Ken Liu, Cixin Liu: Death's End (2021, Head of Zeus)
English language
Published Sept. 10, 2021 by Head of Zeus.
Sequel to The Dark Forest. Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of the Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay.
The world in this book is so complex and mesmerizing I have trouble to exiting it.
I'm still at odds with this book and the whole trilogy. This one is better than the second books but it's still just okay 🤷🏼
Everything about the science is top notch though. I like the explanations, he doesn't overdo it, but it's still thorough enough to get the gist of the idea.
If somebody was struggling to find a sci-fi book, because he/she already read so many, this would be a good contender, especially if it should be more about the science and less about the characters.
This is the biggest weakness though: the characters seem so one-dimensional. Cheng Xin as the protagonist in this book did have a tiny bit more deepness than usual, but all surrounding characters were lacking. 艾AA was built up as the fun but clever character by Cheng Xin, but she never did anything fun really. Luo Ji was just there I guess (without …
I'm still at odds with this book and the whole trilogy. This one is better than the second books but it's still just okay 🤷🏼
Everything about the science is top notch though. I like the explanations, he doesn't overdo it, but it's still thorough enough to get the gist of the idea.
If somebody was struggling to find a sci-fi book, because he/she already read so many, this would be a good contender, especially if it should be more about the science and less about the characters.
This is the biggest weakness though: the characters seem so one-dimensional. Cheng Xin as the protagonist in this book did have a tiny bit more deepness than usual, but all surrounding characters were lacking. 艾AA was built up as the fun but clever character by Cheng Xin, but she never did anything fun really. Luo Ji was just there I guess (without spoiling too much) and the others as well (can't go into detail here without spoiling though).
In summary: It's okay I guess. If you are into getting some new perspective in a sci-fi book, either culturally or in the science, this one's not bad.
Side note: Talking about the characters, I noticed something weird: In this whole trilogy, every time there are some characters from every part of the world, it's usually: An American (I know, Diaz is an exception of that rule already), a British person (there are other Europeans as well, thank you very much) and some Chinese person (I think one Japanese as well and one is very into Japanese culture though). What about the Germans, French or Spanish people? Nobody ever talks about India or Pakistan at all (I think), two of the most populated countries on Earth. Africa and Canada also exist. There are Russians in the first novel, but I guess they are not important anymore later. I know you can't fit every single nation in a few books, but seriously, that's weird.
In a lot of ways, i think this book could stand alone instead of being book three. It kind of starts the timeline over in the near future instead of picking up where the other books left off. With hibernation we are able to mostly follow a single person through the book, and that makes it feel coherent in a new way. It’s about the relationship with the larger universe much more than it’s about the Trisolarans. I’m glad we read these
