The Micro-Era

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The Micro-Era is a science-fiction short story by Chinese writer Liu Cixin, first published in April 2001. It later appeared in the collection The Wandering Earth (Head of Zeus, 2017).

Plot in simple terms:
- A lone protagonist returns to the Solar System after a long, failed mission to find a new home for humanity.
- The Sun has already undergone a helium flash, turning Earth into a barren wasteland.
- He lands and discovers domed settlements where tiny people live.
- These micro-people explain their world: their size is a result of the crisis, and their society features unusual miniatures, such as jumping between buildings and keeping bacteria as pets.
- Over generations, some humans have shrunk to this tiny scale, and a war breaks out between macro (normal-sized) humans and micro humans.
- The micro humans win with advanced micro-technology, even using methods like burning optic nerves to cause blindness.
- The helium flash kills the macro humans, and the micro humans establish a new civilization, sending golf-ball-sized spaceships to Venus.
- The protagonist shares his own spaceship with them; both sides are hopeful.
- He then realizes the microworld’s only real threat is from the larger humans outside, and he destroys all frozen macroembryos to prevent their return.

Reception and related notes:
- The story has been translated into German, Korean and Spanish (2019).
- In film circles, China Film Group acquired rights to Liu Cixin’s major works, with The Micro-Era discussed in the context of adapting his stories; some observers note that the exposition in the story can be heavy and that it centers more on world-building than on human drama.
- Critics have also commented on Liu Cixin’s habit of naming periods “eras” or “ages” in his fiction.