Ratings431
Average rating4.4
I am lost for words after finishing the final entry of this trilogy - it took every expectation I had of it, destroyed it to smithereens, and came up with something unprecedented.
With this concluding work, Cixin Liu has cemented his place among the greats - this is the best hard sci-fi work written since Asimov's ‘The Last Question'. The works of sci-fi landing in ‘unprecedented scope' was generally mutually exclusive with ‘actually mind-blowing for once', but Cixin Liu has demolished those barriers effortlessly.
It moves so much beyond its initial foundations of first contact that it is barely recognisable - but it is all the more better for it, as it is not chained to a particular niche. Exploring concepts as varied as dimensional flattening and time warping, and making sure that the plot stays on track, is an underappreciated talent that potential sci-fi writers would do good to take note of.
This series is the closest I've seen a sci-fi series come to the platonic ideal of ‘sci-fi' - the literature of ideas. The trilogy is a must read for anyone who has ever read sci-fi and would like a more serious take on it.
This book buffles me. It has 5-star good parts, which it then ignore and skip without finishing, or finishing in bad ways.
Given 4 stars because I want to judge it for its good and not its bad.
What a journey of humanity. From a contact to an extra-terrestrial intelligence to the end of time. When i finished the book, my world seems so miniscule compared to grand universe introduced by Cixin Liu. All ideas presented in the book are just beyond imagination. Death's end is not your typical science fiction, it pushes what science fiction could be.
One critic: this book has a lot ups and downs. It is not like typical story: building up tension until climax arrives; it is more like a journal, describing grande events, memories of humanity in the universe. Some might don't like this type of story telling, but it is still enjoyable for me. All unimaginable brilliant ideas compansate the downside.
I finished the book last night and I still feel like I'm wrapping my head around the insanely imaginative world Liu Cixin created. I wasn't driven to read this book for the plot or for the characters, but to watch the universe unfold as I flipped the pages.
If you've read the first two books in this series then you know exactly what you're getting into with Death's End, however it is probably the best of the three. The translation was phenomenal and the scope and scale of the story was so much more grand than The Three Body Problem or The Dark Forest.
I can't recommend to everyone, but if you're into hard SCI FI this series needs to be on your list.
I cannot recall a series or individual book that had more imagination and wonder in it. I could not put these books down. I cannot recommend them enough.
In between significant and smaller blind spots—including, like Goethe, promoting a stalker's idea of love—is a work of phenomenal imagination. It's the most absorbing book of the three, and excitingly explores ideas of humans in time and space.
Just like the last book, this one is riddled with plot holes and narrative inconsistencies. I think my biggest issue is that a lot of the major plot drama is driven out of sheer human incompetence, and I just don't think humanity is as incompetent as the caricature of it portrayed in this book. Also the main character of the book is maybe its weakest character in more meanings than one. Her biggest relevance to the story is being the sole person to make a decision where if she makes the wrong one, all of humanity will die. Literally fate of the world kind of stuff. And she makes the wrong decision... TWICE. And it's supposed to be out of “love” so her decisions are supposed to be “okay”. But no, the real world doesn't work like that... And for the record the second time she has to make the decision, it did in fact lead to complete annihilation of humans in the solar system, so she's basically responsible for the genocide of the human race?
Anyways given all that, this book I still rate at 4 stars because I guess its not really the point of the novel, it was still a very gripping read, and has really interesting science fiction concepts.
I would still recommend the series as a whole for anyone interested in sci-fi for its interesting concepts and world, and all the books are page turners. I just think the literature gets lost in the spectacle.
Befitting grand ending to the trilogy that matches the grandeur of the Universe itself.
Epic in its sci-fi, bold in its philosophy, expansive in its politics, and wildly imaginative in its story.
Read this before Amazon starts making TV series out of them.
Certainly more satisfying than book #2. Explores great many ideas however , for a book that relies heavily on Game Theory he does seem to make a lot of “conclusions” that are open, instead , to wide interpretation. I would definitely be interested in a possible book #4 or spin off that investigated the 2D universe introduced in this book
Increíble, un desenlace espectacular. Si bien, en mi opinión, no supera a la segunda entrega, este final me deja con el corazón llenito y lista para revivir la historia con todas las adaptaciones que vienen en camino.
