Death's End

Confusing time jumps

There are some nice features—grand, fascinating, new sci-fi ideas like dark forest deterrence game theory and other dimensions, interactions with 4th dimension, dark forest proof, sophon in human society, shocking action episode with heavy consequences, some creepy anomalies. But these features happen so rarely over the course of the 700 pages book and are made insignificant by everything else in the book. Like Singer is so interesting, unusual and excellently shows a perspective of a super powerful civilization. Why is there only one small chapter about him?

It reads like a documentary in some chapters describing a character's biography and history and jumps around time periods that were already explored in the previous books. Overall there are a lot of time jumps here with too many explanations. And the very long and vague fairytales holding some very important secrets that require too much time to decipher, yeah, that’s what we need in a sci-fi story about dark forests and aliens. And author being too sexist in places—introvert scientist who "had never even touched woman", very feminine men who look strange to the main character who is a woman—like it’s from 1970s, not 2010.

Also after a few disasters with the same kind of solution in a row it becomes really hard to care, especially when the main character who is much less interesting than those in the previous books and with the dialogues being terrible in places. The last part of the book, about 100 pages, being really dark doesn’t help at all.

I hope this story can be presented in a more exciting way in the 2nd and 3rd seasons of the series as this world has a lot of potential.

The stunning conclusion to The Three-Body Problem trilogy. 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 and, with human science advancing and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations can co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But peace has made humanity complacent. Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the start of the Trisolar Crisis, and her presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle? Review “Wildly imaginative, really interesting.” ―President Barack Obama on The Three-Body Problem trilogy “The Three-Body epic concludes with sweep and scope and majesty, worthy of Frederik Pohl or Poul Anderson, Scholar Wu or H. G. Wells. The universe is likely to be a rough neighborhood. See just how rough...and how life might still prevail.” ―David Brin on Death's End “If you thought The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest were expansive, they're nothing compared to Death's End.... A testament to just how far [Liu's] own towering imagination has taken him: Far beyond the borders of his country, and forever into the canon of science fiction.” ―NPR on Death's End “Compelling reading...the most mind-bending of them all.... Liu's picture of humanity's place in the cosmos is among the biggest, boldest and most disturbing we've seen.” ―The Los Angeles Times Liu Cixin's writing evokes the thrill of exploration and the beauty of scale.... Extraordinary. ―The New Yorker [Cixin h]as gained a following beyond the small but flourishing science-fiction world here [and] breathed new life into a genre . . . The “Three-Body” tomes chronicle a march of the human race into the universe set against the recent past, the tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution. It is a classic science-fiction story in the style of the British master Arthur C. Clarke. ―The New York Times Utterly, utterly brilliant. The Three-Body trilogy is nothing short of a masterpiece. ―Lavie Tidhar, World Fantasy Award winning author of Osama “A breakthrough book . . ., a unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, politics and history, conspiracy theory and cosmology.” ―George R. R. Martin on The Three-Body Problem The Three-Body Problem deserves all of its plaudits. It's an exceptional novel, and Ken Liu's translation is both smooth and unintrusive. ―Mike Resnick, multiple Hugo Award winner “Ken Liu's excellent translation combines fluid clarity with a continuous view into Chinese worldviews, adding to the fun and making this the best kind of science fiction, familiar but strange all at the same time.I hope we'll get to read more by Cixin Liu, and for now applaud this great entry.” ―Kim Stanley Robinson on The Three Body Problem A tour-de-force walk through Chinese and world history. The Three-Body Problem merges virtual realities, alien invasions and exciting science, and manages to make them all fresh. ―Aliette de Bodard, Nebula Award winner Cixin Liu brings to the reader a deep and insightful vision of China past and future. First-rate work by a powerful new voice. ―Ben Bova, multiple Hugo Award winner, on The Three Body Problem About the Author CIXIN LIU is the most prolific and popular science fiction writer in the People's Republic of China. Liu is an eight-time winner of the Galaxy Award (the Chinese Hugo) and a winner of the Chinese Nebula Award. Prior to becoming a writer, he worked as an engineer in a power plant. His novels include The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End. Ken Liu's fiction has appeared in F&SF, Asimov's, Analog, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and Clarkesworld, among other places. He is the author of The Grace of Kings, and has won a Nebula, two Hugos, a World Fantasy Award, and a Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Award, and been nominated for the Sturgeon and the Locus Awards. He edited and translated the Chinese science fiction anthology Invisible Planets. He lives near Boston with his family.

it’s brilliant on ideas, nothing like as good on character or story