Death's End (Remembrance of Earth's Past)

The third and final book of the Three Body Problem series. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and it was a fitting end to the series. These books have been very different from the science fiction I'm used to reading, and I'm excited to read Ken Liu's upcoming collection of Chinese sci-fi, Invisible Planets.

Awesome conclusion to a great trilogy. Might be my favorite of the three books. The whole thing really made me think in different ways about our universe, intelligent life, and the human species role in it all.

It was literally "Death's End" to force myself to finish this overly long trilogy. While the clever inventiveness of the science fiction was very high, the plot and especially the cold lack of any human warmth made it hard for this reader to relate to the characters by this last installment. Sometimes "less is more" and this last book is an example. It would have benefited by exploring the humanity and emotions of the two main characters. But, that could have been more easily done in the second, "Dark Forest," volume.

Many ideas presented in an undisciplined way. It was as thought the author threw ideas at a wall, decided they all stuck; but did not really think through if the ideas worked as presented. A question one can ask when reading any communication be it a sculpture, novel, short story, poetry or non-fiction is "Did the writer take a chisel to the soft stone?" The idea is that a if a sculptor left some soft stone, then he left stone that was non essential to the piece or in some sense redundant. For me the presentation was so loose and undisciplined that most of the novel especially was nothing buy soft stone. Not impressive at all. I might add that a good novel should make the reader hungry for the next idea. This was absolutely not the case with this book.

Quite a different read than western SF.

Much more focused on human nature, much less on technical details. Immense timescale, and immense imagination. The dark forest theory, for me, is the best answer so far to Fermi paradox.

I was not able to identify with the hero and her choices though - felt a slight disconnect reading the book, as well as the ending.

Definitely interesting read, be prepared for something different than what you had before.

The first two books in this trilogy are fantastic, so I was primed for the finale, but it was disappointing. Whereas the other two books featured clever, technology-enhanced, plot twists, Liu seemed to have run out of gas for this final installment. The future history of the first two books shed light on the human condition, but this one, not so much, as we deal with more alien races, more death, and more time jumps. That, plus a multi-century romance that never really seems to gel. Fans of the first two books should read this one, to see how the whole system of sophons, hibernation, etc. ends, but lower your expectations.

This novel is in instant classic, bursting with mind-blowing ideas that would each be a cracking story in its own right. Even better than "The Three-Body Problem", and a fitting end to a fine trilogy.

This is one of the best sci-fi books I have ever read. Each book in this trilogy is better than its predecessor and this last book is truly a masterpiece of science fiction that will be remembered for years to come.
The ideas are thought provoking - it is apparent that Mr. Liu invested a lot of effort to write a story that makes sense from a scientific perspective.

I really struggled to finish these books. I love deep, long, complex sci-fi a la Vernor Vinge, Peter F. Hamilton, etc., but for some reason I spent this entire trilogy in a love/hate relationship with the story.

These books are at their best when the author is imagining possible future technology and its impacts, and at their worst when telling the actual story of the books, which is at times extremely difficult to suspend disbelief well enough to stay with it. The underlying premise is good, it's just really hard to buy that certain events would have played out the way they are depicted.

The science is mostly very good or at least plausible, and writing for individual characters is good as well. However, when writing the reactions of society to large-scale events, I nearly always felt that it was extremely difficult to believe that global society or a significant chunk of it would react in the ways depicted in the story.

Overall, I don't regret reading these, as there were some really cool "whoa" moments and some excellent tension/suspense - but I honestly don't understand why people are so excited about this series, it just doesn't seem that good. Perhaps my lack of familiarity with Chinese society is making me miss something that others are picking up on.

Brimming with ideas that most sci fi writers would be happy to have just one or two of. So-so plot, and Liu invokes deux ex machina plot devices at two key moments (one of which you could see coming well beforehand). But for sheer creativity, breadth, and scope Death's End merits 4 stars.

Not as good as the others in the series. The book is slow and somewhat boring, and the end feels rushed. It actually took me more than 2 months to finish it. The book probably deserves 3 stars in my view, but I gave it 4 considering the series as a whole.

While not the greatest writing from a dialogue sense this book is great if you liked the first two. It always went it a different direction then what I was thinking which is something I love. If you read the first two and enjoyed them then this is a no brainier for sure.

I really enjoyed the first book of this series - very novel, very well written. The second book was ok - it grew on you over the course of the reading. The same seemed to be the case with book 3; however, it was marred by an incomprehensibly stupid heroine and then increasingly bombastic alien scenarios and perhaps one of the most dissatisfying, if not outright stupid, endings. Barely 3 stars (and that only on the strength of some of the innovative ideas and not the plot in general).

Cixin Liu asks a philosophical question we should ponder: what would humans be willing to do for themselves when they face the ultimate challenge?
I find myself continually measuring the actions of different characters with what I think my own responses might be. It is a challenge and a terrific
World to explore. It is a thinking person's book but well worth the time. If I had to start over, I would do it in a heartbeat! Love this tale!!!

This series was one of the best trilogies I have ever read. The twists were unseen, the science wasn't too outlandish and his human characters made human choices. It is a work of genius in both execution and translation. If you like science fiction, you must read this.

Brilliant and sweeping in its scope, but I found it less satisfying than the first two installments in the trilogy. The story seemed to set up situations that it deliberately failed to resolve. People have described this as a more philosophical approach; I tend to think of it as very pessimistic. Basically, everything that could go wrong, DOES go wrong. A lot of the story is about coming to grips with these escalating disasters. Even so, brilliant and sweeping.

This series was one of the best trilogies I have ever read. The twists were unseen, the science wasn't too outlandish and his human characters made human choices. It is a work of genius in both execution and translation. If you like science fiction, you must read this.

Brilliant and sweeping in its scope, but I found it less satisfying than the first two installments in the trilogy. The story seemed to set up situations that it deliberately failed to resolve. People have described this as a more philosophical approach; I tend to think of it as very pessimistic. Basically, everything that could go wrong, DOES go wrong. A lot of the story is about coming to grips with these escalating disasters. Even so, brilliant and sweeping.

The first two in the series were great. (4.5/5 and 5/5 stars). This one? meh.

I felt that towards the end of this book, the Author/Translator really just liked the sound of their own writing voice. There was melodramatization of events and sometimes excessive use metaphors. Don't get my wrong, that stile of writing is great (Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is a good example). At some point, I just wanted the book to end. And that was page 400/600. It was drawn out like an extended stay from your in-laws.

The book possesses wild an creative ideas. A nice style of writing. But he should have just stopped at 400 pages, and reduced some of the redundancy or attempts to explain, using physics or faux-physics, the elements of his universe.

Compared to the first 2 books, which had a kind of realistic feel to them, analyzing potential impacts to human society in light of the forthcoming Trisolaran invasion, the author goes well into pure sci-fi mode here. Some of the concepts are very imaginative and though-provoking, and I was eager to read on for most of the time to see where the story was going. Also the author's grip on physics is very impressive. However, the end really loses it IMHO, it goes overboard in the same way as the Interstellar movie goes with the 4-dimensional room in the black hole (ok, just a subjective complaint ;-)). Also when the author describes some concrete situations things become involuntarily funny (like Sophon's ninja-style behaviour with swords and Kendo sticks, as well as the surrealistic depiction of Moskstraumen). Some critical editing would have helped the story a lot. Nevertheless I was greatly entertained for most of the time, and the main points of the story will remain with me for quite a while.