Although it didn't hit the heights of Deaths End this brought the trilogy to a fantastic and satisfying conclusion. I'm at a loss to imagine how one could come up with a story as complex and intricate as this trilogy! This has been one of my favourite reading experiences in a long time and I can't wait to see what he does next.
Lots of big ideas but I was quite bored for the last half of this substantial book.
The character that this book follows is passive. At times, this made the story boring for me. Life goes on around her, and she doesn't do anything. She never experiences life - but skips through time by hibernating. The physics, or science, in this science fiction book is mostly unbelievable.
This trilogy is like a detailed game of Civilization with a strong understanding of science and human nature, with Death's End being the end of the epic.
I really enjoyed the multiple generations and the different perspectives as time goes on. Liu continued to surprise me with the story, even when I thought the end had come. Some may find the scientific detail a drag, but I found it fascinating. I'm sure there are a number of speculations based on current understanding, but I found it stimulating and intriguing. This is the best quality science fiction I've read in quite some time.
Best book in the series. Very interesting ideas and concepts, but a bit longer than necessary and the characters are mostly uninteresting and flat. Overall great finish to the series which constantly dialed it up.
Did not expect this book to actually make me sentimental but here we are. I hope I am not in the minority as someone who is “at peace” with the ending of this astounding series.
Again, we get to the see the best and worst of humanity through this story. We follow a new “main” character named Cheng Xin.
TBH, I was nervous starting this book. Not just because of what might happen in the plot but because it is the last book of the trilogy. For a series that is adamant on not getting you attached to a single character, you do get attached. Well, at least I did.
Strangely, this felt more like a love letter to earth and humans. So, I was pretty emotional by the end of this book.
It was unexpeted how alone humans are in the climax of the story, which makes the stakes higher because we no longer have a known enemy to fight. Which is another refreshing take because so many of the stories we read has a final showdown of some sort and in this case, there's none.
Some have pointed out the sexism in this book, especially with a female protagonist. But to me, there's really not much to go on since there's not really any character in the whole series that I would consider well rounded to make comparisons anyway. We get characters from both sexes doing the good and the bad. I think it was important that Cheng Xin was a woman specifically because of how people perceived her. Especially compared to previous “main” characters in the series.
She was the only character who was “chosen” by the people. And it had largely to do with how they perceived her and how they perceived her had a lot to do with her gender. However problematic that is, this kind of assumption is something that exists and maybe breaking that “norm” is not something the humans have grown out of in centuries. Would it have been great if this was somehow removed? Yes. But the book does not shy away from pointing out that this perception and reasoning is a flaw. Even some of the things, they assume about her, Cheng Xin does not even claim to be and she often finds herself withdrawing whenever she feels like this perception gets too out of hand.
But I don't think this was the point. Sure, they chose Cheng Xin because of their assumptions of her which is rooted on her gender (The Madonna references are obvious) and maybe some of the things she did do.
relinquishing her claim on her star and its planets was seen as a charitable act which most likely drove the votes in her favor, also holding the baby... like a mother... madonna references etc.
I think the point is the reasoning behind that choice. Humanity had the choice based on the worst and best that they could do. The worst being violence and the best being compassion and love. Sure, they made that choice using the assumptions they had. BUT, they chose the person they believed highly likely to carry out that sentiment, regardless of how foolish it might be. See what I mean by the book making me sentimental?
Is it right to blame Cheng Xin? I don't think so. She, of course, felt a lot of guilt about this but is it realistic that the fate of humanity rests on one person? They could have easily not respected her wishes when she wanted to prevent a war, but they did. If anything, why not blame the Trisolarians who still chose to attack DESPITE widespread agreement among humans to welcome them and integrate them into human society? In the end, they chose the violence that led to their doom. If anything, the books shows that choosing violence only leads to a cycle. Even with arguably pacifist characters like Wang Miao and Luo Ji, they ultimately chose violence. Wang Miao letting the military use his nanomachines to kill the ETO members and Luo Ji holding both Earth and Trisolaris hostage. This sentiment is also shown in how the Earth humans prosecuted the crew of Bronze Age and even Luo Ji himself for possible crimes (against humans and against other life forms)
I think they saw Cheng Xin as representative of what is good in humans. Quite literally, they chose to save her, sort of like Pandora's box Did humans get to become the greatest civilization of all time by defeating their enemies and conquering the universe? No. In the end, humans chose to save their humanity. NGL, the book got me listening to “What a Wonderful World” because of how much it got me in the feels, lol.
