**From science fiction legend Cixin Liu, the New York Times
bestselling and award-winning author of The Three-Body Problem, comes
a vision of the future that reads "like Ursula K Le Guin rewriting The
Lord of the Flies for the quantum age." (NPR).
**
In those days, Earth was a planet in space.
In those days, Beijing was a city on Earth.
On this night, history as known to humanity came to an end.
Eight light years away, a star has died, creating a supernova event that
showers Earth in deadly levels of radiation. Within a year, everyone
over the age of thirteen will die.
And so the countdown begins. Parents apprentice their children and try
to pass on the knowledge needed to keep the world running.
But when the world is theirs, the last generation may not want to
continue the legacy left to them. And in shaping the future however they
want, will the children usher in an era of bright beginnings or final
mistakes?
This audacious and ultimately optimistic early work will give Liu's
English-reading fans a glimpse at his evolution as a writer and give any
speculative fiction reader food for deep thought. -- Shelf Awareness
