LoveReading4Kids Says
So, so readable, Of Ants and Dinosaurs with the lightest and brightest of touches, made my brain itch with its creativity and klaxon alarm. Perfect for readers from young adult on, this sets itself as a “satirical fable, a political allegory and ecological warning”. In a time long long ago ants and dinosaurs joined forces to build a magnificent civilisation, when doom threatens will the dinosaurs listen to the ants? Cixin Liu is China’s number one science-fiction writer and his The Three-Body Problem was the first translated novel to win a Hugo award. I just love the cover, and the ants marching across the chapter pages had me smiling. As soon as I started to read my attention was well and truly caught. The prologue sets the scene with wonder and I read and believed without a moments doubt. While portraying the ant and dinosaur alliance, there is very much a warning to the human race here. Deceptively simple and brilliantly clever, I simply adored it.
Liz Robinson
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Of Ants and Dinosaurs Synopsis
A satirical fable, a political allegory and an ecological warning from the author of The Three-Body Problem. In a sunlit clearing in central Gondwana, on an otherwise ordinary day in the late Cretaceous, the seeds of Earth's first and greatest civilization were sown in the grisly aftermath of a Tyrannosaurus' lunch. Throughout the universe, intelligence is a rare and fragile commodity - a fleeting glimmer in the long night of cosmic history. That Earth should harbour not just one but two intelligent species at the same time, defies the odds. That these species, so unalike - and yet so complementary - should forge an alliance that kindled a civilization defies logic. But time is endless and everything comes to pass eventually...
The alliance between ants and dinosaurs, was of course, based on dentistry. Yet from such humble beginnings came writing, mathematics, computers, fusion, antimatter and even space travel - a veritable Age of Wonder! But such magnificent industry comes at a price - a price paid first by Earth's biosphere, and then by all those dependent on it. And yet the Dinosaurs refused to heed the Ants' warning of impending ecological collapse, leaving the Ant Federation facing a single dilemma: destroy the dinosaurs, destroy a civilization... or perish alongside them?
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781789546125 |
| Publication date: |
7th January 2021 |
| Author: |
Cixin Liu |
| Publisher: |
Head of Zeus |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
256 pages |
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Cixin Liu Press Reviews
'[A] rather light and playful piece ... Liu's sense of fun is contagious ... For younger readers, thought, it might well offer some useful insights into that era and what caused their grandparents to lose so much sleep back in the 1950s' Locus
'The narrative picks up towards the end, propelling us into the atomic age and passages of visionary goofiness' The Times
'An allegorical tale of the civilisation that flourished on the Earth in the late cretaceous period ... Written in a fun and informal style ... Enjoyable for adults who are looking for a light-hearted and fast-paced read ... [Cixin Liu paints] a wonderful picture of this advanced civilisation that conquered the world in the unimaginable past ... We can all see where it's heading, after all, there are no dinosaurs here today driving round in building-sized cars. The ending will not come as a surprise, but it's surprisingly poignant to see the results of the ants and dinosaurs' continual disagreements come to a head' SF Crowsnest
'So begins a fluctuating symbiotic relationship that Liu develops through knowingly disarming narrative leaps' South China Morning Post
Praise for Cixin Liu:
'China's answer to Arthur C. Clarke' The New Yorker.
'Wildly imaginative, really interesting ... The scope of it was immense' Barack Obama.
'A milestone in Chinese science fiction' New York Times.
'A marvellous melange of awe-inspiring scientific concepts, clever plotting and quirky yet plausible characters' TLS.
'A unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, politics and history, conspiracy theory and cosmology' George R.R. Martin.
