Tag Archives: Ken Liu

Steampunk fantasy “Three Kingdoms” set for adaptation

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How much do you want to bet that none of the leads will be Asian?

Ken Liu’s steampunk (or as he calls it, silkpunk) fantasy epic series, The Dandelion Dynasty, has been picked up for a film adaptation by DMG, which has brought rights to the first three books.

The series is loosely based on the Chu-Han contention, and is modeled after the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  According to Variety, adaptation of the first in the series, The Grace of Kings, is currently being fast-tracked.

P.S. In case you’re wondering why the name sounds familiar, Nebula and Hugo winner Ken Liu is the English translator for The Three Body Problem.

Top sci-fi award awarded to The Three Body Problem

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 Astronaut Kjell Lindgren announced the award from the International Space Station.

At the Hugo announcements today, The Three Body Problem‘s author Liu Cixin and translator Ken Liu (himself a former Hugo winner for short story)   became the first Asians to win the prestigious Hugo award for Best Novel.  It is also the first translated book to win. This may be their first, but it may not be their last as the second in the trilogy, The Dark Forest  (translated by Joel Martinsen ), was released earlier this month.

Complementary stills from the film starring Feng Shaofeng, Zhang Jingchu, Tang Yan, Zhang Han below the cut.

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Top U.S. sci-fi awards recognize The Three Body Problem

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Eliminate human tyranny! The world belongs to Trisolaris!

Eliminate human tyranny! The world belongs to Trisolaris!

After the mess of the Hugo that lead to big names like George RR Martin calling foul,  The Three Body Problem became the first Chinese novel to be successfully nominated for best novel for both of Sci-fi’s biggest awards, the Hugo and the Nebula. The novel by Liu Cixin, translated into English by the equally brilliant Ken Liu, is currently in the process of being made into a film. Other than leads Zhang Jingchun and Feng Shaofeng, Tang Yan and Du Chun are also rumored to join the cast.

Congrats to Liu Cixin! Also, duo Nebula and Hugo winner Ken Liu just published his first full-length novel, The Grace of Kings (it’s in English!),  an epic of its own set in a Han-dynasty alternate universe.  I highly recommend you to check it out.

Sci-fi epic gets English release, Chen Kun to star in film version?

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Considered the masterpiece that revived Chinese science fiction, Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem trilogy will become the first modern Chinese sci-fi novel to be published in English (unless you count Cat Country)  on November 12th. The dystopia epic takes the reader through the cultural revolution, an alternative version of the ancient World, and finally a modern society whose disappointed in the modern world led them to invite the invasion of an alien invasion.   You can read English excerpts here, here, and here translated by award-winning author Ken Liu, and pre-order the book here and the sequel Dark Forest here.

On October 18th, actor Chen Kun made a Weibo hinting at his role in a film version of the novel, but then immediately deleted it. Later that day, an official Weibo announced the pre-production of a movie adaptation. Sina confirmed the news with production company Yoozo, who said more news will be released at the company’s press conference mid-November.   If successful, this could be the first dystopia Chinese sci-fi film and fill perhaps the biggest hole in Chinese film.

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