Of Ants and Dinosaurs

A satirical fable, a political allegory and an ecological warning from the author of The Three-Body Problem.

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.

From humble tooth-picking origins, ants and dinosaurs – two species so unalike and yet so complementary – forged an alliance that culminated in an antimatter-powered Age of Wonder.

But such magnificent industry came 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 all warning of impending ecological collapse, leaving the ants facing a single dilemma: destroy their allies... or perish alongside them?

'Made my brain itch with its creativity and klaxon alarm... Deceptively simple and brilliantly clever, I simply adored it' LoveReading
'Liu's sense of fun is contagious' Locus

“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 m”

So, so readable, Of Ants and Dinosaurs with the lightest and brightest of touches, made my brain itch with its creativity and klaxon alarm... Deceptively simple and brilliantly clever, I simply adored it' LoveReading4Kids
So begins a fluctuating symbiotic relationship that Liu develops through knowingly disarming narrative leaps South China Morning Post
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
The narrative picks up towards the end, propelling us into the atomic age and passages of visionary goofiness The Times
[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
A comprehensive vision of civilization and its development paths. When reading this story (or maybe more accurately: a fairy tale), one has an overwhelming impression that you are reading about the current situation in the world Paradoks

Cixin Liu is China's #1 SF writer and author of The Three-Body Problem – the first ever translated novel to win a Hugo Award. Prior to becoming a writer, Liu worked as an engineer in a power plant in Yangquan.

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