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  • Ball Lightning

  • Written by: Cixin Liu
  • Narrated by: Bruno Roubicek
  • Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (12 ratings)

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Ball Lightning cover art

Ball Lightning

Written by: Cixin Liu
Narrated by: Bruno Roubicek
Free with 30-day trial

₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

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Publisher's Summary

When Chen's parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of this mysterious natural phenomenon. The more he learns, the more he comes to realise that ball lightning is just the tip of an entirely new frontier in particle physics. Although Chen's quest provides a purpose for his lonely life, his reasons for chasing this elusive quarry come into conflict with soldiers and scientists who have motives of their own.

©2005 Liu Cixin (P)2018 W.F. Howes Ltd

What listeners say about Ball Lightning

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Starts with lightning, then it blows your mind

I only bought this because i really loved the complex, aeons-spanning tale of the Three Body Problem. I expected this to be tamer, simpler because y'know, it's just lightning. But no, Cixin Liu cannot just write a straight simple story. This isn't a trilogy, but that didn't stop the author from aravind a marvellous rollercoaster ride. And the tiny three-body prequelesque easter egg was the perfect dessert. Loved this book.

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Liu did it again

Great characters and the drama revolving weapons and science. The author as usual has made sure to take mundane thing which we leave out to hard science fiction story which will make you listen to in one straight week or 2 days in my case.
Great Story
Great Characters
Awesome crossover - Ding Yi is the best.

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  • Lothloria
  • 01-11-18

Continues to be one of my favourite authors!

The book starts off absolutely brilliantly and you are hooked in immediately. It is a different feel and pace to Three Body Problem series, but I enjoyed the infiltration of science (however unnatural) into the near future. Narrator was brilliant.

2 people found this helpful

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  • Andre veiga
  • 15-01-23

Not hard sci fi

Quite different from 3BP, a lot softer and more fanciful
Story was a bit all over the place for my taste

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Asger
  • 05-12-21

Alright

The book was alright, but I read three body first and found that one much more interesting. The theoretical ideas in this book are interesting but the way the characters learns of the ideas didn't seem realistic enough to me. The odd physics genius stereotype just always had an explanation for every weird, unnatural phenomena they experienced.
also, the storytelling wasn't as compelling to me as three body problem.

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  • Jed1314
  • 28-04-20

Author's afterword contains spoilers

Great book and reading, I've gone on to listen to more of the series but afterword spoils part of 3 body problem. Better to return to this section after you've read the rest of the series.

27 people found this helpful

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  • Kelvin Lagrave
  • 13-08-20

An interesting story

This is my first time reading a Cixin Liu book, and I picked this up hearing it was a prequel to his popular Three Body series. I was pleasantly surprised, Ball Lightning is a slow but engaging story that explores interesting science fiction concepts. Everything feels very real and grounded in reality, as if some of the things mentioned in this book could be real.
Bruno Roubicek's narration takes a little getting used to, but I do think he did an excellent job. I highly recommend

8 people found this helpful

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  • Gabriel Lopes
  • 18-09-19

Outstanding!

Wow, just wow...

At first i was sceptical about this book because i heard to ignore it as it was supposedly unrelated to the rest of his work (namely three body experience) of which i heard amazing things about. After a quick search i figured out with is a prequel and as wanting to catch the beginning, i bought it.

Oh boy...

This book really catches your attention and tells a gripping tale about the unflinching obsession and the struggles of scientific discovery vs the moral and existential (for the lack of a better word) implications.

I highly recommend this.

7 people found this helpful

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  • Alice Booth
  • 06-07-21

Not a prequel and not my taste at all

I really liked the beginning of this book, but the military fetishism of the second half really put me off. I loved the three body trilogy, but this is not in the same league at all. Also, Liu's lingering sexism is even more pronounced here, but without the quality story to distract from it. Very disappointed.

