Love oozes warmth in a time of cold interstellar wars

Zhu Yuqing, the author of Tianmu Zhengtu (The Journey Beyond the Sky), released his new novel Wuhuan Xingyi (The Vicissitudes of Time and Space), offering readers an adventure in a unique cosmic world.

Wuhuan Xingyi, published by The Writers Publishing House, unfolds in an interstellar civilization that encompasses Earth and tens of millions of other planet-based civilizations. The story starts with the protagonists, two "dead people" that have gone through interstellar wars, asking the question, "Who am I". The question lingers throughout the novel without a definite answer, adding an air of mystery.

The novel delves deep into various aspects of interstellar civilizations. It explores how survival laws of civilizations change in the vast and highly developed interstellar ecosystem. With the expansion of power-ruling bodies and the complexity of social governance structures, individuals face a crisis of individual value and self-control.

"In the interstellar era, the power of the ruling institutions becomes very strong, and the social governance structure grows ever more complex. People start to feel their individual value and self-control slipping away," Zhu explains.

The novel also redefines the concept of death for humans and biological intelligence, presents the cruel competition among different intelligent species, and depicts the mind-boggling war tactics of advanced civilizations. The protagonists, though carrying out top-secret missions, find themselves in a helpless position, like pawns in a grand game.

"As soldiers on a secret mission, they have no control over their own bodies and lives. But they hold on to their inner beliefs," Zhu says, adding that they fight for the common people, believing that every individual's power, no matter how small, can make a difference.

In this novel, competition is an inevitable part of the existence of intelligent species, especially between biological and machine intelligence. However, love, in the cold backdrop of interstellar power struggles, still remains a warm and tenacious force.

Despite the power-hungry rulers' schemes, love exists like an invisible, gravitational wave. It often blossoms between aliens from different planets, despite not always leading to a happy ending, he adds.

Zhu's passion for astronomy and physics was ignited at a young age."I became interested in astronomy and physics when I was 5 or 6 years old," he says. He still has dozens of astronomy and physics books on his desk, including A Brief History of Time and The Universe in a Nutshell, both by British physicist Stephen Hawking.

Starting his writing and translation career in his 20s, Zhu, a part-time writer, 47, spent his spare time writing this novel.

His favorite sci-fi novel is American author and biochemist Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. "It was the first in the genre to establish a systematic and grand cosmic worldview, creating a new interstellar civilization," he says.

"The Foundation series and American sci-fi blockbusters feature unique cosmic worlds. Chinese sci-fi also needs its own grand cosmic worlds. I want to create a unique cosmic worldview."

As Zhang Yali, editor-in-chief of The Writers Publishing House, once said, "In the sci-fi world that saves humanity's future, Chinese sci-fi stories and heroes must have their place."

Li Hai, editor-in-chief of The Beijing News, comments on the book.

"The author, using vast knowledge and vivid imagination, has built a whole new universe. What's special about the book is that it doesn't just focus on the battles within the 'Seven Realms', seven fictional regions in the novel," he says."Instead, it always considers and reflects on the fate of all humanity from a broader perspective."