604 pages
English language
Published Jan. 9, 2016 by Actes Sud.
With The Three-Body Problem , English-speaking readers got their first chance to experience the multiple-award-winning and bestselling Three-Body Trilogy by China's most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu. Three-Body was released to great acclaim including coverage in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. It was also named a finalist for the Nebula Award, making it the first translated novel to be nominated for a major SF award since Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities in 1976. Now this epic trilogy concludes with Death's End . 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 daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured …
With The Three-Body Problem , English-speaking readers got their first chance to experience the multiple-award-winning and bestselling Three-Body Trilogy by China's most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu. Three-Body was released to great acclaim including coverage in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. It was also named a finalist for the Nebula Award, making it the first translated novel to be nominated for a major SF award since Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities in 1976. Now this epic trilogy concludes with Death's End . 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 daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent. Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?
Great series and definitely flawed. At the end, it is worth it for the great story told!
Content warning Some references to other works may hint at spoilers
I couldn't resist and had to finish my binge of the series. This one is truly big, spanning billions of years and tying together many themes and concepts. Cixin Liu will casually cover a topic that in other works would constitute the entirety of the novel, but he does it as a throwaway chapter. Well, not throwaway, but in some cases a topic is introduced, and closed out so quickly that in many cases, the reader is left wanting more or perhaps thinking to themself "was this topic so obvious that the author didn't deem it worthy of covering further?"
The beginning was very confusing and it does seem like this was a dumping ground for some of the conceptual content that had been created while doing some world-building. After about the first quarter of the book, the threads come together and the story really gets going. Strung together like this, the book is like three novels in one. I could see the author having stretched those out into 1 or even 2 more books (after all, this is the longest of the three novels), but I'm thankful it all wrapped up here.
Whereas the first two novels spent a lot of time building up to their point, as in the concept of the Dark Forest in the second novel, this one essentially hurls concepts at you one after another as if you're in a batting cage. It makes for a fun but sometimes bewildering ride and may not be for everyone. Still, this has Cixin Liu's signature high-concept, big universe ideas in it and it is fun to work through them with his story-telling of this expanding universe as we come to know about more than just the Trisolarans.
A couple of the concepts reminded me of the Priscilla Hutchins series by Jack McDevitt, which I also greatly enjoyed for its whole "the Universe is a lot bigger than you think, kid" way of story-telling.
Han pasado casi dos meses desde que terminé la trilogía y me sigue dando escalofríos. Creo que este libro es como el terror cósmico realista, esas ideas de lo inmenso (lo inconmensurable) del universo. Lo terriblemente cruel que es la supervivencia, el poco freno que la moral puede poner a eso. Y lo peor, lo cercano y verdadero que se siente eso...
Sin duda, el mejor volumen de la trilogía.
