand style' Guardian

'Mind-altering and immersive' Daily Mail

'A milestone in Chinese science-fiction' New York Times

'China's answer to Arthur C. Clarke' New Yorker

Winner of the Hugo and Galaxy Awards for Best Novel

Head of Zeus -- an AdAstra Book * Science Fiction

05 Aug 2021 * 496pp * £8.99 * 9781800248953

REVIEWS

'A marvellous mélange of awe-inspiring scientific concepts, clever plotting and quirky yet plausible characters'

TLS

'A striking, strange and sometimes quite chewy standalone novel about the uneasy alliance between cutting-edge scientific research and the agencies that fund it'

SFX

'A fascinating piece of speculative fiction ... This is unsettling and thoughtful writing ... Ball Lightning does what all the best science fiction does - it makes the reader look at the world around them anew, and makes them think about the possibilities of the future'

Big Issue

'As elusive as a Venusian scout ship and as deadly as a nest of vipers ... Through these characters we learn an awful lot about ball lightning and it shows the author's deep knowledge of physics, cosmology, meteorology and the politics and morality of scientific research'

Starburst magazine

'Cixin Liu is one of the most significant authors working in the genre today ... Expect inspirational cosmology and philosophy with meticulous scientific speculation; Ball Lightning is likely to enthral you'

Starburst Magazine

Author

Cixin Liu

Cixin Liu is China's #1 SF writer and author of The Three-Body Problem – the first ever translated novel to win a Hugo Award. Prior to becoming a writer, Liu worked as an engineer in a power plant in Yangquan.

ALSO BY Cixin Liu

Translator

Joel Martinsen

Joel Martinsen is the translator of The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu and (with Alice Xin Liu) of The Problem With Me, a collection of essays by Han Han. His translations of short fiction have appeared in Pathlight, Chutzpah, and Words Without Borders. He lives in Beijing.

ALSO BY Joel Martinsen

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