4 people found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 09-05-21

very one dimensional characters

it was a struggle to finish this the characters are so one dimensional, they jump from emotion to emotion incredibly fast, the plot and concept was interesting and made me stuck it out to see what happened, the best part is the epilogue where the author gives a short history lesson on Science fiction in china

2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • D
  • 12-09-20

interesting throughout, but vaguely dissatisfying.

they want words for the review, so here are some words.the title says enough, but is not enough.

2 people found this helpful

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  • David Adams
  • 27-03-21

a wonderful piece of science fiction~☆

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this tale of ball lightning, and the protagonist search for meaning. The narrator is good too~☆

1 person found this helpful

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  • Bilsbrbj01
  • 01-03-21

Another Excellent Cixin Book

Loved it,
Stand along from the three body problem but in the same fictional world.

As always Cixin starts in the real and slowly developes into the mind boggling bizarre in a beautiful speculation of scientific advance

1 person found this helpful

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  • Justin Murphy
  • 11-02-21

Excellent hard sci-fi

I discovered Cixin Liu with the Wandering Earth, then continued with the Three Body Problem series and now with Ball Lightning. He is very much a “hard sci-fi” author: fictional phenomena based on a kernel of real science. In the Dark Forest it was relativity; in Ball Lightning it is quantum mechanics. I would compare him with Stephen Baxter.

At first I didn’t like the narrator, but after so many books I have grown to like him and I think his steady style of talking matches the nature of the books.

1 person found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Tatiana / @TCLinrow
  • 15-12-20

A weird and wonderful sci-fi

I really enjoyed this story for its ability to write about incredibly complex scientific theories and possibilities in a way that could be understood easily.

The storyline itself was engaging and captivating, and with a little bit more character development it could easily have been a 5 star read for me.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Harrison
  • 27-01-19

Awesome

I listened to Ball Lightening after reading the Three Body trilogy. I love Cixin Liu's style. His characters are relatable, his ideas are novel and innovative, he has a talent for making frontier scientific concepts accessible without dumbing things down, and there's always another intriguing turn in the plot whenever you think you've read/heard all the juicy bits. The only thing I could say against his writing style is that it sometimes requires patience, in that occasionally sections or chapters will go on what at first seems a tangent, but read/listen on and your faith is very thoroughly rewarded (Lovecraft was a bit like that oftentimes, come to think of it). Another big plus is Bruno Roubicek's narration. Clear and consistently paced, and suitable for listening in the car or noisy places. Highly recommend.

4 people found this helpful

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  • Kyte Gurner
  • 14-04-19

A fascinating speculation fiction

Ball Lightning's story is okay, but I wouldn't say it is amazing. Where this book truely shines is in its speculation of uncharted physics. I found Cixin's speculation on physics to be quite fascinating and entertaining to listen to, and overall enjoyed this book very much.

3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Declan
  • 02-04-19

A great prequel to the 3 Body Problem series

Another captivating storyline, one which you could belive actually happens with in depth characters. an enjoyable listen.

2 people found this helpful

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  • Michael
  • 22-03-22

It good

Love the extremely nerdy flavoured pseudo science themes and details. Narration also excellent and consistent, especially appreciate how his characters' tone accounts for the authors description of the tone that comes after the speech or just how he appropriately matches the context.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Shaun
  • 31-01-22

I wish I read this before the three body problem series

This book was magnificent both in writing and narration. I wish I had read it before reading the three body problem, as it introduced one of the characters from the three body problem early, and gave his backstory fairly well. That being said, it would have zero impact on your understanding of the story

1 person found this helpful

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  • Dario
  • 22-09-19

interesting but a bit boring

I struggled to finish it. It has a very interesting idea about the physics of ball lightning but too often it overuses monotonous, highly descriptive and sometime unrealistic dialogues.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 15-03-23

Worth the read

it begins slowly and develops a steady pace to the end, but it kept me glued, wanting to know what happened next

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  • Lucette Cysique
  • 21-09-19

loved it!

great story; great characters, great narrator
i can't wait to start listening to next book