Interesting but attempts too much. The characters are not really developed in a way that you have any interest in them. Also the fiction requires you to forget what we know of physics and just speculate. Unfortunately the author doesn't seem to really understand current physical speculation nor quantum physics. Also it's too long with a lot of filler material that doesn't go anywhere.

DEATH’S END is a mind-smashing co­nclusion to the REMEMBRANCE OF EARTH’S PAST trilogy… a fitting end to a mind-bending triplet of staggering science fiction. And this one’s not only a sprawling work of some 800 pages, it also covers an almost infinite amount of time. But perhaps the most amazing thing about it may be declared in one simple word in the trilogy’s title: “PAST.”(Like STAR WARS, “...A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”?) And maybe I’m dull, but I read the entire three volumes before I realized how important this word is.

This work is beyond amazing: it’s astounding. This book DEFINES a 5-star scoring: author Cixin (basically pronounced “See-shin,” says my daughter, a student of All Things Chinese) Liu invents more in a few pages than many authors do in ten times that amount. While his writing does not soar with literary flair, the concepts behind what he writes are simply astounding. He’s China’s answer to Kim Stanley Robinson, but for my money Cixin Liu wins. And of the three novels in this series, this final volume wins hands down.

As I said when I reviewed The Dark Forest Liu excels when he creates a seemingly impossible dilemma, and then solves it. How do you stop an alien invasion when the aliens just proved their undeniable superiority? How do you save the inhabitants of Earth when the destruction of its sun almost certainly will occur within the century? Rather than dwell in spoilers, simply believe me that this book is full of ingenious devices, plots, conspiracies, strategies and experiences that stretched my mind. There were countless times when I sat up, uttered, “Wow!” (or other, less urbane, expressions) and couldn’t WAIT to tell someone else what I had learned.

Sure, there are “flaws,” if one can call them that. Though the invading Trisolarians have figured prominently in all three novels and arrived in our immediate solar system in Book Two, they land upon our planet in this volume. Yet there is NO physical description of them. It’s a topic that has led to some speculation on the internet, and certainly one can join in when and if they want, but I simply did not notice it until I had gone quite a way past the landing of the Trisolarians. It was then the thought of their appearance suddenly occurred to me, and when I realized there was no answer, I also realized I simply didn’t care. Maybe they looked just like us and that’s why no one said a thing – but simply put, I didn’t care. Liu created a trilogy so mesmerizing in its intellectual concerns that I didn’t even worry about this. It was what they represented to us that mattered.

I also felt the ending got a little TOO scientific for my feeble brain to completely understand, but the good news is that Liu conveyed it in a way I could still follow. And that serves as an good summary of the rest of the trilogy: while it was certainly true that there were times when I found his immense intellectuality (is that even a word?) a bit daunting, I rarely, if ever, couldn’t follow the sense of what he was saying.

Consider Liu the immensely bright college professor you love to see every so often at faculty/student gatherings, and when he speaks EVERYONE listens. Though he doesn’t mind answering your questions at all, those in the room let the curious know to simply let him speak...he’s much too fascinating to interrupt. And while you might have thought to “pish-posh” some of these really wild ideas when another person described them to you earlier, when the professor speaks, you ALL listen.

Finally, I want to pay homage to another Liu: fellow author Ken Liu, who is the translator of these works. As good an author as he is (The Grace of Kings), he’s been quoted as saying he simply believed that Cixin Liu’s novels needed to reach a greater audience than just a Chinese work provided. How right he was. Though a great deal of the book takes place in China and concerns Chinese characters, customs, etc., etc., the narrative flow is fluid and smooth. That is, as much as it would be to anyone reading it regardless of their country. This is really intellectual stuff the author comes up with, and translating this highly technical science information had to be monumentally difficult.

The story is great and finally, in this book, you get a true sense of direction. Looking back at the 3 volumes it is truly an epic story in the word's truest sense. However, the author once again simply cannot let any event go by the reader without giving it a page long description that, in many cases, serves no purpose. There were times when I thought of actually putting the book down, giving up, even though I had read the previous 2 volumes.

Mankind is presumptive. We know what we’re doing, don’t we?

I am the world, my race is the best of the planet, the Earth is the centre of the solar system. Our miraculous Goldilocks zone. We are unique in the universe. Light is immutable! But we are so wrong. We are not alone. And we are not even taking baby steps out into the cosmos, we’re in the womb, still pre-born.

What started with a video game in the Three Body Problem ends finally some 10 billion years later. Cixin Liu build’s from his Dark Forest theory to present us a universe that casts mankind as vastly insignificant. Liu throws concepts at us that are breath-taking but also broadly acceptable in the sphere of hard science fiction. His universe is believable and realistic, and still relatable and the challenges he creates are, mostly, resolved successfully. I’ve not been so gob-smackingly impressed since first contact with Contact.

Death’s End still suffers the failings of previous novels, mankind is simply too complicit in its entirety, for some of the plot and I’d agree with other reviewers that characterisation is lacking. Cheng Xin, the central character, is often no more than a cypher for Liu to describe the various Eras of mankind’s development.

There is galaxy spanning travel and aliens and planets and space stations and interstellar war. There are moments of wonder and heartbreak and revelation particularly on Planet Blue and Planet Grey that deserve retelling. But these are handled coolly by Liu. In leaving me desperately wanting more, the style is perhaps to Liu’s credit but I do, still, want more! The trilogy could easily be nine books and would only be more absorbing.

But no failing detracts *at all* from the wondrous nature of the story. There may be nobody firing lasers going, pew! pew! but only because Liu has stepped outside expected conventions to completely reinvigorate the genre.

This is Space Odyssey expanded while others reboot Star Wars.

(No plot spoilers, just a quick thought) Not as good as the first two, and I honestly feel like it doesn't really fit with them either. The first half felt like it was leading twords something, and somewhat felt like it was a continuation of the first two books, then it made a 90° turn and left the ballpark completely. I plan on re-reading the whole trilogy in about a year to see if it all fits together better after a second read through.

These novels start out in a disorienting way: it is hard to figure out what the main plot lines are, what the characters' motivations are, and what is at stake. Of the 3 volumes, this one was the easiest one for me to get into - instead of the 3/4 for the first, it only took me about 100 pages, Then, I was utterly riveted and could not stop reading. The final volume is even better than the first two, with sympathetic characters, fantastically abrupt yet believable plot changes, and the revelation of great themes. It is profound, moving, fascinating, and ultimate.

At the beginning, the Luo balance of terror has survived for over 50 years. Then, a new human takes power and everything changes. As a backdrop, there are many stages of civilization - even a relocation of most humans beyond Jupiter - that form the options/choices of human destiny. The detail with which they are thought through makes this a masterpiece of imaginative construction. In addition, not just the Trisolarians are involved, but so are other species. I do not want to say more because spoilers must be avoided in the service of the best reading experience.

What is so fun about this is the cerebral experience. I thought of our place in the universe, how vast it is, and even what it all means. This is the unique thing that visionary scifi can do. The only other scifi authors who achieve this include Frank Herbert, Octavia Butler, Arthur Clarke, and Isaac Asimow - that is the company in which Cixin Liu belongs.

Recommended with the greatest enthusiasm. This trilogy takes real effort to get through, but it can truly expand one's mind.

This book was more like a history book that occasionally sprinkled in useless characters. About a quarter of the way though I switched to skimming and it was still too long. Really not worth reading I think. Another review made a reference to the Way of Tea scene as the perfect metaphor for this book and I agree.

