Who can help me find Robert? Silverberg's short science fiction novel The Borrower won the prize! !

Let's talk about the Yinhe Prize essay first. Five essays were published in the sixth issue of Yinhe Prize, including works by famous artists and new works by newcomers. Although I have always been very critical of so-called famous artists, Liu's "The Age of Angels" really gave me a considerable shock. This novel convinces me that China's contemporary works are gradually emerging that are not inferior to western science fiction masterpieces. In the same issue of World Science Fiction, Robert, a famous American science fiction writer? I think The Age of Angels is much better than The Borrower, which won the nebula prize in silverberg.

The Age of Angels is as magnificent as Liu's previous works, and there is always something shocking. But this vibration is even more disturbing. The angels here are all black people from the poorest countries in Africa. They grow wings and become angels-white wings are the symbol of angels. Interestingly, this time, it's not a white man who has always been "noble", but a black man who has always been "humble". I have always believed that Liu's greatest feature is not his amazing imagination, but his unique perspective. Take this article as an example, there are two angles worth recalling:

1, the author thinks, "When science and technology are highly developed, especially when genetic engineering advances by leaps and bounds, the religious sentiment of human society will be more pious. On the surface, this is the reverence and maintenance of bioethics, but in essence, it is the performance of human beings trying to find a spiritual support in the technological society to make themselves at a loss. " From these sentences, I was surprised to find Liu Minrui's eyes and his worries about the future fate of mankind. This is definitely not that kind of posturing anxiety, but real thinking. So let me pay tribute.

2. From the full text, the author is cautious about the behavior of black people using genetic technology to change themselves to adapt to the harsh living environment. For those whose human characteristics have been changed by genetic engineering, the mainstream society in the future may use the cold word "individual" to call them, while the author calls them "angels".

This unique perspective makes Liu's works always give people unexpected feelings. At the same time, he also worked hard on the details. If a novel is like a building, most architects pay attention to shape and color, while first-class architects pay special attention to details. A clever novelist must be a master of details. When we analyze the texture of a novel, we can often get the answer by observing its details.

There are many exquisite details in "The Age of Angels", such as the details of the white feather falling off when the angel soldier was hit by a missile, and the details of the flight attendant shooting a black child with a genetic mutation ... However, the most powerful thing is the details of the story told by the doctor-in the year of drought in Africa, because there was no food, my sister ate an arrow coated with rattlesnake venom, which kept my brother alive. Say to your brother, "Sister doesn't feel well, she doesn't want to live. After her death, my brother can eat her, and she will have the strength to go to the city ... "-It is powerful because it is touching, and it is precisely for this reason that the" genetically modified behavior "in this article sets the logical legitimacy of a novel.

However, reading The Age of Angels is not much fun. Because the ideas revealed in it are "anti-moral", in fact, even today, our moral concepts are relatively opposed to "genetically modified", such as taboos against human cloning, for example, many people are unwilling to eat genetically modified food ... It can be seen that our morality is to hope that human beings will maintain their "natural nature" and oppose the use of genetic technology to change their inherent state. The angel era, on the other hand, holds the opposite orientation, which may make readers feel a subconscious discomfort.

Because The Times of Angels really left a deep impression on me, I spent a lot of time talking about this article. Maybe I will do a special study on Liu's works in the future, and then I may discuss the Age of Angels and its value in Liu's overall creation in more depth-but for now, let me focus on other works in this issue.

Among the other four essays for the Silver River Prize, Xiao Gu's New Humanity describes the loneliness of the new humanity in the future, and the perspective should be unique. However, considering that there was Han Song's Aquatic Man before, the new human is similar to the aquatic human in many aspects, such as subject matter, water world and tragic sense, which weakens the charm of the new human. Besides, the ending is a bit far-fetched. The first two paragraphs at the end of the author are pessimistic about the future of mankind, but the last two paragraphs set up a baby to express a hope for the future, which is somewhat embarrassing. The transition is unnatural, the emotional inheritance is incoherent, and it is a bit raw.

Another paper with the Silver River Award, Zheng's Gladiator, is a masterpiece that surprises me. The whole article has a faint feeling of compassion, which is unique in that it is compassion for robots rather than human beings. Reading this novel reminds me of the African-American movement for independence. In those days, blacks were slaves rather than people in the eyes of whites. Today and for a long time to come, robots are only commodities and efforts in the eyes of human beings, not people. If we stand in a broader field of vision, we will find that our views on robots today are strikingly similar to those of white people on slaves. Then, when one day, human beings rely on robots to build and maintain the world, but only use robots as tools, does the resistance of intelligent robots have the justice similar to the movement of slaves seeking independence? This short science fiction novel raises such a disturbing question to us, which really makes people think.

Huang Neng's Little Things with Green Light is not long, but it is very impressive. A seemingly weak thing from the unknown world actually has great magic that makes people crazy. For the freedom of "small things", the life of the whole train can be ignored. How many such little things in history-such as Hitler and others-made life miserable because of their selfish ideas? What is even more frightening is that those who are controlled by "small things" forget everything so enthusiastically that they even hurt themselves without knowing it. As the last sentence of the article said, "What a pleasant thing it is to hand over your soul."