Steen Christiansen reviewed Death's End by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #03)
Review of "Death's End" on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Astonishingly beautiful and heartbreaking.
Paperback
Spanish language
Published Sept. 9, 2018 by Nova.
Death's End (Chinese: 死神永生, pinyin: Sǐshén yǒngshēng) is a science fiction novel by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin. It is the third novel in the trilogy titled Remembrance of Earth's Past, following the Hugo Award-winning novel The Three-Body Problem and its sequel, The Dark Forest. The original Chinese version was published in 2010. Ken Liu translated the English edition in 2016. It was a 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel finalist and winner of 2017 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
Astonishingly beautiful and heartbreaking.
This story will definitely be a sci-fi classic. It is epic in it's scope and really innovative in the storytelling.
I loved it, and enjoyed the scientific background, the matter-of-fact tone in which it is written, the constant surprises and the enigmas hidden throughout. It really is about science and technology, but deep inside it is about humanity and who we are, about our concepts of life, time, the universe and infinity.
The whole trilogy goes into my list of favourite books ever. Highly recommended!
Although I found many of the ideas in it fascinating, I found it very difficult to get into this series. It may have been partly due to the author's writing style, or cultural differences - but I think primarily it was because I didn't find the characters (especially the central characters of the second and third books) engaging. The few characters I did find interesting and wanted to know more about, were all side characters who had little impact on the plot. I don't regret reading this trilogy, however, and others may well find it much more engaging than I did.
Death's End is a fantastic follow-up to The Dark Forest. The pacing is excellent (improves with every book in the series), the scope of the ideas presented to the reader is staggering.
I will not reveal anything at all about the plot, because this series should be experienced by jumping into the books with a clear slate. In fact, I would recommend to the reader that you should not even read the blurb on any of the books.
My complaint with this book, and the reason I'm rating it as 4-star instead of 5, is that the last ~15% of the book meanders unnecessarily (in my opinion) and takes away from the impact that the book could otherwise have had. It feels like Liu Cixin wants to cram every idea he had but could not weave into the story towards the end of the book, in a faux-tie-up-loose-threads-journey-to-the-shire kind of …
Death's End is a fantastic follow-up to The Dark Forest. The pacing is excellent (improves with every book in the series), the scope of the ideas presented to the reader is staggering.
I will not reveal anything at all about the plot, because this series should be experienced by jumping into the books with a clear slate. In fact, I would recommend to the reader that you should not even read the blurb on any of the books.
My complaint with this book, and the reason I'm rating it as 4-star instead of 5, is that the last ~15% of the book meanders unnecessarily (in my opinion) and takes away from the impact that the book could otherwise have had. It feels like Liu Cixin wants to cram every idea he had but could not weave into the story towards the end of the book, in a faux-tie-up-loose-threads-journey-to-the-shire kind of setup.
Having said that, the first ~85% of the book is excellent and a fitting last book in the series.
I don't think I've ever read a more satisfying speculative fiction series than Remembrance of Earth's Past. Yes, the third installment definitely wanders a bit more than the first two, but the overall impact of reading these three books is something I haven't experienced before. How long do I have to wait before I can read them again?
I thoroughly enjoyed this book as an excellent conclusion to the series. This feels like a book for scientists or people who enjoy science in general. The concepts introduced really make you think about the nature of the universe. The characters really take second place here; I'm sure people will continue to talk about this book for years to come, but when they do they won't necessarily remember the characters. I think I may prefer the second (The Dark Forest) as the best of the series, though.
For my full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2016/10/book-review-deaths-end-by-liu-cixin.html
[Speaking of the trilogy as a whole:] Reminded me of something like 1 part Ringworld, 1 part Seveneves, and a dash of The Little Prince. Three Body Problem and Dark Forest drag during their first halves, but make up for it. There are some weird patches here and there, but it's hard to determine whether these might just be differences in narrative tradition between Chinese and English sci-fi.
Fantastic translations throughout.