The first 2 books in the series were amazing and mindblowing, so the final book had a lot to live up to. Unfortunately it was plodding, and the storyline changed frequently. Had high hopes for this book, but was utterly disappointed with it.

Being a fan of the Three Body Problem and the Dark Forest, I anxiously waited for the conclusion of the trilogy.
I bought is the day it came out and finished it quickly.
Unfortunately I was quite disappointed.
Some spoilers ahead!

It felt that the author felt to finish the trilogy out of obligation, not that he really enjoyed the plot he created initially.
The first part of the book was ok, but gradually it became more depressive and chaotic.
The main character, Cheng Xin, is a rather unsympathetic person , very one-dimensional, comparing to Ye Wenjie and Luo Ji from the first and the second book. While somewhat brilliant, she makes big mistakes which cost dearly the humanity. The author tried to explain the motivation behind her actions but it wasn't too convincing. The plot also had few unexpected and unjustified, in my opinion. twists. E.g Sophon apparently becomes a person or, rather, robotic-person (?!). Maybe there is some poetic allegory in that, but I missed it.
The end of the book is particularly lame. I barely kept track of continuity because Cheng Xin took several hibernations plus some physical phenomena caused speeding of time. It felt really as a hard work to finish reading the book. The concept of mini-universes also felt not thought out well.
Said that, there are few intriguing ideas in the book, like creating a bubble in space where speed of light is way lower. However, implications of this were not explored fully by the author.
In conclusion, first part of the book was ok, 4 out of 5, but the second half felt rushed and was really disappointing.

4.5 stars

This is the third book in the "Remembrance of Things Past " science fiction trilogy by Cixin Liu.

SPOILER ALERT / SPOILER ALERT / SPOILER ALERT

If you haven't read the first two books in the trilogy this review will contain spoilers.

Each book in the trilogy has an intricate multilayered plot, numerous scientific concepts (real and made up), and a slew of interesting, complex characters. However, in a nutshell.....

In book one - The Three-Body Problem - extraterrestrial beings called Trisolarans, from the planet Trisolaris, learn about the existence of Earth. Trisolaris is a volatile planet with hostile living conditions so the Trisolarans announce their intention of sending a fleet to take over Earth, a trip that will take 400 years.

By the end of book two - The Dark Forest - both humans and Trisolarans have learned that advanced civilizations in the universe will wipe out any planet that shows signs of intelligent life (presumably for self-protection). So a human scientist's threat - and demonstrated ability - to broadcast the location of Trisolaris to the cosmos convinces the approaching Trisolaran fleet to alter its course....away from us. However there's a fly in the ointment: once the 'destroyers' have wiped out Trisolaris they'll inevitably discover Earth - which is very close (in astronomical terms).

As the third book - Death's End - opens, the first Trisolaran fleet has moved away from the Solar System and Earth is in the 'Deterrence Era.' That is, the alien invasion has been deterred by the above mentioned threat of exposure. Humans are doing pretty well: governments are democratic; Trisolaran knowledge - shared with Earth - has led to remarkable advances in science and technology; human habitats and industries have spread through the Solar System; people have comfortable homes, fashionable clothes, and graceful manners; etc. Everything seems hunky dory.

For reasons explained in a previous book, four spaceships have left the Solar System. The first two ships harbor 'escapists'; people who - following a battle with mysterious 'droplets' - 'escaped' out into the galaxy.....which is forbidden by law. The other two ships are in pursuit, trying to catch the runaways. At one point, some of these ships encounter a four-dimensional fragment of space that has remarkable properties.

Meanwhile, back on Earth humans remain on alert. Though the Trisolarans seem to be behaving themselves they're still potential hostiles. Thus a human scientist, called the 'Swordholder', is in charge of a 'doomsday button' that will immediately broadcast the location of Trisolaris if the aliens mount a surprise attack. The question is....will the Swordholder have the guts to push the button, knowing it will eventually lead to Earth's destruction. I liked the suspense in the book so I don't want to give too much away. Let's just say - somehow or other - the location of Trisolaris is exposed.

After Trisolaris is unmasked humans fear total annihilation. So Earth scientists propose potential survival strategies: one plan is to hide all humans in structures behind the four outer planets; another scheme is to slow down the speed of light so the Solar System becomes 'invisible' to the rest of the universe. This would prohibit space travel forever. (Blech!). Finally, a third (illegal) proposal involves building spacecraft that can travel at the speed of light, so people can flee to other star systems. (Yay!)

It's impossible to say much about the various story developments without spoilers. I will say that the trilogy extends over many centuries but - because humans can 'hibernate' - the main characters don't die. They 'go to sleep' and 'wake up' (again and again) as needed. This lends a nice continuity to the storyline.

Though I might have done things differently than some characters in the book I enjoyed the story immensely.....until the last part. The end of the book is flat, uninspiring, and scientifically impossible (in my opinion). The finale reminded me of the last episodes of the TV series' "Lost" and "Battlestar Galactica"....fine shows with disappointing conclusions.

The entire trilogy is good but book three is especially ambitious, ingenious, and impressive. Moreover it's probably one of very few science fiction books to contain three original - and fantastic - fairy tales! LOL.

Cixin Liu is an excellent writer with a spectacular imagination and a wonderful ability to incorporate scientific concepts into his stories. The time and effort the author must have devoted to researching and writing this trilogy boggles my mind. And the translation from Chinese to English by Ken Liu is skillful and smooth. Good job all around!

I can't recommend this trilogy highly enough to fans of science fiction. Read it. You won't be disappointed.

Death's End is the cosmic conclusion to Cixin Liu's trilogy that began with the "Three-Body Problem," and it sticks the landing in a major way.

The story marches through future history, with science-fictional concepts that are part hard-science and part philosophy. At the same time, there's a sense of hopefulness and catharsis, of the next human adventure. Talking about the details doesn't seem like a viable idea; you need to just let it all wash over you as you read. (reviewed by Joe Crowe, [...],[...])

Cixin Liu is back to seal humanity’s fate with the final instalment in his Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. While The Three-Body Problem dealt with the discovery of the threat to Earth and The Dark Forest with humanity's attempts to devise a plan against the alien invasion, Death's End takes on the incredibly audacious task to tell us EVERYTHING that happens with humanity after that. And when I say EVERYTHING, I do indeed mean EVERYTHING, until the very heat death of the universe (hence the title by the way). As the most ambitious of the three books, it perhaps comes as no surprise that Death's End is also the weakest instalment in the trilogy. Characters and character development have simply fallen prey to the vastness of the scale here.

As a solution to the tremendous timescape of the novel, Liu namely resorts to repeatedly putting the main character in hibernation and then waking her up again. After the impressive ensemble cast in the first novel and the enigmatic Luo Ji in the second one, the main role in Death's End is given to a female physicist, Cheng Xin. Two things immediately strike us about her: she is an amazing human being, but a terrible leader and decision-maker, and her poor judgement twice condemns humanity to annihilation. This draws interesting parallels to the other major female character in the series, Ye Wenjie, who betrays the human race in The Three-Body Problem. Whether this is a coincidence or Cixin Liu actually bears a grudge against women would perhaps be a point up for debate for quite some time.

As usual, Liu is at his best when he talks about science and ideas and at his worst when it comes to character development and dialogue. Whether it is a matter of using controlled nuclear explosions to accelerate a spacecraft or employing a “dimensional bomb” to collapse space into two dimensions, Liu’s ideas will invariably blow your mind. No one in the Anglosphere writes this kind of science fiction any more. Well, Kim Stanley Robinson is trying, but the key word here is indeed “trying”.

