Science Fiction
![Hao Jingfang - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B07CBPPLVF.jpg)
Vagabonds
A century after the Martian war of independence, a group of kids are sent to Earth as delegates from Mars, but when they return home, they are caught between the two worlds, unable to reconcile the beauty and culture of Mars with their experiences on Earth in this spellbinding novel from Hugo Award–winning author Hao Jingfang.
This genre-bending novel is set on Earth in the wake of a second civil war…not between two factions in one nation, but two factions in one solar system: Mars and Earth. In an attempt to repair increasing tensions, the colonies of Mars send a group of young people to live on Earth to help reconcile humanity. But the group finds itself with no real home, no friends, and fractured allegiances as they struggle to find a sense of community and identity, trapped between two worlds.
Fans of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Naomi Alderman's The Power will fall in love with this novel about lost innocence, an uncertain future, and never feeling at home, no matter where you are in the universe. Translated by Ken Liu, bestselling author of The Paper Menagerie and translator of Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem, Vagabonds is the first novel from Hao Jingfang, the first Chinese woman to ever win the esteemed Hugo Award.
This genre-bending novel is set on Earth in the wake of a second civil war…not between two factions in one nation, but two factions in one solar system: Mars and Earth. In an attempt to repair increasing tensions, the colonies of Mars send a group of young people to live on Earth to help reconcile humanity. But the group finds itself with no real home, no friends, and fractured allegiances as they struggle to find a sense of community and identity, trapped between two worlds.
Fans of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Naomi Alderman's The Power will fall in love with this novel about lost innocence, an uncertain future, and never feeling at home, no matter where you are in the universe. Translated by Ken Liu, bestselling author of The Paper Menagerie and translator of Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem, Vagabonds is the first novel from Hao Jingfang, the first Chinese woman to ever win the esteemed Hugo Award.
Editorial Reviews
A New York Times 2020 Globetrotting Pick
A Lit Hub Most Anticipated Books of 2020 Selection
"Uniquely taking us millions of kilometers away to experience another way of life."-Cixin Liu, New York Times bestselling author of The Three-Body Problem
"A thoughtful debut with ample scope for reader engagement." -Kirkus
"[A] masterful narrative. Highly recommended for fans of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy or readers who enjoy sf with a focus on social and political themes." ― Booklist, starred review
A Lit Hub Most Anticipated Books of 2020 Selection
"Uniquely taking us millions of kilometers away to experience another way of life."-Cixin Liu, New York Times bestselling author of The Three-Body Problem
"A thoughtful debut with ample scope for reader engagement." -Kirkus
"[A] masterful narrative. Highly recommended for fans of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy or readers who enjoy sf with a focus on social and political themes." ― Booklist, starred review
Readers Top Reviews
Bally
A story of friendships over generations with a hidden secret that has to be understood to allow new generations to move forward.
Susan Beamon
When I started reading seriously, way back in 1959 or so, my most favorite genre was science fiction. I read it all, pulp to classics, novels to short stories. Back then most of what was available was written in English with a western basis. As various stories written by authors from other countries in their native tongue and translated into English were made available, I read some. Some I liked, some I didn't understand. Currently science fiction is coming from Asia. This is the second book written in Chinese and translated into English that I have read. One thing I have noticed is the very different cultural take on the Western world. That is very evident in this book. That is one thing you have to understand when you start this story. Second thing to know is that the story moves very slowly. There are exciting bits, but they are far removed from each other. Third things is, this book is over 500 pages. It's an easy read but it is a big book. The meat of the story is as follows: Mars was settled by Earth and treated as a second class place. Of course the Martians rebelled, fought a war and won their freedom. This, fortunately, is background material and we only get what we need in bits. After a while, 18 young 13 year old children traveled to Earth to spend 5 years learning about the culture of Earth. Again, this is background and addressed in memories. The Martian civilization has expanded technology in areas that Earth has not examined. That gives them something to trade with, but neither side trusts the other. We start the story with the 18 teens returning home. As the title suggests, these young people no longer fit in their old world. They question the rules they live under. They want to change those rules, but they do not have the status of adults yet. They do what teens do, they push the rules. We mostly follow one of the 18, Luoying, but it not only her story. It is the story of her brother, who did not go to Earth. It is the story of her grandfather, her boyfriend, her best friends, companions of her grandfather, her doctor, her parents and the people she met on Earth. It is about the past and the future of the civilization on Mars. I could go deeper into the story, but then you would have no reason to read it yourself. This is prize winning, make you think science fiction. You do need to read it. I won the copy of the book I read for this review from BookishFirst.
