Rating: 4.5 out of 5
I wasn’t blown away by the final instalment in this series, finding the story and the solution both to be unsatisfactory. Yet, if the author wanted to emphasize humanity, this series does that—more perhaps in the continuous failures of Cheng Xin rather than her capacity for love, but even this is something. And of course, if apparent failure leads to a sort of success, then that is for the reader to decide upon.
Altogether, Trisolaris’ move against the Swordholder was not unexpected, but this forms the main event that determines everything. These results that stem from this moment create an opening for an additional character to be fairly important for a short time: this void is filled by Sophon who becomes a chilling character—in both her (its?) make up and actions. The ensuing changes in the balance of power, the rapid change of eras, and the outcome of the “cleaning” all made for a pretty rapid pace through a long period.
Whether the result is something that should be actively considered as an option that can happen to us is however more doubtful. As our understanding of the complex world is primitive in many ways, the radical theories posited by Mr Liu deserve some thought. Which is not to mean that the physical solutions the author proposed for light speed travel (amongst other things) are the ways these issues will be solved: it’s more important to agree firstly on what we want to find in the wide universe—if anything.
This series was a recommendation from a dear friend. I’m happy to have gone through it, but in many places it’s very dark. Darker perhaps than we should hope our future will be, although it could also be that Mr Liu has uncovered some fundamental truths here. I do not know.
