Death's End

by Cixin Liu, Ken Liu, P. J. Ochlan

Audiobook

English language

Published Sept. 20, 2016 by Macmillan Audio.

ISBN:: 978-1-4272-6830-3

(216 reviews)

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.

11 editions

Elise Alexander reviewed Death's End by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #03)

going to it

4 stars

conviction

Kevin reviewed Death's End by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #03)

End of the line

4 stars

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.

fdillanes reviewed El fin de la muerte by Cixin Liu (Recuerdo del pasado de la Tierra, #3)

addenda a la lectura de la trilogia

5 stars

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...

Maxim reviewed Death's End by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #03)

Still good but far worse than the first two volumes

3 stars

The story looks complete by the end of the second book. The third one feels weak, as well as the third book's protagonist

CousinDanny reviewed Death's End by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #03)

Delightfully Bleak

5 stars

Man I hate these aliens!

Lucius reviewed Death's End by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #03)

Review of "Death's End" on 'Storygraph'

No rating

The conclusion of the Remembrance of Earth's Past makes Interstellar look like baby shit.

Douglas Camata reviewed Death's End by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #03)

Review of "Death's End" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Great book. The development of the story is amazing. It scratches all the sci-fi itches and it's highly addictive.

My only complaint about this book is that it's the last written by Liu Cixin (in this series) and the ending seemed too quick for me. I would love to have more development and many more books on this universe to read.

Phillip J reviewed Death's End by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #03)

Review of "Death's End" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This is really a 4.5 for me. As this series has progressed, the writing has been better and better. Once again, the author has been able to mix a vast, epochal scale, with a small, intimate story. It was optimistic at its core, despite being riddled with pessimism.

If you like (extremely) hard sci-fi, this whole series is wonderful.

Ezergill reviewed Вічне життя Смерті by Cixin Liu (Пам’ять про минуле Землі, #3)

Review of 'Вічне життя Смерті' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Заключна частина трилогії піднімає ставки ще вище, розглядає більш пізні етапи розвитку нашої цивілізації, а також говорить більше про природу Всесвіту, в якому ми живемо.

Хоча загалом це все ще було цікаво і захопливо читати, третя книга вразила менше за попередні дві. Частково через те, що в ній значно більше відчувається фантастична складова, ніж наукова, деякі факти просто постулюються, і це часом важко прийняти. Частково для мене причина в головній героїні - часом її рішення та дії не були для мене зрозумілі.

В книзі все ще розглядаються незвичні та цікаві ідеї, це однозначно достойне завершення серії, але на фоні попередніх частин серії особисто для мене вона трохи програє.

kab reviewed Death's End by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth's Past, #3)

Death's End

5 stars

In between significant and smaller blind spots—including, like Goethe, promoting a stalker's idea of love—is a work of phenomenal imagination. It's the most absorbing book of the three, and excitingly explores ideas of humans in time and space.

ManyRoads reviewed Death's End by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #03)

Review of "Death's End" on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Not worth the effort. No noticeable character development, no excitement, pretty much no fun.

outofrange reviewed Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #3) by Cixin Liu

Review of "Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #3)" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The story continues to expand to fill the universe, a feat of imagination worth tagging along with.

Paudie reviewed Death's End by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #03)

Review of "Death's End" on 'Goodreads'

1 star

Amazing ideas coupled with clichéd stereotypical one dimensional characters. A very disappointing end to the series

popcorp reviewed Death's End by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #03)

Review of "Death's End" on 'Goodreads'

1 star

Ta jedna hvězdička je jen za to, že to konečně skončilo. Jinak to nestojí za řeč.

Sergey Machulskis reviewed Death's End by Cixin Liu (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #03)

Review of "Death's End" on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Expected at least one expansion of the idea from the previous book, got a bunch of interesting and elegant twists.

In short, humanity's problems escalated from the scale of cities and dozens of years to the scale of the Universe and infinite time span.

Has a couple of holes in the plot, but I think it's even better with them.