emmaito's reviews
2302 reviews

Jumpnauts was an excellent and exciting science fiction read by Hao Jingfang; I was pulled in and couldn't tear my eyes from the pages.

This book is a unique look into a not-so-distant future, where the world is filled with smarter, more sophisticated tech/AI and is separated into the factions of the Pacific League of Nations and the Atlantic Division of Nations. War between this factions is coming, yet while tensions rise, Yun Fan follows the footsteps of her father's disgraced research on aliens. Smart and powerful in their own spaces, Qi Fei and Jiang Liu are pulled into Yun's journey as she sets out to track down a transmission to an unknown entity in space. 

I enjoyed the pace of this story - it felt slow and steady, yet would quicken into action only to slow down again and engage into character conversations about philosophy, folk stories, and more. I think a well-written science fiction book makes the reader question their own life philosophies and this certainly had my brain working hard to wrap my head around faith and ideals, not to mention the complex and clever writing around space, pulsars, blockchains, and more. 

I appreciated the character development and how the main characters change, grow, and learn from one another. This book felt so close to our reality - I really enjoyed this!

Also, shoutout to the translator, Ken Liu. I can't speak as a native Chinese language speaker, but as an English speaker I think the way he kept certain concepts made sense to me and I like that he put in footnotes for more information/depth.