THE World Chinese Science Fiction Nebula Award (2017) was won by Han Song’s novel “Exorcism” (“Qu Mo”) on Sunday in Beijing.

The award was launched in 2010 by the World Chinese Science Fiction Association. Liu Cixin’s “Death’s End” won the gold in 2011.

This year’s top winner Han had won silver awards for his novels “Subway” and “High-Speed Train” in 2011 and 2013.

His latest work also won the gold award for creativity in a sci-fi movie.

The work, “Exorcism,” the second part of Han’s “Hospital Trilogy,” is a story of a disaster that is sparked by artificial intelligence (AI).

In the book, the protagonist Yang Wei wakes up in a hospital on a ship floating in a red sea, and finds that he has lost his memory and everything aboard is controlled by algorithms.

In the work, AI had taken over the hospital and tries to create a utopian world, where all humans live a long life. However, the wards are a mess, and patients had died one after another.

To recover his lost memory, Yang works with other patients to explore the ship. After visiting a high-tech medical treatment center, they gradually discover the secrets of the hospital ship.

Yang then realizes that AI might have lost control, and is killing patients as the best way of treating them.

Meanwhile, doctors who have been driven out of wards by the algorithm establish a shadow hospital to confront the machines.

Later, Yang finds that the treatment he has received, which was supposed to remove his pain (exorcism), was actually used to plant “viruses” in his body.

“A Que’s Goodbye Doraemon,” which was inspired by Japanese animation “Doraemon: Stand By Me,” won gold for best sci-fi novella.

He Xi’s short story “Floating Life” won gold for best sci-fi short story.

The story is about the existence of individuals after the death of Earth, when civilization exists in the form of pure energy.

“Best Chinese Science Fiction in the Last 100 Years” won gold for best nonfiction. (China Daily)

Jury’s comment on “Exorcism”

“AI treats every person as a patient. How far is the distance between the future and the present? Han Song’s writing creates a space that is much closer to the present one, compared with realistic writing. His linguistic labyrinth offers readers an indistinct experience of the future. Behind the enchanting vision is the unknowable truth.”