JenniferPenelope O O
This is a science fiction book in translation, written by the only Chinese woman to win a Hugo award. The basic premise is that years from now a small group of humans has colonized Mars, and is slowly restoring diplomatic relations with Earth after a war for control of the planet. At the time the novel opens a handful of Martian students are returning to Mars after having spent five years on Earth. Luoying, granddaughter of the consul of Mars, is one of them. After their return the students see the contrast between the Martian (collectivistic) way of life and Terran (individualistic) way. All of the “vagabonds” struggle to reintegrate into Martian society as they now see the ways that service to the collective can stifle the individual. At the same time none of the vagabonds believe that unrestrained capatalism and worship of the individual is ideal. This tension is the basis of the novel. Along the way Luoying also unearths secrets from her own family’s history that paint Mars in a less than favorable light. While I found the premise and philosophical tension in the book interesting, I also got bored. It takes 300 pages before Luoying takes action to seek out answers to her questions about her parents’ death, for instance. There was a also a distance in the writing between the characters and the reader. The experience of reading this book was like listening to two people talking on the far end of an echoing hallway. You can hear them but there’s a lag. At the very end of the book— the last 50-75 pages, a lot is explained. I really think about 200 pages could have been cut from about the middle and the book would have been much better. This book was interesting but way too long.
Short Excerpt Teaser
1. The Ship THE SHIP
The ship was about to dock. Time to turn out the lights.
The ship swayed in space like a drop of water gently flowing into the arc-shaped port. The ship was very old and glowed dimly like a badge that had been polished by time until the sharp angles and edges had worn away. Against the darkness of space, the ship seemed minuscule, and the vacuum accentuated its loneliness. The ship, the sun, and Mars formed a straight line, with the sun at the far end, Mars close at hand, and in the middle, the ship whose course was straight as a sword, its edge fading into obscurity.
Surrounded by darkness, the silvery drop of water approached the shore, very much alone.
This was Maearth, the only link between Earth and Mars.
The ship was unaware that, a hundred years before its birth, this port had been filled with transports shuttling back and forth like barges along a busy river. It was the second half of the twenty-first century, when humanity had finally broken through the triple barriers of gravity, the atmosphere, and psychology, and, full of anxiety and excitement, they sent cargo of every description to the distant red planet of their dreams. Competition extended from low Earth orbit all the way to the surface of Mars as men and women serving different governments in different uniforms speaking different languages, completed different missions pursuant to different development plans. The transports back then had been clumsy, like metal elephants wrapped in thick gray-green steel skin, stepping across the gulf of space, slow and steady, thumping into the dusty surface of Mars, yawning open their cargo bay doors to disgorge heavy machinery, boxes of food, and eager minds full of passion.
The ship was also unaware that, seventy years before its birth, government transports were gradually replaced by private commercial development vessels. For thirty years Martian bases were all the rage, and the sensitive feelers of merchants, like magic beanstalks, rose inch by inch into the sky, and Jacks climbed up with bills of lading and lines of credit, ready to explore this wonderland of sandstorms. Initially businesses focused on physical goods, and an alliance between big business and big government connected the two worlds with a web woven from land easements, sourcing licenses, and space product development rights, all gilded with stirring lines of poetry. Eventually attention shifted to knowledge itself, following the same path traced by the historical development of economies on Earth, except that a process that had taken two centuries in the past was compressed into twenty years. Intangible assets dominated business deals, and those who loved money plucked the brains of scientists like ripe fruits until virtual fences rose up between Martian bases. Back then the ships that plied the dark sea of space had carried spinning restaurants filled with cocktail parties and talk of contracts, an attempt to replicate the hubbub on Earth.
The ship was also unaware that, forty years before its birth, warships appeared along its current route. Once the war for Martian independence erupted-there were many causes-the adventurers and engineers of the various Martian bases united to resist their Earth-based overseers. With astronautics and prospecting technology, they sought to overcome money and political power. Warships linked together like Themistocles's wooden wall to repel the invaders, a force as magnificent as the swelling tide, and which retreated just as quickly. Nimble, speedy warplanes then rushed in, propelled across the gulf of space by the rage of betrayal, at once wild and dispassionate, dropped their bombs so that bloody flowers bloomed silently in the dust.
