In foreign bookstores, the proportion of science fiction and fantasy novels is basically one-tenth, which is the most intuitive feeling to evaluate whether it is mainstream or not. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

And compared with Chinese science fiction, these science fiction novels are actually quite different. Foreign science fiction pays more attention to literature than story, such as "Frankenstein" and "Gravity Rainbow" and other science fiction novels have been listed as literary works.

And domestic science fiction novels focus on stories and ignore literature, which may be a legacy of martial arts novels.

Most of the foreign science fiction is not brilliant in creativity, but it is still a novel with smooth writing, clear structure, and complete character building. If it's hard sci-fi, they usually choose the futuristic hard sci-fi very carefully, so there won't be too many technical flaws.

Chinese science fiction is not lacking in excellent ideas, but when it comes to the text, it always feels unsatisfactory, and some novels are very creative, but the task description is too flat, and the structure is not distinguished, and the various flashes cannot be displayed in an orderly manner.

In fact, most of the novels that Chinese science fiction readers are familiar with are classics that have passed the test of time and word of mouth in Europe and the United States, many books were written decades ago, but the popular science fiction novels that have been published in recent years are rarely known by readers, so it creates an illusion that all science fiction novels in Europe and the United States are high-quality novels.

Of course, this is not a reality, and science fiction in Europe and the United States is also the essence and dross, and since 1980, the number of fans and publications of science fiction has increased by an order of magnitude. But at the same time, the sci-fi fandom is extremely conservative about fiction, preferring the old-fashioned form of fiction, and a significant portion of these publications are shoddy and crappy.

Because at that time, novels were no longer the only form that carried the trend of science fiction culture, television, radio dramas, and movies all set foot in the field of science fiction, and Western science fiction gradually became a part of mainstream culture in the natural evolution.

Now that more and more science fiction novels have been adapted into movies, and the value of science fiction novels has also been valued, this "I, Robot" has slowly begun to appear in the field of vision of more people.

Since the NBC news broadcast, readers who like science fiction have also turned their attention to this science fiction novel from China, and the number of Amazon searches and downloads has increased a lot.

The English version of "I, Robot" has successfully reached the top 100 of Amazon's "Asian Good Books List" and the top 50 of the "Science Fiction" category, which is simply a fantasy for a novel that has never been actively promoted.

Unintentionally, Lin Han originally just wanted to publish an English version for the convenience of foreign readers, and he didn't think about how much money he would make, his price on Amazon was only $4.99, and most of the other books were more than $12.

No one is pushing the book forward, as if there is an invisible hand influencing all this, and after successful novels achieve success and progress, they will have a kind of accumulation advantage, and there will be more opportunities to achieve greater success and progress, which is the so-called "Matthew effect".

After being seen by more readers and the author, the novel "I, Robot" finally radiated infinite vitality, and as one of the classic science fiction novels on the earth, it was quickly accepted and loved by people in this world.

Good books have never lacked attention, and some novels on the planet before, such as science fiction novels of the level of "The Hunger Games", have also been very popular, not only the novels have sold well, but the movie box office has exploded, becoming a movie that can win the annual box office in North America.

After some real celebrities and influential media people began to read it, the development of "i, robot" officially entered the fast lane.

A few days later, Mike Resnick was the first to take to Facebook to say that "i, Robot deserves any praise, it's an extraordinary novel, and the author's smooth and natural translation is eye-catching." ”

As a science fiction writer who has been nominated for 28 Hugo Awards and won 5 of them, Mike Resnick has also been nominated for 11 Nebula Awards, as well as the "Skylark Award" for science fiction lifetime achievement.

The famous Israeli science fiction writer Raven Tidar also expressed his opinion, "A masterpiece through and through, it is not an overstatement to use this word for this book." ”

This comment was not posted on the Internet, but posted in the five-star review after buying the book on Amazon, and was turned out by sharp-eyed readers, and then forced to the top.

David Brin, a famous American science fiction writer, futuristic scholar, physicist with a Ph.D. in space science, and NASA consultant, also posted a rare book review on social media: "A novel full of imagination, the author elaborates on the history of the development of robots, making us realize the real problem of artificial intelligence, can we survive centuries without any trouble with the three laws of robots? In addition, I was pleasantly surprised by the smooth translation, which is a must-read for any reader with a genuine passion for science fiction. ”

David Brin's long list of titles is a testament to his place in the hearts of Americans, a four-time Hugo Award-winner, and a great deal of depictions of strange and extraordinary alien civilizations.

Matt Mason, head of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), expressed his shock on Twitter, "God, I've never read such a wonderful robot novel, it seems to be real, and those three rules are very relevant for our robotics and artificial intelligence research." In the future, I will ask every staff member in the lab, every student in my school to read this book, it's great!"

Synonymous with the world's top technology, MIT has always been a pioneer in high-tech and advanced research, but the fact that such a sophisticated lab leader said that a science fiction novel could be used as a reference for their research almost made everyone's jaws drop.

At the same time, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) simply explained the novel "I, Robot" in his class, and even assigned his impressions to more than 50 students as homework after class.

Whether it's a science fiction writer or a real scientist, they're almost all drawn to this novel, and that's the charm of top science fiction.

Even if it is decades later than the time when it appeared on Earth, the charm of "I, Robot" has not diminished at all, and so many people are crazy about it.

It may not be the highest-grossing novel, but as long as it is the best science fiction novel of all time, it will almost always be on the shortlist.

To this end, the online edition of the serious newspaper The Washington Post also published a book review written by physicist Johnny Dyson entitled "Why We Should Read This novel!"

The Los Angeles Times followed suit, and their special commentator, Phelps, published an op-ed: Why did a science fiction novel from China sell well around the world?

Not to be outdone, the Chicago Sun wrote a simple and straightforward title: The novel you should read this week - "I, Robot"