There are many different literary critiques of Liu Cixin’s works. One of these critiques is the heavy inspiration he takes from western science fiction. Many say that his work is sometimes closer to western science fiction than Chinese sci-fi. With his work being regarded as some of the best for Chinese science fiction, the critique that his novels are heavily inspired by other sci-fi somewhat undermines both him and Chinese sci-fi as a whole. Another huge criticism Liu Cixin receives is that his work can be too focused on the science elements, themes, and concepts that it lacks in other areas. His characters are often critiqued for being more shallow than desired, as science concepts tend to drive the plot. His characters have been described as having “ethical relativity" or a lack of ethical guidance. This also tends to be an issue as he can focus more on “macro-details” or the large overarching science details in the story rather than the small details to build the world. His science themes are written really well and have both a lot of thought put into them, but are also really thought provoking as well. Things like the three body problem and the dark forest theory are really deep concepts and drive the plot of his books. While these concepts are really well made and fleshed out within his works, the smaller details can suffocate underneath them and be put on the back burner. There have also been critiques going the other direction. Some critics say that his emphasis on characters can take away from the exploration of some broader themes.
Growing up the way Liu Cixin did, critics have found many political influences within his work. Having the cultural revolution tear apart his family it is evident that such events and continued politics in China have had an effect on his writing. Especially within his "Remembrance of the Earth’s Past” trilogy where the Cultural Revolution is used as an explanation for one of the main character’s worldviews and actions. The revolution has a very big impact on the structure of the story and many critics think that Liu Cixin’s personal connection to the events have too much of an impact on how it is depicted and used in the novels, the critiques are usually about how important of an event it is for the story. Some critics see the novel “The Three-Body Problem” as commentary on certain political ideologies ,that due to his uprising in the cultural revolution era of china, Liu Cixin is critical of as some themes within this book seem to reflect his personal feelings towards these ideologies.
Liu Cixin’s books have been described as long, lengthy and at times unnecessary. Some say his works are very long and sometimes difficult to get through as well as his style being described as “almost lecturing”. Common critiques of the physical structure of the books is the length of his novels. Liu Cixin goes into a great deal of detail for the concepts of not only the science fiction parts of his works, but also the concepts for the alien races and theories present as well. All of this detail can make the books a lot longer and wordier which causes the critiques. The nature of the stories he tells also increases the length of the books. A lot of time is spent going over a vast timeline of history in his books sometimes spanning across multiple eras. With all of this history the pages start to stack up in order to accommodate so much material. Another criticism Liu Cixin receives is the differences between his native writing language and the translations to other languages. There have been stated to be varying degrees of differences from the translation of Liu Cixin’s “Remembrance of the Earth’s Past” trilogy from Chinese to English which is the most popular translation. On top of this, Liu Cixin’s works have been translated into numerous other languages as well which each come with their own slightly different changes. Also, some inspiration of his works have been stated to be classical Chinese fairy tales. An issue with this is people of other cultures may not be able to make the same connections and understand his literature with the same amount of depth if they are unfamiliar with these classic chinese stories.
Liu Cixin also has a number of critiques for literature that is not his own. His main critique of other works is that they are inherently narcissistic. Liu Cixin believes that other genres of literature “places the human being at the centre of the narrative” which in the grand scale of the universe isn't necessarily true. He thinks that it is narcissistic to put the human race at the center of every story when there is so much more out there in the universe. He argues that science fiction does not have this issue as it often focuses on more than just what happens on earth, giving a more unbiased image of what really happens, he thinks it “is the only literary genre that holds reality”.