The ship knew none of these things, because by the time it was born, a cease-fire had been in place for ten years. The night sky was once again silent, and the once-busy shipping route deserted. It was born in all-consuming darkness. Assembled from metallic fragments drifting in space, it faced the starry sea alone, shuttling back and forth between two planets, plying an ancient trade route that had witnessed both the glory of commerce and the devastation of war.
The ship sailed noiselessly across empty space, a single silvery drop traversing distance, traversing vacuum, traversing invisible ramparts, traversing a history deliberately forgotten.
Thirty years had passed since the ship's birth, and time's lasting tracks adorned its worn shell.
The inside of the ship was a maze. Except for the captain...
The ship was about to dock. Time to turn out the lights.
The ship swayed in space like a drop of water gently flowing into the arc-shaped port. The ship was very old and glowed dimly like a badge that had been polished by time until the sharp angles and edges had worn away. Against the darkness of space, the ship seemed minuscule, and the vacuum accentuated its loneliness. The ship, the sun, and Mars formed a straight line, with the sun at the far end, Mars close at hand, and in the middle, the ship whose course was straight as a sword, its edge fading into obscurity.
Surrounded by darkness, the silvery drop of water approached the shore, very much alone.
This was Maearth, the only link between Earth and Mars.
The ship was unaware that, a hundred years before its birth, this port had been filled with transports shuttling back and forth like barges along a busy river. It was the second half of the twenty-first century, when humanity had finally broken through the triple barriers of gravity, the atmosphere, and psychology, and, full of anxiety and excitement, they sent cargo of every description to the distant red planet of their dreams. Competition extended from low Earth orbit all the way to the surface of Mars as men and women serving different governments in different uniforms speaking different languages, completed different missions pursuant to different development plans. The transports back then had been clumsy, like metal elephants wrapped in thick gray-green steel skin, stepping across the gulf of space, slow and steady, thumping into the dusty surface of Mars, yawning open their cargo bay doors to disgorge heavy machinery, boxes of food, and eager minds full of passion.
The ship was also unaware that, seventy years before its birth, government transports were gradually replaced by private commercial development vessels. For thirty years Martian bases were all the rage, and the sensitive feelers of merchants, like magic beanstalks, rose inch by inch into the sky, and Jacks climbed up with bills of lading and lines of credit, ready to explore this wonderland of sandstorms. Initially businesses focused on physical goods, and an alliance between big business and big government connected the two worlds with a web woven from land easements, sourcing licenses, and space product development rights, all gilded with stirring lines of poetry. Eventually attention shifted to knowledge itself, following the same path traced by the historical development of economies on Earth, except that a process that had taken two centuries in the past was compressed into twenty years. Intangible assets dominated business deals, and those who loved money plucked the brains of scientists like ripe fruits until virtual fences rose up between Martian bases. Back then the ships that plied the dark sea of space had carried spinning restaurants filled with cocktail parties and talk of contracts, an attempt to replicate the hubbub on Earth.
The ship was also unaware that, forty years before its birth, warships appeared along its current route. Once the war for Martian independence erupted-there were many causes-the adventurers and engineers of the various Martian bases united to resist their Earth-based overseers. With astronautics and prospecting technology, they sought to overcome money and political power. Warships linked together like Themistocles's wooden wall to repel the invaders, a force as magnificent as the swelling tide, and which retreated just as quickly. Nimble, speedy warplanes then rushed in, propelled across the gulf of space by the rage of betrayal, at once wild and dispassionate, dropped their bombs so that bloody flowers bloomed silently in the dust.
The ship knew none of these things, because by the time it was born, a cease-fire had been in place for ten years. The night sky was once again silent, and the once-busy shipping route deserted. It was born in all-consuming darkness. Assembled from metallic fragments drifting in space, it faced the starry sea alone, shuttling back and forth between two planets, plying an ancient trade route that had witnessed both the glory of commerce and the devastation of war.
The ship sailed noiselessly across empty space, a single silvery drop traversing distance, traversing vacuum, traversing invisible ramparts, traversing a history deliberately forgotten.
Thirty years had passed since the ship's birth, and time's lasting tracks adorned its worn shell.
The inside of the ship was a maze. Except for the captain...