On the other hand, I can hardly agree with the comparisons drawn between Remembrance of Earth's Past and golden classics like Asimov’s Foundation or Clarke’s Space Odyssey: Liu is just too weak at character development for that. It is way too often that his characters appear to be mere plot devices, and nowhere does this feel as strongly as in Death's End. While previous novels offered intriguing, even if incomplete characters like Ye Wenjie and Luo Ji, Death’s End “impresses” with an endless procession of uninteresting and unlikeable cardboard-like figures, Cheng Xin perhaps being the very worst of them. There is one exception to this, the character of Thomas Wade, but his appearance is too short and insignificant to have an effect of note on the overall impression of the novel. Considering that there is a highly anticipated Chinese screen version of The Three-Body Problem in the making (already dubbed to be the “Chinese version of Star Wars”), I am quite curious to see how they will tackle characters and dialogue there—will there be an improvement in this area or will they just dip everything in expensive special effects and forget about it?

All this being said, I have just one bone to pick with Liu’s vision of the universe (and the science behind it): everything is just too neat, too ordered, too “Chinese”. All civilisations behave in a certain way. There is just one way to achieve light speed. There is again just one way to hide from the others. Life has a tendency to be a bit messier than that, Mr. Liu, but cudoz for the angle, it’s indeed unique.

I enjoyed this book the most by far in the series. The stakes are the highest, the things that happen are the craziest, and the scope of the story is the biggest by far. It was such a fun, crazy adventure reading through this. The only drawback I can see is that this book (and series, really) is probably the hardest, most technical sci fi I have ever read. There were times where I felt like I wasn't reading a novel but a physics textbook. I'm not the smartest cookie in the box so a ton of it was difficult to grasp or just went completely over my head but I still really enjoyed the story. There is also a bit of a disconnect with the characters. I wish they were a bit fleshed out more but given the scope and breadth of the story here, I think it's forgivable. Those are the only things that hold this back from being a 5 star book for me. This is a long book, yes, but I really don't think there is much time wasted. Everything included flows with the story and seems to contribute something to the plot so not a problem there even though it is rather long.
Outside of that, this book is pretty awesome! The things that happen are crazy and some of the most imaginative stuff I've read. I don't know how the hell the author came up with some of this stuff but it was a joy to read. I'm not going to get into any of it because I don't want to spoil anything but if you've read the first two you can probably imagine a little bit of what I'm talking about. Just crank that up a ton and that's Death's End. Great story and it's always a wonderful surprise when the last book in a series is the best. A rare feat these days.

Death’s End is the final novel in the trilogy, Remembrance of Earth’s Past, written by Cixin Liu in Chinese and translated into English by Ken Liu. This finale starts off by jumping around the Deterrence Era, during which a seemingly easy peace has developed between the Earth and the Trisolarans through the threat of mutually assured annihilation, and back to the Crisis Era. This novel follows the story of Cheng Xin, who is an aerospace engineer from the Crisis Era when the Trisolaran threat first materialized. Cheng Xin awakes from hibernation at a critical time to be a part of a world-changing event. As the novel progresses, she wakes from hibernation over the years at critical junctions make decisions and to bear witness to major events in the changing relationship between the Trisolarans, Earth, and the Universe at large.

As with the first two books, this novel is a sweeping drama about how humanity fits into the universe, which must be full of alien races. One caveat for this novel, like the previous ones in this trilogy, the story is filled with heavy scientific theory and explanation. Unfortunately, I found a really difficult time understanding and visualizing the science driving the story. It’s explained thoroughly, but it can be difficult to pay attention to. However, the action filled parts are thrilling and it takes the reader all over the solar system and even the universe. The theories presented in this novel, and in the series, about the universe and the relationships between different beings are unique and thought-provoking. It is also nice that this novel points back to the first two demonstrating how far the saga and humanity have come. Throughout the actions of Cheng Xin and her interactions with different characters, such as the Trisolarans, her boss, her deputy, Luo Ji, and her long lost and unrealized love, make her so perfectly human and a great focus for the closure of this epic storyline.

The narration by PJ Ochlan was good. There is the issue of how it was difficult to stay focused, but that is likely due to the content. Ochlan did a good job with all the different characters’ voices and have them life and overall I think that he’s an excellent narrator. The production quality was good as well. I would recommend this novel and the entire series to anyone who likes classic science fiction novels full of space science theory and sweeping space drama.

Audiobook was provided for review by the publisher.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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In Death's End, there is a tea ceremony in which rituals are performed in such meticulous detail that the participants don't get a single sip of tea for hours. This ceremony is the perfect metaphor for Death's End, a book in which you must suffer through the exposition of conjectures about physics that are rendered in excruciating detail before you get to the next little bit of character or plot development. Not that the ideas are without interest, though some are downright absurd or have a fairy-tale quality to them. It's just that the author elaborates upon each of them to the point where it becomes tedious to go on, and then skips right ahead to the next big idea without resolving anything. Although there are some interesting characters in the book, the author insists on focusing on the least interesting of them, a feckless woman named Cheng Xin who seems less like a real character than an allegorical representation of the will of the collective. Cixin Liu is willing to pursue his scientific speculations to any lengths, including trying to describe the indescribable such as higher and lower dimensions of being, but he seems unwilling to answer any of the basic, obvious questions about his characters. For example, after three thick books, we never learn very much about the Tri-Solarans, not even what they look like, and certainly not how they were able to learn to manipulate the universal laws of physics coming from an environment which challenged their very existence on a regular basis.

If you want to read endless speculations about other dimensions, and about the possibility of intelligent civilizations that can alter the very universal laws of physics, then this book is for you. If you are the type of reader who likes a story with plot and character development, you will probably be as disappointed as I I was. Cixin Liu simply jumps from one point to the next, leaving the book's ending to literally fizzle out.

P.S. You may be wondering why I finished the book if I found it so tedious. The answer is that it turned out to be perfect bedtime reading. After reading in bed for a few minutes I found that I was no longer following what I was reading. I dropped the book, and was asleep within seconds. I was not even awake enough to mark my place, and had to scan the book in the morning to get to the part where I remembered what was happening. I have not slept nearly as well since finishing this book.

.This is the phenomenal, mind-blowing final segment in Cixin Liu's "Three body" trilogy. In the first book, a Chinese scientist (embittered by the cultural revolution) revealed earth's existence to the Trisolarians. Many creative scientific flights of fancy followed. In the second book, the wall-facers came on the scene. Many amazing twists and turns later the secret of cosmic sociology was revealed. And in the third book Liu decides to go the whole hog; It's all happening: time, the dimensions of space, the velocity of light, the universe itself, everything you can imagine and many things you probably couldn't imagine. And he throws in a super-nerdish cosmic love story and a fairy tale that is a message passed across eons of space and time. Its wonderful fun and by the end it WILL blow your mind. In fact, Obama is a fan and it may well be that his unnaturally chill attitude about the age of Trump has something to do with the afterglow of this book. Once, you contemplate multiple universes and the endless, frightening possibilities of a universe with thousands of inhabited planets, Trump will not seem a big deal. The scene with "singer", for example, took my breath away.
So, if it is that good, why the 4 stars? Because the characterization and the depiction of human politics are fairly weak. Some of it is probably lost in Han-to-Anglo-Saxon translation, but some of it is almost certainly because Liu is weak in this department. There are some interesting notions (like the fact that humans become more and more "feminine" as they become more technologically advanced) but depictions of mass human behavior and power politics are not his forte. This is not the Game of Thrones when it comes to human politics. And there is remarkably little crime, no sex and by the end, one too many "deux ex machina" moments. And sometimes the writing does get long winded. Also, the science explanations may sound pedantic to some people, though they were fine by me.
Side note: The cast of the future is dominated by Chinese, Anglo-Saxon, Russian, Japanese and Korean names, more or less in that order. Africa is notably missing and there are no Muslims in the future, though crazy Christian cults abound. Make of that what you will :)
Bottom line: absolutely worth a read. And a re-read. This is "hard science fiction" at its best. Liu has read everything and it shows. I imagine him as this Chinese supernerd; scientifically literate, thoroughly grounded in Chinese culture, but also in the Western classics and the highlights of Western civilization (some of these things may soon be familiar to a larger number of Chinese people than they are to Western commoners). And so it goes..

