The Wandering Earth by Cinxin Liu

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "This is a collection of Cixin Liu short fiction ,including 5 China Galaxy award winners, are a blazing original ode to planet Earth- its pasts and its futures." I borrowed this book from my local library with the intention of reading only the first story: The Wandering Earth. I saw the movie adaptation trailer, liked it, and decided to read the original story first. I read 3 stories instead. 

The Wandering Earth, in an attempt to save humanity from a dying sun, the authorities decide to move the planet to another star. This will take generations, but the story narrates the first few years when Earth stops turning and small changes to its orbit, across months and years will let humanity travel the stars. 

Mountain, a first contact story between strange aliens who, with their spaceships gravity, build a water mountain with the ocean water. Just one brave human is capable of climbing that mountain and meeting the aliens. Their conversation about the origins of this alien species, the way they discovered the world around them, and their cosmology is amazing!!! 

Sun of China, in order to improve Earth's weather, the Chinese government implements the Sun of China, a kind of gigantic mirror in orbit that will reflect sunlight to areas of the world who need rain. The story follows a poor window cleaner who gets a job to clean the Sun of China. 

I think this story is partly a tribute to the sun. Without it we wouldn't exist. When I read about recent efforts by the UK gov to DIM the SUN I thought this is horror rather than SciFi. 

I loved the three stories. They are original and very different between them. These are perfect for hard SF fans/readers. Liu is not the best for character development, but he is a master in coming up with new concepts and developing believable stories with them. I will get back to this collection later in the year to continue reading more stories.