I just finished this sequel to the Three Body Problem, and once again my mind is blown. This book left me with a picture of the universe I never imagined… a dark forest indeed.
The only complaint anyone seems to have about this series is the characters, and though they are more fleshed out in this one, they are still a bit lacking. But in my opinion, this downside is more than made up for by the overflowing fountain of ideas.
SO MUCH happens in these books. So many concepts are introduced and there is such endless imagination, that if the author took the time to have full, well built characters, each chapter could be ballooned into it’s own novel. And I’m not sure if that is even an exaggeration. Nearly every scene is introducing some new idea or concept or unsuspected implementation of an idea, and this seizes my attention more than anything I’ve read in a long time.
My biggest complaint was nothing to do with the story, but with the narrator, as I listened to the audio version. The narrator was fine, but, it was a different narrator than the first novel. The narrators did certain character’s voices in different ways (Da Shi, the detective, most notably) and it was really hard to get used to. I also noticed that they used a different translator, though the writing still felt similar in voice to me. (the third book will return to Ken Liu being translator, and I hope they return to the first narrator as well).
The final book, Death’s End, will be out in the US in April, and I hope I don’t have to wait much longer for the audio version. Really excited for the conclusion of this amazing series!
Jonas David 