It's been years since I've read Lord of the Flies but I remember being not just totally sucked into the story but also a little weirded out by the story. I mean come one an island full of kids and they end up eating each other, that's creepy.
The first whole chapter of the book is full of very technical sciency things. I'm not a scientist, and while I consider myself to be fairly intelligent, it made it hard for me to get into the book. I kept needing to stop and think about what was being said. I honestly, thought it'd be more important to the story line than it actually was, so don't let all the science specifics detour you. They do pop up quite a bit through out the book, and while the comments make the tasks the kids have forced upon them seem even heavier, they are not the main purpose of the story.
I really enjoyed the overall story line of the book. A star in another milky way dies and centuries later the light and excess from the star reaches Earth. While it's presents is only seen for a week or so, the levels of radiation it's exposed humans too is unprecedent. Apparently, people 13 years or younger are able to rebuild the hurt cells while anyone older than that will never be able to recover. Because of this the adults of the Chinese society (and every other society on earth) are attempting to teach their middle schoolers how to run everything from surgery and the post office to diplomatic meetings and governments as a whole.
The writing itself isn't flowy. I normally prefer more prose in my writing rather than then more factual writing. This may be due to the fact the book's original language is in Mandarin (I believe), but Liu's writing style is very direct. I really think it's more just a language change and the expectations we have with the English language versus the more direct language of Mandarin. Either way the directness of the story is my biggest complaint.
The story is good. The book is a quick read and I actually enjoyed it. I'd only give it ★★★ though because it didn't WOW me. Maybe I'm just comparing the story to much to Lord of the Flies but that's how the cookie crumbles.
The first whole chapter of the book is full of very technical sciency things. I'm not a scientist, and while I consider myself to be fairly intelligent, it made it hard for me to get into the book. I kept needing to stop and think about what was being said. I honestly, thought it'd be more important to the story line than it actually was, so don't let all the science specifics detour you. They do pop up quite a bit through out the book, and while the comments make the tasks the kids have forced upon them seem even heavier, they are not the main purpose of the story.
I really enjoyed the overall story line of the book. A star in another milky way dies and centuries later the light and excess from the star reaches Earth. While it's presents is only seen for a week or so, the levels of radiation it's exposed humans too is unprecedent. Apparently, people 13 years or younger are able to rebuild the hurt cells while anyone older than that will never be able to recover. Because of this the adults of the Chinese society (and every other society on earth) are attempting to teach their middle schoolers how to run everything from surgery and the post office to diplomatic meetings and governments as a whole.
The writing itself isn't flowy. I normally prefer more prose in my writing rather than then more factual writing. This may be due to the fact the book's original language is in Mandarin (I believe), but Liu's writing style is very direct. I really think it's more just a language change and the expectations we have with the English language versus the more direct language of Mandarin. Either way the directness of the story is my biggest complaint.
The story is good. The book is a quick read and I actually enjoyed it. I'd only give it ★★★ though because it didn't WOW me. Maybe I'm just comparing the story to much to Lord of the Flies but that's how the cookie crumbles.