Jumpnauts

Writing a futuristic science fiction novel will allow you to explore strange new worlds but can also be used to explore our past and culture. Reading a wide range of stories from different people, from different parts of the world is a gift that will keep giving your entire life. There has been a lot of quality science fiction being translated from China in recent years. In Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang, and translated by Ken Liu, you are given a vision of the future, but also a history lesson. 

No one would have picked the four people who made first contact. Jiang Liu a rich playboy, Yun Fan a scientist looking to clear her father’s name, Qi Fei a career military officer and a bloke that knows how to fly spacecraft. They are not the greatest minds, but they know enough about the strange signals to suspect they are alien in nature. Whilst the world’s powers are chasing their own tails, this group of four set out to intercept what they expect is an alien vessel. What they find will change the world forever. 

Jumpnauts is quintessential science fiction that harks back to the hard science fiction of the 60s and 70s. A science fiction of exploring ideas. The story is simple, four associates find themselves making first contact, but as the book progresses you start to realise that this is not the first contact that the aliens had with Earth. The book is a history lesson as well as a book of speculative ideas. 

There are lots of meaty philosophical and theoretical ideas to get your teeth into. Fans of hard science fiction will love the way that the aliens work, how they manage to cross vast expanses of space. To explore these ideas, Jingfang uses a lot of conversations between characters. Opposing viewpoints will be put across or many questions will be asked. The scene were we first meet the alien reads like an extended question and answer. 

The amount of explanation of the science, and indeed history, does affect the pacing of the novel. Here again it harks back to those earlier golden age science fiction books that often had a slower pace. The reader is educated as well as entertained. I do feel that some modern readers will struggle with the slower pace in this book. 

Whilst the science pops, the characters are a little one dimensional. There is a ‘love triangle’ at the centre, but it feels extremely tame. The development of the characters is sacrificed so that we can learn more about the science. All of this may be an issue for some readers, but those who read science fiction for the science will not be put off. 

Jumpnauts is an interesting science fiction novel that does have a distinctive style and tone to it. It is slower, more intellectual, and relationally naiver. Any fan of the genre will appreciate the world building that Jingfang and exploration of science, but a reader looking for action or passion will have to look elsewhere.