I read The Three-Body Problem as part of the Hugo reading that year, and found it entertaining but paced kind of oddly; it is mostly concerned with setting up the historical context of the ensuing conflict, and so little happens and less is resolved in the first book. I just this month read the rest of the trilogy, The Dark Forest and Death’s End, back-to-back, and I think if I’d read 3BP along with the others I might have enjoyed it a bit more as well – reading it simply as the first third of a story and not as a novel on its own.

The Dark Forest introduced the concept of “dark forest deterrence”, akin to the threat of mutually-assured destruction that sustained the Cold War, as well as various game-theoretical deterrence scenarios. In Death’s End we see the failure mode of those ideas, and the ensuing breakdown of the detente that ended The Dark Forest, together with some classic SFnal “big ideas” (dimensional physics! light-speed travel! space habitats!), drive the trilogy’s plot to its end. Death’s End was certainly an ambitious conclusion to the story, and managed to continue heightening the stakes (set at “the conquest of Earth” from the very beginning) in an engaging way, which made even the occasional peaceful interludes in the story tense with the anticipation of what was about to go wrong next. The events at the very end of the book felt a little inconsistent with the themes of deterrence and mistrust established by the rest of the story, but on reflection it allows the characters to discard the paranoia that they had been forced to live with for so long, and finish the story in an act of cooperation instead.

The previous book made explicit reference to Asimov’s Foundation series, and the Asimovian influence on Liu is clear, both in positive and negative aspects – his work grapples with ideas on the scale of human history and beyond, while also contemplating the role of the individual in shaping the course of history, but his characters themselves feel more like archetypes than fully fleshed-out people. Still, his characterization is an improvement on Asimov’s, in that he does a somewhat better job of motivating the behaviors that the plot requires of its characters, even if the characters’ backstories occasionally seem designed to purposefully sculpt the characters towards those behaviors. (Which is true of many character arcs in plot-driven stories, of course, but the scaffolding isn’t always so apparent.) The use of hibernation technology also allows Liu to maintain the same characters over hundreds of years (and more) of plot; Asimov’s reintroduction of new characters in each “Seldon Crisis” is one of the things preventing decent character development in much of the Foundation trilogy. Liu also makes use of another classic SFnal narrative approach in Death’s End; he avoids excessive expository dialogue by frequently cutting to excerpts from a later-written history, which also allows him to depict humanity-spanning events succinctly and more or less objectively.

This review is for the entire trilogy (The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End). Despite starting the series with great anticipation, on the recommendation of a trusted science, and science fiction, fan/friend, only determination, not desire, allowed me to complete it. Admittedly, it's been some months since I finished the third installment, as my reluctance to give a poor review has delayed this writing, and so some details are fuzzy. In general, I found the characters difficult to connect with, and I don't recall a single strong character who is present throughout the telling, around whom the reader can organize the story arc. The writing overall is often more science than fiction; as an avid reader of science non-fiction, I could follow the story as the physics moved into extra dimensions, but the fiction part, the story being told, was not engaging enough to hold my interest. While I can understand how these books could be very appealing to a reader, I guess this time, I am not that reader.

The final third of the Three Body Problem trilogy, Death's End does not disappoint. I have tried to generally describe the other two novels but I am going to remain very vague. This novel is astounding, and a flawless finish to the series. I wish it could go on forever but of all the multi-novel series I have read, the Three Body trilogy is the best developed and most thorough story in three parts that I have read. I was not left with questions unanswered, issues untouched, and ideas half-formed and left to linger. I was left with numerous questions of my own, philosophical questions, and pondering life itself and my place in the universe, but Cixin Liu did not leave me hanging on anything. This series really brought me out of a funk with sci-fi after finishing some other great series and hitting a slump. Cixin Liu is incredible, and I will be reading anything and everything he writes for a long time to come.

Great book & a worthy end for the trilogy. I'm a prolific reader of mostly science fiction, and these books rank quite high. They are chock full of mind expanding science, as well as unexpected twists and turns.

This review applies to the entire trilogy with 2 exceptions: first, the ending of Death's End is disappointing, feeling both contrived and premature. There was plenty of opportunity for a 4th and even a 5th book to fill in the period before the last part of book 3. It feels almost as if the author at some point got tired of his own story and decided to skip to the end. Second, while much sci do has one dimensional characters who exist only to move the plot forward, this is made even worse here, because the author seems incapable of portraying women with any depth, and the lead character of Death's End is a woman, and a dislikeable, stupid person at that. Given her consistent blunders, it was difficult to understand why she continued to occupy a position of importance.

Now for the good, which far outweighs the bad. The plot is mesmerizing. The creativity is unparalleled. The author's use of current theoretical physics to make amazing future technologies seem scientifically plausible is better than anything being written by English language authors today. And the best part - the author sprinkles clues for what is to come into the narrative, so that every time there is a major plot twist, I found myself thinking I should have seen it coming. By Death's End I was tuned into this and still missed the most important clue. This is great stuff for any real fan of the genre.

Liu Cixin's "Three-Body Problem" series is the best science fiction I've read in a few years, and his name will stick in my mind as one of the best sci-fi authors I've ever read. You will love all 3 of the books, and they will fill your mind with concepts you have probably never thought about. "Death's End" is a grand epic tale; a tragedy, love story, mystery, and thriller all baked into one. While reading these books, you have to marvel at the author's mind. He has clearly put a lot of thought into concepts like time, the universe, physics, space travel, colonization/terraforming of other planets, and especially what might happen when we go looking for other life in the universe. The "dark forest" concept just gets more terrifying the more you think about it. There is one chapter in the book where we finally get to meet one of the "monsters" in the "dark forest," and it is perfectly written. Just the right amount of information. I highly recommend this series, and will definitely read more by this author. I would've given this book 5 stars, but I took off 1 star because of the ending, and because there are several places in this book that really cry out for illustrations. It's very hard to get a mental picture of some of the things being described (space city ships, for example), so an illustration here or there would've really helped.

Spoilers ahead.
I had to finish what I started with the first two books. To give the man credit, the author has a brilliant imagination. The central problem with this novel is that his core lead character is irredeemable and the message is a bitter pill indeed. The lead had two chances to save humanity and chose, because of her 'maternal' instincts, in the end, to get everyone but her and few others killed. Or rather, flattened. The metaphors are not lost on this and choices in Chinese society, but my god this woman is boring and the novel is so centered around her fecklessness, that you want to scream. At the end, I was hoping Sophon would use the Katana on her. And of course, the brute American is vaporized by lasers in the end. What a waste. Great imagination, bad story. The Chinese censors must have been so proud...

