Monday, 10/17: Book 1 finished and posted on IRP Padlet before the start of class. 

Monday, 12/5: Book 2 finished and posted on IRP Padlet before the start of class. 

Monday, 2/20: Book 3 finished and posted on IRP Padlet before the start of class. 

Monday, 4/24: Book 4 finished and posted on IRP Padlet before the start of class. 

- The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
- Blindsight by Peter Watts
- The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu portrays two main characters on an adventure to find extraterrestrial life. At the beginning of the novel, the story follows Ye Wenjie during the Cultural Revolution. On a secluded base, she takes part in a secret military project that sends signals to contact extraterrestrial life. They succeed, but contact a civilization on the brink of collapse due to three surrounding suns. As Ye loses her faith in humanity during the height of the Cold War, she decides to ask the civilization for help in restoring peace. Many decades after Ye Wienje sent the message, governments begin to receive information of the alien threat. Wang Miao, a scientist, investigates the alien species through a video game created by Ye Wenjie. She created the game to make people interested in the alien civilization and gain followers. However, disagreements emerge on if the aliens will wipe out humanity or fix it. She has lost contact with the aliens and Wang attempts to uncover their true motivations with the help of many governments around the world. Cixin articulates the theme that people can overcome their differences when united under one cause when all the countries become allies to face a dire threat.

Review:

The Three-Body Problem is told from the point of view of third-person limited and exceeded my expectations. The novel deeply describes an alien species and their motivations in a creative way and makes them round characters. Many interesting aspects of the novel come from Cixin’s unique spin on an alien civilization. I appreciate the countless allusions to historical figures and events such as Galileo, Issac Newton, and the Qin Dynasty. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys science as the story revolves around scientific discoveries. Although this novel can be slow at times, it inevitably pays off with its remarkable plot. 

The novel begins with the military taking Andrew Wiggins, a six year old boy, into their ranks, and training him to become a commander for their International Fleet in space. For years Ender, Andrew Wiggins, has been part of a military experiment to create the perfect commander. The International Fleet, I.F.,  needs more commanders because of the impending doom from the buggers, a mysterious alien species fighting against humanity. In Battle School he rises the ranks and eventually receives a promotion to commanders many years ahead of everyone else. Ender continues to impress his superiors at school because his squad never loses against older squads during training. Finally, Ender catches the attention of many superiors who put him through war simulations. After these simulations, Ender eventually uncovers many lies told to him by the International Fleet about the buggers which completely changes his view on humanity.

Review:

Orson Scott Card uses third person limited narration to describe the story of Ender during his time at Battle School. In this novel, the theme is that one should always look at both sides of a conflict before making a clear decision. Throughout the novel, Orson Scoot Card excels at clearly depicting and setting up a new world for the reader to become invested in and relate to the world. Although Orson Scott Card succeeds in creating an interesting universe, I would have loved for the buggers, the alien species, to be more round characters. The buggers do not receive much attention in the novel because it follows Ender and his journey, and I would have appreciated a story of how humans came into contact with them. I recommend this book to those who love action and an interesting setting. Overall, I would give this novel four out of five stars for the spectacular twist at the end and a fantastically described universe. 

Comparison:

Ender’s Game and The Three Body Problem both tell the story of fighting aliens, but in The Three-Body Problem, the aliens are kept secret from the world. In Ender’s game, the buggers are widely known as a large threat. A similarity is that both authors depict the world’s response as all the countries joining together to fight. In Ender's Game, countries formed the International Fleet while all the countries secretly worked together to fight the alien threat in The Three-Body Problem. A key difference between the two books is that Ender’s game does not venture deep into the aliens' motives or their first contact with humanity because it mainly focuses on Ender. Because there are experts about the aliens in The Three-Body Problem, the aliens motives are a main focus in the book.

The novel begins with the military taking Andrew Wiggins, a six year old boy, into their ranks, and training him to become a commander for their International Fleet in space. For years Ender, Andrew Wiggins, has been part of a military experiment to create the perfect commander. The International Fleet, I.F.,  needs more commanders because of the impending doom from the buggers, a mysterious alien species fighting against humanity. In Battle School he rises the ranks and eventually receives a promotion to commanders many years ahead of everyone else. Ender continues to impress his superiors at school because his squad never loses against older squads during training. Finally, Ender catches the attention of many superiors who put him through war simulations. After these simulations, Ender eventually uncovers many lies told to him by the International Fleet about the buggers which completely changes his view on humanity.

