Large Scale Concepts>Characters:
Liu Cixin is a Science-Fiction writer that takes pride in fully fleshing out his scientific concepts in his novels. A lot of his novels are driven more by the evolution or consequences of one of his scientific theories/concepts rather than the result of growing characters. The characters within his novels often serve as observers towards the science which takes most of the spotlight.
Grounded Science:
Despite large and crazy conceptual science, Liu Cixin keeps his writing somewhat grounded. He often uses real scientific theories within his writing. Even when he doesn't use real concepts, he uses real science to explain speculative physics and technology in a way that is believable and often not far from reality.
Scale:
Liu Cixin’s novels typically end up with a very large, cosmic scale. His themes and theories tend to cover the broad scale of the universe and often prove that humanity is not special or more important than anything else in the cosmos which reflects his ideology of non science fiction writing being narcissistic. But, with all of this taken into account, he also starts his novels at a smaller scale. His novels evolve from small beginnings into huge universal concepts.
Inevitability:
Many of Liu Cixin’s works involve a situation or concept that looms over as something that can’t be avoided such as the invasion of the Trisolarians or the Dark Forest Theory. These plot points and situations are written not as an unstoppable force, but often as a result of rules of science.
The fifth week aboard the Polaris-3 gave no more consolation than the previous four. The backdrop vast reaches of the cosmos became less intriguing stars, and more distant holes of light poked through a blanket of empty space every day that passed. When I'd sit by the double reinforced layer of glass that separated me from a cold and near instant death holding my second freeze dried meal of the day, I would think of us reaching out to the spaces in between the age old lights as humankind conquers the unconquerable. Now I still sit, but this time as the view bores me and the same freeze dried food tastes less appetizing I realize that the universe is not ours to conquer, rather that we are the sole passerbys in a fathomable radius.
While still wandering within my own head, Daniel taps me on my shoulder.
“Captain, I’d like you to double check our mission path. I swear something is wrong but every system check I've run shows nothing out of the ordinary.” he requested.
Annoyed by the sudden break of my meal, I do not respond and instead make my way towards the cramped, and understaffed control room of the Polaris-3. After pushing past a few unmanned chairs sitting idly by resting computers I find my way to the single lit monitor that Daniel was filling his time with.
A single glance at the screen annoyed me even further as it seemed as though my meal had been interrupted with a request backed by no substance. Just as I was about to voice my dissatisfaction with him, Daniel spoke.
“Look at the estimated time of arrival Captain. A full 12 hours longer than the pace should be right?”
He was right. I checked the systems of the entire ship which revealed nothing out of the ordinary. A few minutes later whilst cross referencing my notes along the data of the monitor I found a discrepancy.
“Our initial path from launch is off by less than a tenth of a degree towards the left.” I think out loud.
“Our engines could be slightly unbalanced or maybe a part of our hull cracked off?” I toss out into the room, but not in hopes of a response.
“Being the least funded program space-side, you have to expect things like that right?” Daniel responded despite my tone.
I told him to adjust for the slight change in trajectory and made my way back into my personal quarters. Walking through the crammed halls filled with exposed wires and uncleaned surfaces confirmed Daniel’s hypothesis. Laying in my bed, I had a clearer mind than a captain who had just dealt with an unforeseen issue should have. But just as Daniel said, the Polaris-3 was a budget ship sent off to do a budget mission, and issues will arise because of it.
Hours later I awoke from my slumber to an anxious stricken Daniel and another crewmember posted in the door frame. On our journey back through the dilapidated halls of the Polaris-3 I was informed that the trajectory of our mission was once again thrown off once again, but by the way both of my escorts carried themselves I knew it would be by more than a tenth of a degree. The control room was now more crowded than before as the once empty seats buckled under the weight of pilots and engineers.
The screen once again showed all systems as normal, but glancing at the time of arrival and degree of travel caused more than a little fright among the crew. The Polaris-3’s flight path after the first minor adjustment had been once again dragged towards the left, but this time by an entire 3 degrees. A tenth of a degree had, by estimate, delayed our mission by 12 hours, therefore a 3 degree turn in our journey had a much longer delay by a matter of weeks.
I left the pilots to attempt troubleshooting the issue on their own, and once again returned towards the starboard window. While I usually gaze upon the twinkling lights of suns, today I analyze the thruster which sits barely visible through the angle provided by the double layered glass. As it should, the structure which sticks out from the main hull sat idly without burning in order to conserve fuel for a long voyage. If the right thruster wasn't firing without proper direction, then what could be the cause for our ship's turn?
I was desperately grabbed by a crewmember and dragged towards the central monitor of the control room once again. This time the news was somehow more dreadful than the last. The angle of travel was seemingly growing exponentially towards the left. Despite the corrections made before, the ship now sailed 12 degrees off of its initial pursuit. I was puzzled, lost, and had nothing to tell my crew which was eagerly waiting for their captain to solve their growing problem.
“Portside… Portside…” I murmured to myself and left my crew in the control room.
When I reached my familiar starboard window’s twin there were already a couple of members gazing out into the cosmos, they seemed completely undisturbed by my presence. But when I looked slightly ahead into the path of the Polaris-3 something confused me. The once star riddled vista was now a single sheet of black, devoid of the holes of light that once poked through. The edge of the gap of light and dark showed unfamiliar bends that seemed to challenge the will of God itself. Stars stretched impossibly long and the gaps between them distorted, twisted around one another. Staring into the hole that filled space itself I realized that the budget ship Polaris-3 sent out with the expectation to fail was never the problem, It was being dragged into the power of the cosmos as a message towards humanity.
Lights began to flicker and the very halls of the ship shook, but I remained calm, calmer than I’d felt since we’d departed for our journey. Because now, there was no use fighting that I would become a part of the stars in which I'd always gaze upon.
My Writing(Large Scale Concepts>Characters):
Within my writing I tried to emulate Liu Cixin’s narrative style by focusing less on the crew of the Polaris-3 and more on the mystery of the drifting ship and the mission as a whole. I did this by only providing the thoughts of the narrator and naming only one crew member.
My Writing(Grounded Science):
I tried to follow Liu Cixin’s precedent of relatively grounded science instead of using over the top Sci-Fi concepts. I did this by creating a mystery within the mission of the Polaris-3 that is later found to be a black hole, a real scientific anomaly. This allows the concept to be interpreted by each reader as the mystery builds and as black holes are still relatively unknown in nature, but keep a grounded approach.
My Writing(Scale):
I tried to follow Liu Cixin’s style of escalation and scale by keeping the start of my passage contained to a simple space mission and evolving it into a narrative about humankind's place in the universe. My passage starts as a space captain stares out into a window thinking about space, then ends as the ship begins to get sucked into a black hole.
My Writing(Inevitability):
Finally, I tried to emulate Liu Cixin’s often use of inevitability within his concepts. I did this by choosing a black hole as the driver of the plot of my passage as by the time the captain realizes what is affecting the ship, it is too late.