“Humanity chose you, which meant they chose to treat life and everything else with love, even if they had to pay a great price... Love isn't wrong.”
And finally, the final parts of the book,
Was I disappointed that we don't at least get a happy ending on a small scale? IDK, at that point, I was already emotionally exhausted that one final tragedy felt like a mosquito bite compared to oh IDK, losing the entire solar system. Also how casually it was done, OUCH. But it brings me a bit of satisfaction that in the end, everything resets. So what does it matter that other species were too busy eliminating each other when we all go back to nothing in the end? Sure, we did not get to be the greatest conqueror of the universe and practically extinct but at least we didn't waste our time in the universe on nonsensical violence. Carpe diem and all that
This completes the Three-Body Problem Trilogy, and takes us centuries into the future.
My impressions are on the entire series.
It's been termed “hard sci-fi” for a reason - there is a lot of science, arguments about science, and projections on scientific development within the huge span of this book.
The premise: An alien civilisation is looking for a new habitat and Earth is it. Humans have 450 years to prepare for the invasion and in that time, the aliens - Trisolarans - have sent invisible “sophons” to halt progress in fundamental physics and to also spy on human activities. Of course, this supposes that we (humans) are not alone in the universe. Indeed, not only are we not alone, but also in danger of being discovered by other alien civilisations, not just the Trisolarans.
The span of the story is breathtaking - four hundred and fifty years. Also, the challenge inherent in postulating how human civilisation will respond to such a threat to their existence. Will the world governments put aside differences and work together or will human society fracture into different groups seeking different solutions to the problem?
The author tackles all this, and more, and that in itself makes the book worth reading. I also enjoyed the arguments surrounding technology and should humans pursue a technological development that can guarantee its safety in the future but that can also annihilate it if it falls into the wrong hands at present?
Then there are the debates on whether human civilisation is worth saving at all, given the damage we have wrought on Earth, and would it be fair if a small segment of society, ie the ones who can afford to build the sophisticated ships with ecological systems on board, survives but the majority dies?
These, plus the premise, was what kept me ploughing through the pages, because, to be frank, the characters and the writing would not have sustained my interest.
There are so many characters in each volume of the trilogy that I rather gave up keeping track of them all except for the few who remained central to the tale. The characters felt a bit flat for me, especially the “Western” characters who populated Books 2 and 3 — some of them seemed like caricatures, and there were only a handful who came to life in a more meaningful way, most of them in Books and 3. Book 2 also came across as sexist in its depiction of women, with the main character, Luo Ji, going on and on about his version of the ideal woman - suffice to say, she would fit right in with all the traditional Asian stereotypes about the feminine ideal. This is repeated, though less obviously, in other parts of the trilogy, so much so that I felt it was the author's view and not his characters.
Fortunately, the story kept me reading. The tech is fascinating and among those I found most interesting included hibernation, the information windows, lightspeed spacecraft, anti-matter weapons, slowing down the speed of light, and the unfolding or falling in of dimensions.
The story does not have a happy ending. Earth dies. In fact, the entire Solar System is annihilated. The nature of the attack is itself intriguing and involves the Solar System being sucked into a two-dimensional plane, thereby losing light, life, and energy. The humans that survive are those who escaped the Solar System and find other habitable planets.
This book does not make for light nor entertaining reading. It does raise important questions about our existence in this universe, the rate of technological progress, the futures we are building and the legacies we want to leave behind.
Did I understand this book? No. Do I know how to review it? No. Do I understand how they're going to make an adaptation of it? No. Is existence pain, merely interlocking seconds across a vast tapestry of space and time in which we are all meaningless specks of dust floating through the universe with no meaning and no importance and doomed to an eternity of insignificance and nothingness? Perhaps.
I have never felt like putting a GIF into a review before, but my entire review of this book is just the meme of Troy Barnes from Community saying, “YOU'RE WRINKLING MY BRAIN”
There was a bit of silliness in here and I felt like the book was a bit longer than it should have been, but otherwise....damn.
9/10
I need time to write and collect my thoughts. Know that this was a magnificent read.
Eventually I'll write a proper review. But please read this. It's akin to cracking open your mind and filling it with a different view on the universe.