Review:

Orson Scott Card uses third person limited narration to describe the story of Ender during his time at Battle School. In this novel, the theme is that one should always look at both sides of a conflict before making a clear decision. Throughout the novel, Orson Scoot Card excels at clearly depicting and setting up a new world for the reader to become invested in and relate to the world. Although Orson Scott Card succeeds in creating an interesting universe, I would have loved for the buggers, the alien species, to be more round characters. The buggers do not receive much attention in the novel because it follows Ender and his journey, and I would have appreciated a story of how humans came into contact with them. I recommend this book to those who love action and an interesting setting. Overall, I would give this novel four out of five stars for the spectacular twist at the end and a fantastically described universe. 

Comparison:

Ender’s Game and The Three Body Problem both tell the story of fighting aliens, but in The Three-Body Problem, the aliens are kept secret from the world. In Ender’s game, the buggers are widely known as a large threat. A similarity is that both authors depict the world’s response as all the countries joining together to fight. In Ender's Game, countries formed the International Fleet while all the countries secretly worked together to fight the alien threat in The Three-Body Problem. A key difference between the two books is that Ender’s game does not venture deep into the aliens' motives or their first contact with humanity because it mainly focuses on Ender. Because there are experts about the aliens in The Three-Body Problem, the aliens motives are a main focus in the book.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel tells the story of a priest named Emilio Sandoz during the discovery of extraterrestrial life in 2019. Jimmy Quinn, Emilio Sandoz’s friend, is the first to pick up a signal from the extraterrestrials while working with satellites. The two then embark on a perilous journey with their crew to make first contact with aliens on the planet Rakhat. The novel also includes the perspective of Emilio Sandoz after he returns from the mission that started forty years earlier. He returns in 2060 to deliver a report on the aliens, but he finds himself facing criminal charges. Throughout the novel, Mary Doria Russel uses the theme that faith can give comfort even in the most stressful circumstances. She conveys this theme through many crew members finding comfort in believing God wants for them to succeed. The Sparrow depicts an interesting and original perspective on extraterrestrial life and the world’s reaction to the groundbreaking discovery.

Review: 

Mary Doria Russel masterfully tells a story of the discovery of aliens and its aftermath through the viewpoint of third-person omniscient as the story includes the perspectives of many different characters throughout the novel. The chapters switch off between following the mission to the alien planet and Emilio Sandoz, the leader, returning from it. Mary Doria Russel begins her novel with Emilio being released from isolation after the mission in 2059, and his dilapidated state makes the reader interested in the result of the mission forty years earlier. The continuous switching in settings throughout the chapters allows for the reader to have insight on what will happen during the mission. This insight sparks interest on how Emilio ended up worn down and under investigation upon his return to earth decades after the start of the journey. I enjoyed the immense care into developing very round characters such as those in the Jesuit mission and the aliens. Previous novels such as Ender’s game had the aliens as flat characters, but Mary Doria Russel makes the aliens round characters giving the reader a better sense of her fictional world. Although most of the book may be slow, the creative story and depiction of aliens earn this novel seven out of ten stars.

Comparison:

Mary Doria Russel’s interpretation of aliens and the world’s response to them vastly differs from Ender’s Game and The Three-Body Problem. In The Sparrow, there is a mission to find the alien species and gain information about them while the initial response in the other two novels is more violent. Both The Three-Body Problem and The Sparrow switch settings throughout the chapters to give insight on how first contact with aliens affects the world. The two novels cover the first contact with aliens and the aftermath decades into the future. This format allows for the reader to experience the long-term effect of the discovery of extraterrestrial life. The Sparrow is the only novel where the humans traveled to the planet to research the other species. Mary Doria Russel creatively depicts the alien species and their lifestyle with many details unlike the buggers in Ender’s game. This novel differs itself from the other two because of the dangerous mission to the alien planet and the interesting interpretation of extraterrestrial life.