I have just finished reading all three books of the Rememberance of Earth’s Past trilogy: The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End, and wow, this is the most epic, ambitious, thought-provoking sci-fi series I have read in a long, long time.
Following are quick reviews of each book, but the TLDR version is stop what you’re doing and read them right now!
The Three-Body Problem
4/5
This was really fresh! In some ways, it feels very Foundation-y (a sociological vs an individual story), but the backdrop of Chinese culture, history, and philosophy renders it very different than other sci-fi I have read.
For the most of the book, I was interested, but not compelled, and I wasn’t intending to read the rest of the trilogy. However, it really stuck the landing, and now I have already started the second book. I question some of the science and math, but the concepts are quite thought-provoking.
The Dark Forest
5/5
This is a phenomenal follow-up to The Three-Body Problem. While that book had me ambivelent for the first 80% and only really captured my interest at the end, this one had me engaged from the outset. It really expands the scope and scale of the first book and presents multiple convergent story lines that are deeply political and sociological, reminding me a great deal of The Expanse series. Highly recommended, and I can’t wait to finish the third book before watching the TV series adaptations!
Death’s End
5/5
Wow, wow, WOW! What an epic finale of this trilogy! This is easily one of the best series I have ever read, and certainly one of the most ambitious of all time. In this book I found my mind and imagination stretched into radical new directions. Occasionally I could predict what was coming, but often I would pause and reflect that I really had no idea how things would resolve themselves – or even if they possibly could. This final book could easily have been split into three or more self-contained books, but I appreciated the large, combined narrative.
Huge kudos go out not just to the author, Liu Cixin, but also to Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen, for English translations that captured the poetic imagery of the original Mandarin Chinese.
Conclusion
I cannot recommend this series highly enough. It starts slowly and will be particularly challenging for Western readers who aren’t accustomed to all the East Asian names, but stick with it, and prepare for your mind to be blown!
There is no way that a TV adaptation can do this justice, but I will try watching the Netflix series and the Chinese series as well.
I enjoyed this series, too. I agree each book seemed to be better than the previous. I found the challenge of the unfamiliarity of Chinese names improved the more I read.
I would also recommend the sequel “The Redemption of Time” written by another Chinese author Baoshu (I think with Liu Cixin’s approval). It is translated by Ken Liu, too.
Mta: I liked the Chinese miniseries better than the Netflix series. The Chinese miniseries follows the book more closely. The Netflix series has many changes both in characters and storyline pacing.