This book is definitely neither upbeat nor hopeful, and the main character Cheng Xin is pretty boring, but it is truly epic in scope, endlessly imaginative, and by far the best of the trilogy. I felt like the falling action was a bit too drawn out for not really resolving much. But unlike the others, this one is a page turner and is full of twists and surprises. And quite dark, and poignant.

This book series is a Tolkien scale epic of the interstellar science fiction genre. Without giving in to cheesy alien species interactions, Cixin weaves a tale entirely from the human perspective that spans eons and delves into thought provoking sociological concepts that will positively reset your position on the universe. I'm having a hard time putting into words, just what an impactful book this is, and have no point of reference for any other book that might qualify as its equal.
Well done, Cixin Liu!

A major disappointment which doesn't live up to the potential and promise of the first two books. I waited for this book for many months and began reading in on Kindle within hours of its release. Three Body Problem and Dark Forest were shocking and revelatory but by the conclusion of Death's End I just didn't care anymore. Like the first two books there are a handful of major plot points which are extremely impactful when they occur but the entirety of the remainder of the book, including the ending, is filled with characters and situations which are just not worth caring about. If you want the ultimate in deus ex machina read on but otherwise just stop with Dark Forest.

Great book, definitely completes the story arc from the first 2 books. I mean it goes from the 60's to... (won't spoil this) but literally this 3 book story comprises of millions of years of a story arc. Different characters in all 3 books but there are some returning. the main characters stories are well closed out in each book however. The science and the possibilities of things explain makes you wonder if it really could be this way. Amazing book, glad I read all 3!

simply masterpiece. can't say more. I'm giving it 5 starts not just because I'm Chinese. I read it in Chinese like 3 or 4 years ago. But during the years I went through it again and again and there are still so many mysteries inside it. I really wanna see it in movies. I expect like 10 or more movies about it.
surely, I don't like the bitch lead Chen. I guess Big Liu want to express some characters in her. I believe it's a flaw here. But as a sci fic, it's really amazing. I actually wonder whether some part of it is really true. I guess the world is so cruel and cold, and probably after a long time, some dark part of the universe will eventually show like it says. I feel depressed and I guess calling it new bible is not nonsense.
Hope you enjoy it. Besides as a sci fic, it actually reflects some part of our great Chinese history and culture, which are lost for a long time. And as a human being, I hope we can eventually find the meaning of life and universe, and become a better life species. I may not see that day come, but I hope it will come and we should not just end like in the story which only leaves a paint for others to discover.
Best.

Consider a universe with infinite number of worlds with every inhabitant looking out for their own survival. With master of physics comes ultimate power, but only if you live long enough. The solution is wipe out your neighbor before they wipe you out. I enjoyed this book immensely. Forget the fantasy of Star Trek and face the realty of a universe based on science and survival.

This book is indescribable. It's rare for me to read a book and truly come across something I did not expect; Cixin Liu managed to surprise me several times. This book is a perfect example of taking what we know about science and extrapolating to create something fantastic.

Although billed as the third book in a trilogy, it is not. Rather, it is an alternate-timeline rework of the original story. The first two books were truly ground-breaking and interesting because of the Chinese cultural elements, but the plot really ended with the second book. I didn't need to reread the same story with a "what if something else had happened" plot.

That was a fulfilling end to an excellent trilogy. All my usual reasons for enjoying a good novel- often likable, characterful characters whose "company" is part of the joy of the novel; excellent plotting and dialogue- also here a fine mixture of really interesting (mostly hard?) science, thought-worthy philosophy, characters with real love of art and the arts--
anyway, yes, I found it a pleasure to read. I try to be sparing with 5* but they seem right right.

Of all the books in the Three Body Problem trilogy, I enjoyed Death's End the least. It still has a lot of unique ideas and situations that are truly thought provoking, however as an actual novel it's fairly weak. The main characters are nowhere near as interesting as in the previous two books, the pacing is quite glacial- showing symptoms of the author wanting to cram in too much in this final installment, and many of the plot actions don't make logical sense beyond leading to the particular idea showcase the author needed the plot to go to. I personally have no problem with open-ended stories, so there's actually a part of me that wishes I had never read this book and left the story as it was at the end of The Dark Forest. It's not bad per se, but it's an empty read.

Before I read this, my wife said: if you read the first two, maybe you don't need to read the third. I did have good reason to, but probably most people wouldn't; the three stars are for them.
Western English teachers mostly imagine too many hidden levels in books they discuss, but here Liu makes it very clear that he is into multiple hidden layers, and I didn't see his full picture and beyond until the morning after. While reading it, I was a bit depressed myself, and my paperwhite reader even started behaving very strangely. A simple cynic might say: "Liu's main theme is that women always screw up badly when they have any degree of decision power at all... and that even here on earth we are inexorably being flattened out into a nonsustainable existence for which there is essentially no hope." But there is a big gap between the subjective level of the author's position and the objective level. Objectively, he depends both on superstring theory and an implicit belief that the evolutionary pressures in the larger universe must be much more hostile than those on earth. Superstring theory is popular among intellectuals today, just as expert systems dominated AI a few decades ago and epicycles before that -- but there was more empirical evidence for epicycles than there is now for superstrings; the author tries to be ultra-yang in his objective analysis, but a true ultra-yang would understand probabilities and be less dependent on the social fad of the day. Logically, why should life for a baby species in the galaxy be more hostile than it was for a baby human in the days before modern civilization? (Not that survival is guaranteed.) As we look at nature, we see a great diversity of ecological niches (equivalently, means of production), and a great diversity in levels and types of social interaction, and it is 'way too early to assume the worst, either in the galaxy or in the choices we make for ourselves here on earth. The fairy tale part of the novel, more subjective, is mostly more optimistic, but ... at the deepest hidden level... he seems to be grasping a bit towards things in another classic fairy tale novel, Voyage to Arcturus by Lindsay, which talks about a level which is anything but storyless; that novel actually points towards new physics just now emerging which goes 'way beyond superstring theory. For myself, I actually felt MORE optimistic the day after reading this.

The final installment of the trilogy is - in my opinion - the weakest.
While the world and universe building in this book is truly inspiring and Cixin comes up with some novel and interesting concepts of space civilizations, he falls into the "bigger, bigger, bigger" trap that many series fall into. As each novel raises the stakes higher and higher, at some point the reader can't help but feel numb to the sheer size and scope. The book, like modern physics, delves into the realm of philosophy. "What is real?" "what is time?" "what is the universe?". All interesting questions and good concepts to explore which seem to be very roughly and unsatisfactorily explained. Like trying to describe a 10-dimensional universe with 3-dimensional analogies, this is a feat that is extremely difficult to perform properly without sounding ridiculous.
Even though these shortcomings I liked the book a lot. It is enthralling and I had a hard time putting it down. Too bad it kind of spirals out of control towards the end.

As a Chinese reader and fan of Big Liu, I have to say that reading the English version translated by Ken Liu is a refreshing, thrilling and unforgettable experience. The translation was smooth, elegant and quite smart, bringing me the same awesome feeling just like when I first read the original versions.
Although not a ending well accepted by all our fans, this is the best and darkest book of the series. And it will certainly stay in the greatest science fiction list.

Every Sci-Fi reader must read this trilogy. I agree with other reviewers that the story has flaws, and I would have appreciated a more "satisfying" ending. But throughout my reading, I was struck by two overpowering aspects of the books: (1) I have never read anything like this and continually felt like I was reading something ground-breakingly new and original; and (2) the truly monumental scope of the story is awe- inspiring; the the detailed world and story are Tolkeinesque. The trilogy is an AMAZING accomplishment..

