A few weeks back, when I was visiting my mother, I went to go examine the bookshelf that I had put together for her. Nothing fantastic, just a little Ikea shelf. It was full of the books she's been buying and reading. As I skimmed over the books, I saw one and immediately put it aside to take it home with me. "I'm borrowing this one", I said, putting it on the top of the shelf as I skimmed the rest of the titles.
That night, when I got home, I started reading "The Supernova Era" by Cixin Liu, who you may know as the author responsible for The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and other such science fiction.
This is the fifth book by Cixin Liu I've read this year, and while The Dark Forest is likely the best one - The Supernova Era punches well above its weight, but isn't as all encompassing and philosophical as the other writing by the same author.
The Supernova Era starts by introducing us to a graduating class of kids. They graduate just in time to witness, as many people of the Earth do - an enormously bright light form in the night sky, turning it into day. It is a Supernova, and it is visible from Earth. With it, come consequences.
The Rose Nebula is formed, and it casts bizarre shadows on the Earth, changes the climate, and reduces an extreme amount of radiation. This isn't a world like Bethesda's Fallout, with no mutants (with the exception, perhaps of some plants) but a world where there's going to be a sudden lack of adults.
Radiation damages the adults, and children under a certain age are the only ones immune to this radiation damage, in Liu's title, and thus, frantic planning to prepare the children to inherit the Earth in just a few months begins in urgency. (Not in earnest!)
What follows is a story that covers the events that occur in the aftermath, the management of complex manufacturing, the psychological requirements of kids, and the book has an almost telepathic way of fulfilling my "well, what about this?" questions that kept coming up during my reading.
Cixin Liu is a Chinese author. His characters are Chinese, and most of his stories are set in China. When I was about a third of the way through the book, I thought to myself "well, what about the rest of the world?" And suddenly, that question is answered - with the children getting together for a version of the United Nations - which brought in other countries and how they were going.
It is very interesting proposition, exploring a world state where the only people left are those below thirteen years old. The "Supernova Era" explores all the misapprehensions, joys, and resilience (but also vulnerabilities) of childhood.
It explores the rapid pace of technological development, but also that of stagnation. It isn't quite Lord of the Flies, but there are entire sections of the book that refer to that great story - and touch upon a broader lack of understanding.
The thing the book shows, instead of tells or asks, is just how "fine" life would get one if the only people on Earth were children. They make do. They have some powerful technology to help them make do - but the world isn't all anarchy and ruin.
Cixin Liu creates a compelling world, and gives us a compelling reason to keep turning pages through it.