Cixin Liu's For the Benefit of Mankind
graphic-novel · First published 2022
Author guide
Cixin Liu Books in Order
Cixin Liu (born 1963) is a Chinese science-fiction writer and former engineer at a power plant in Shanxi. His fiction is known for its large-scale cosmic ideas, rigorous scientific imagination, and concern with humanity's long-term future. He has received multiple Galaxy Awards and won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Three-Body Problem.
science fictionhard science fictionspeculative fiction
Catalog record updated .
Cixin Liu's Newest Book
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
The Three-Body Problem
The primary entry point to Liu's best-known trilogy and his most internationally recognized novel.
The Wandering Earth
A representative introduction to Liu's short fiction and large-scale scientific imagination.
Ball Lightning
A self-contained novel combining accessible scientific speculation with a human-scale narrative.
Read in order
Books by series
trilogy · complete
Remembrance of Earth's Past
A trilogy tracing humanity's encounters and conflicts with an extraterrestrial civilization across vast spans of time.
- 1 The Three-Body Problem
Book 1 · novel · 2006
An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as…
- 2 The Dark Forest
Book 2 · novel · 2008
This near-future trilogy is the first chance for English-speaking listeners to experience this multiple-award-winning phenomenon from Cixin Liu, China's most beloved science fiction author. In The Dark Forest, Earth is reeling from the…
- 3 Death's End
Book 3 · novel · 2010
Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing…
graphic-novel-series · ongoing
The Worlds of Cixin Liu
An international graphic-novel series adapting Cixin Liu's short fiction.
- 1 Cixin Liu's Sea of Dreams
Book 1 · graphic-novel · 2021
- 2 Cixin Liu's The Wandering Earth
Book 2 · graphic-novel · 2021
An international collaboration involving 26 writers and illustrators from 14 different countries have transformed 15 of Cixin Liu's – 'China's answer to Arthur C. Clarke' (New Yorker) – award-winning stories into graphic novels. The Sun…
- 3 Cixin Liu's The Village Teacher
Book 3 · graphic-novel · 2021
- 4 Cixin Liu's Yuanyuan's Bubbles
Book 4 · graphic-novel · 2021
Cixin Liu is one of the most important voices in world science fiction. A bestseller in China, his novel, The Three-Body Problem, was the first translated work of SF ever to win the Hugo Award. Liu's writing takes the reader to the edge…
- 5 Cixin Liu's The Butterfly
Book 5 · graphic-novel · 2022
- 6 Cixin Liu's The Circle
Book 6 · graphic-novel · 2022
- 8 Cixin Liu's For the Benefit of Mankind
Book 8 · graphic-novel · 2022
- 7 Cixin Liu's The Devourer
Book 7 · graphic-novel · 2022
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (4)
- The Devil's Building Blocks
novel · 2002
- The Supernova Era
novel · 2003
- Of Ants and Dinosaurs
novel · 2004
A satirical fable, a political allegory and an ecological warning from the author of The Three-Body Problem. In a sunlit clearing in central Gondwana, on an otherwise ordinary day in the late Cretaceous, the seeds of Earth's first and…
- Ball Lightning
novel · 2004
When Chen's parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of this mysterious natural phenomenon. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military…
Short fiction (11)
- The Einstein Equator
short-story-collection · 2003
- The Wandering Earth
short-story-collection · 2003
These ten stories, including five Chinese Galaxy Award-winners, are a blazingly original ode to planet Earth, its pasts, and its futures. Liu's fiction takes the reader to the edge of the universe and the end of time, to meet stranger…
- With Her Eyes
short-story-collection · 2004
- At the End of Time
short-story-collection · 2010
- The Micro-Era
short-story-collection · 2010
- The Angel Era
short-story-collection · 2012
- The Village Teacher
short-story-collection · 2012
- The Sun of China
short-story-collection · 2014
- 2018
short-story-collection · 2014
- Time Migration
short-story-collection · 2014
- Sea of Dreams
short-story-collection · 2015
Essays and speeches (2)
- Liu Cixin on Science Fiction
essay-collection · 2014
- The Worst Universe, Best Earth
essay-collection · 2015
Frequently asked questions about Cixin Liu
Who is Cixin Liu?
Cixin Liu, also known as Liu Cixin, is a Chinese science-fiction author born in 1963 and one of contemporary China’s most successful science-fiction writers.
Where was Cixin Liu born and raised?
He was born in Beijing and grew up in Yangquan, a coal-mining town in Shanxi Province, where his parents worked in a mine.
What did Cixin Liu do before becoming a full-time writer?
He studied at the North China University of Water Conservancy and Electric Power and worked as a computer engineer at Niangziguan Power Station. He left that engineering position in 2014 after years of publishing fiction.
What influenced Cixin Liu’s writing?
In a Brandeis University conversation, Liu discussed his science-fiction fandom and identified Leo Tolstoy as a powerful literary influence. His engineering background also informs his emphasis on science, technology, and large-scale ideas.
Sources: scholarworks.brandeis.edu (opens in a new tab)cuhk.edu.hk (opens in a new tab)
What awards has Cixin Liu won, and why is he important to science fiction?
He has won China’s Galaxy Award nine times and the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Three-Body Problem. That Hugo win made him the first Asian author to win a Hugo for a novel and helped bring Chinese science fiction to a global audience.
Sources: cuhk.edu.hk (opens in a new tab)thehugoawards.org (opens in a new tab)apnews.com (opens in a new tab)