Awesome trilogy with a great ending. I can't say enough about how thought provoking and thought stimulating these three books were. Looking for something as good to start reading now. Can't seem to find anything.

This is a review of the trilogy. Overall it is very inventive, with a constant stream of ideas. Sadly, many of these ideas are very flakey.
The science wasn’t all bad, but it wasn’t great either. Perhaps the most disappointing thing is in the third volume, where students are given 3 “life or death” puzzles; two of them are trivial while the third is the classic rope burning puzzle for measuring 45 minutes given ropes that take 60 minutes to burn. Incredibly, the solution given in the book is completely wrong. (Did the author not get any feedback before the book was published?!)
The overall story line is a bit ridiculous, and the portrayal of civilizations silly beyond measure. And the biggest drawback is the depiction of the individuals: very one dimensional!
But in the middle of the third book there is a fairy tale: perhaps the whole trilogy should be interpreted as a fairy tale: this might make some of the more absurd aspects of the book more palatable.
Overall, the trilogy wasn’t a great read, and I certainly couldn’t recommend it.
The points I give it are all for “originality”. I found that after reading the book I thought about it from time to time, and perhaps this is the real test of a book. So, despite the trilogy’s numerous, serious shortcomings, perhaps it is worth the effort.

Before I read this, my wife said: if you read the first two, maybe you don't need to read the third. I did have good reason to, but probably most people wouldn't; the three stars are for them.
Western English teachers mostly imagine too many hidden levels in books they discuss, but here Liu makes it very clear that he is into multiple hidden layers, and I didn't see his full picture and beyond until the morning after. While reading it, I was a bit depressed myself, and my paperwhite reader even started behaving very strangely. A simple cynic might say: "Liu's main theme is that women always screw up badly when they have any degree of decision power at all... and that even here on earth we are inexorably being flattened out into a nonsustainable existence for which there is essentially no hope." But there is a big gap between the subjective level of the author's position and the objective level. Objectively, he depends both on superstring theory and an implicit belief that the evolutionary pressures in the larger universe must be much more hostile than those on earth. Superstring theory is popular among intellectuals today, just as expert systems dominated AI a few decades ago and epicycles before that -- but there was more empirical evidence for epicycles than there is now for superstrings; the author tries to be ultra-yang in his objective analysis, but a true ultra-yang would understand probabilities and be less dependent on the social fad of the day. Logically, why should life for a baby species in the galaxy be more hostile than it was for a baby human in the days before modern civilization? (Not that survival is guaranteed.) As we look at nature, we see a great diversity of ecological niches (equivalently, means of production), and a great diversity in levels and types of social interaction, and it is 'way too early to assume the worst, either in the galaxy or in the choices we make for ourselves here on earth. The fairy tale part of the novel, more subjective, is mostly more optimistic, but ... at the deepest hidden level... he seems to be grasping a bit towards things in another classic fairy tale novel, Voyage to Arcturus by Lindsay, which talks about a level which is anything but storyless; that novel actually points towards new physics just now emerging which goes 'way beyond superstring theory. For myself, I actually felt MORE optimistic the day after reading this.

The final installment of the trilogy is - in my opinion - the weakest.
While the world and universe building in this book is truly inspiring and Cixin comes up with some novel and interesting concepts of space civilizations, he falls into the "bigger, bigger, bigger" trap that many series fall into. As each novel raises the stakes higher and higher, at some point the reader can't help but feel numb to the sheer size and scope. The book, like modern physics, delves into the realm of philosophy. "What is real?" "what is time?" "what is the universe?". All interesting questions and good concepts to explore which seem to be very roughly and unsatisfactorily explained. Like trying to describe a 10-dimensional universe with 3-dimensional analogies, this is a feat that is extremely difficult to perform properly without sounding ridiculous.
Even though these shortcomings I liked the book a lot. It is enthralling and I had a hard time putting it down. Too bad it kind of spirals out of control towards the end.

As a Chinese reader and fan of Big Liu, I have to say that reading the English version translated by Ken Liu is a refreshing, thrilling and unforgettable experience. The translation was smooth, elegant and quite smart, bringing me the same awesome feeling just like when I first read the original versions.
Although not a ending well accepted by all our fans, this is the best and darkest book of the series. And it will certainly stay in the greatest science fiction list.

Every Sci-Fi reader must read this trilogy. I agree with other reviewers that the story has flaws, and I would have appreciated a more "satisfying" ending. But throughout my reading, I was struck by two overpowering aspects of the books: (1) I have never read anything like this and continually felt like I was reading something ground-breakingly new and original; and (2) the truly monumental scope of the story is awe- inspiring; the the detailed world and story are Tolkeinesque. The trilogy is an AMAZING accomplishment..

Awesome trilogy with a great ending. I can't say enough about how thought provoking and thought stimulating these three books were. Looking for something as good to start reading now. Can't seem to find anything.

This is a review of the trilogy. Overall it is very inventive, with a constant stream of ideas. Sadly, many of these ideas are very flakey.
The science wasn’t all bad, but it wasn’t great either. Perhaps the most disappointing thing is in the third volume, where students are given 3 “life or death” puzzles; two of them are trivial while the third is the classic rope burning puzzle for measuring 45 minutes given ropes that take 60 minutes to burn. Incredibly, the solution given in the book is completely wrong. (Did the author not get any feedback before the book was published?!)
The overall story line is a bit ridiculous, and the portrayal of civilizations silly beyond measure. And the biggest drawback is the depiction of the individuals: very one dimensional!
But in the middle of the third book there is a fairy tale: perhaps the whole trilogy should be interpreted as a fairy tale: this might make some of the more absurd aspects of the book more palatable.
Overall, the trilogy wasn’t a great read, and I certainly couldn’t recommend it.
The points I give it are all for “originality”. I found that after reading the book I thought about it from time to time, and perhaps this is the real test of a book. So, despite the trilogy’s numerous, serious shortcomings, perhaps it is worth the effort.

This is the 3rd book of the three body problem trilogy. I've read them all. My recommendation to those who wants to read this book is, read all of them in order: 1 the three body problem; 2 the dark forest; 3 deaths end.

It will worth your time!

The third book in the series, and the longest. One cannot skip the third book after reading the first two. I thought this was the weakest of the series, due to great time gaps. Not trying to spoil anything, but key characters get no resolution treatment because time leaps forward. Overall the book is good and absolutely worth reading after the first two. Definitely not a standalone book -- don't get this if you don't plan to read the first two books. This is by far the most creative author I've encountered in a long time. Then again, it's my first adventure in Sci-Fi -- maybe everything is this innovative. The ending was satisfying and philosophical.

There did seem to be some preoccupation with gender-based emotion at times. The whole "men are more aggressive, women are more nurturing, and there are only 2 genders", and thus, nuance gets lost and characters can be a bit boxed in. The story's backdrop always provides context for these categories though, so it's not too stifling. It is a tad old fashioned, this view of human emotion, but it's worth noting that intelligence, strength, innovation and achievements are not reserved for any one gender.

After reading dark forest, was unable to imagine how the third book would take the story forward. This book is beyond awesome. Extraordinary original ideas and just keeps getting better and better with every page. The ending could have been better but the journey was worth it.

I got the audiobook version. enjoyed listening the first 25 hours, but the ending in the last two hours was very disappointing. while it's cool the author included all the latest theoretical and hypothetical astrophysics in the story, but at the end the story revolved around the hypothetical physics and the story fell apart. the woman never met with the guy who gave him the star on the planet blue, and instead ended up alone with the guy that didn't have any significant role in the story until the end. she just never made it to her destination and got pulled away from the entire story at the end. and the tiny universe and them ending up in millions of years in the future were just dumb. there was no closure about what happened to trisolaris and the other galactic humans. no closure on the tien-ming or aa. the ending of the story was just to accommodate the multiverse hypothesis... sad.

I have to say- I'm super disappointed to be writing another 3 star review for this series and also relieved that it's over. I originally attributed my feelings about The Dark Forest being sort of mediocre to the translator, and while I stand by the conclusion that Ken Liu did it better, I don't think it's entirely Maritnsen's fault.

I don't know if I wish I'd stopped after The Three-Body Problem. It was certainly a lot of time to devote to a trilogy that I felt meh about, but I think I was too intrigued not to know how it all ended. When I think about The Three-Body Problem, I recall the humorous one liners that broke up the tension, I recall the mystery and the intrigue surrounding the Trisolarans, the suspense, the weirdness of it all.

Where did all that go for books two and three? Who felt either of those books warranted an additional 200/300 pages over the first? For a series that spans 1400+ pages, I could probably sum books 2 and 3 up with one line each.

Death's End gives us a female protagonist, that I'm sad to say is insanely stereotypical. Cheng Xin is pretty. Cheng Xin is soft. Cheng Xin has maternal instincts. She's feminine and flowery and though she's described as smart she fails in every task she's given and the readers are led to believe that "men's jobs" should be left to the men. I know Liu can do better. He gave us Ye Wenjie after all, who was none of those things.

But my biggest complaint about this book is most definitely the conclusion. The first half of the book, I actually did enjoy quite a bit. The last half was dragged out unnecessarily, nothing is accomplished the plot really seems to go nowhere. I could have lived with all this if the conclusion had paid off, but it didn't.

END OF SERIES, MAJOR SPOILERS:

After all that, after Cheng Xin and AA escape, after we learn that Blue Space and Gravity made it to several inhabitable worlds, we never get to see those worlds. We never get to see what became of the remainder of humanity. We never learn anything more about Singer, who cleanses systems or why. We're given a frustratingly short glimpse into the thoughts of an enemy greater than Trisolaris and then nothing else ever comes of it. And then to top it off, Cheng Xin and Yun Tianming never even get their space rendezvous?

**END SPOILERS**

On the one hand, the conclusion is sort of happy. A small population of humanity survived to find and inhabit other worlds. They were not exterminated (at least not for millions of years). Cheng Xin's ending and existence isn't ever happy and her personal conclusion was a huge disappointment. This book is frustratingly dark, and without the humor to break it up, I really believe it needed some kind of happy ending for the protagonist.

I will say that the story is grand. It spans literally millions of years, galaxies, etc. The overall feeling is that this is humanity's story and not one particular character's. It draws some interesting conclusions, and certainly some relevant ideas about human nature. These are books where the individual stories are sacrificed in favor of the bigger picture, so if that's what draws you in as a reader, you will probably get more enjoyment out of these books than I did. If you're reading hoping to recapture some of the elements of The Three-Body Problem I think you can safely stop reading there.

The final book in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, Death’s End really goes for broke in its attempts to be an epic tale. I struggled through it for much the same reason I struggled through the first two books: the depictions of women are by turns baffling and infuriating. If you were bothered by that in the first two novels, I warn you it’s still at issue here. The woman at the center of Death’s End, engineer Cheng Xin, is by turns patronized, deified, and vilified both by the male characters and the narrative itself. If you can ignore this, and the author’s tendency toward paragraph upon paragraph of info-dumping, there are certainly the bones of a very compelling tale of humanity’s future within these pages. The science involved is fascinating, and if you’re on the hunt for oldschool hard science fiction this might fit the bill.

The series as a whole was amazing. Truly a science fiction classic. I felt like the third book, while still mind blowing, had an emotionally unsatisfying ending. Like the vastness of space and time, it made me feel empty. Otherwise, five stars.

Loved first two books. First half of the book was ok, had interesting seeds. But second part of the book is dull. Ending is boring and dull, I wish I didn't spent any time on it. So many better opportunities missed...

I think most reviews have described what I feel. But in addition, I can say that I hate the character Cheng Xin extremely. The author want her to represent maternity maybe. We know love and kindness do not definitely lead to weakness. But in Cheng Xin's situation, she is really really a little girl. I don't understand if she did not have the determination like Luo Ji, why should she enroll in the Sword holder? If she is really kind enough, why could she cruelly send her classmate's brain to the universe. All can explain is that she is always hesitating. Don't know how to make a choice that she will not regret.

Such a GRAND story!!! Plots, words, and si-fi theories all super fascinating. When you reach the end of the book, you will literally don't know what to say...coz everything ends, including the universe.

Very thoughtful scifi novel. The Chinese author's perspective of government and human interaction reflects a fundamental difference with traditional Western thought. The trilogy is a must read Scifi classic.

Damn, I was excited to read this book, particularly because the translator of the first novel also translated this one.

Unfortunately, even a skilled translator can’t improve lazy writing. This book, like The Dark Forest, gets bogged down in pedagogic description and repetitive phrasing. Seriously, I never want to read any combination of the words ‘tears’ and ‘hot’ again, like ever.

While I appreciated the integration of current astrophysical theories and principals into a fictional tale, I felt like I’d hit a zero light speed trail every time some new concept was introduced. It derailed and distracted from the plot. If the author wants to write a textbook he should write a textbook, and not try to jam every scientific notion he can into a novel. This book, like TDF, really needs a major edit.

Furthermore, the misogyny running throughout was disappointing and completely unnecessary. Honestly, character development is not Cixin Liu’s strong suit. His characters are mostly a conglomerate of cliches and stereotypes.

I didn’t hate the book - I wanted to know what happened and the scientific concepts presented were fascinating, but it could have been so much better. I have to say, The Three Body Problem is his best book.

*Some Spoilers Below*

I really enjoyed the first two books in this trilogy. While the characters weren't great, there was a great mixture of narrative and sci-fi ideas that made the books a very compelling read. This most recent book, unfortunately, loses the narrative and the whole book suffers for it. The first half was ok, but the story falls apart in the second half. Hibernation is used as a plot device to advance the years at the expense of interesting story threads just so new ideas can be introduced. While the sci-fi ideas really are interesting, they are unfortunately pulled down by the poor story and he may have been better off saving them for another book. It really was a difficult read, I am sad to say. Honestly, the first two books stand on their own, and I am not sure this half hearted epilogue was needed.

I honestly had to force myself to finish the book. Easily too long by a good hundred pages. The author spends the last third just throwing out more and more cutting-edge speculative science and plot be damned. Stop after “Dark Forest.”

Don't bother with this one. Just read the first two which are excellent. The second one is my favorite. I don't agree with the main character on this one and she keeps making wrong decision yet she is forgiven and gets to live almost forever. Bad ending as well. Waste of time...

The novel nicely rounds off Liu's trilogy by zooming back from the Earth-Trisolaris conflict and by revealing more about the universe in which this conflict is taking place. If you have read the two earlier books you should definitely read this. But I would rate this as the weakest book in the trilogy because it neither has the vivid characters of the second book nor did I find the central revelation to be as dramatic as the dark forest deterrence idea in the second book.

The third book in the series takes a very different turn, so different that the author should have published it under another name. I expected to find more about Trisolaris, but no, the main idea is still how to avoid a "dark forest" strike. I'd lie if I say I didn't find a lot of interesting ideas, but overall it was disappointing.