- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Audio Release Date: September 20, 2016
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Book 3 of 4: The Three-Body Problem
- Listening Length: 28 hours and 51 minutes
- Version Unabridged
- Language: English
- ASIN: B01LW7NVP0
- Author: Cixin Liu,
- Translator: Ken Liu
- Read by: P. J. Ochlan
Death’s End (The Three-Body Problem Series Book 3) by Cixin Liu is the third book of four books in the series. The author has a great imagination and builds an intricate and expansive universe spanning centuries. This book centers mostly around Cheng Xin, a 21st century aerospace engineer who is recruited to try to find a way to send a human spy to the Trisolaran fleet that is approaching Earth. The book covers centuries (eons?) as Cheng moves from century to century using purposeful hibernation, and accidental time dilation.
I find Liu’s universe very interesting. The concept of different dimensionality in different parts of space, four dimensional space bleeding over into three dimensions and three into two, etc. is an interesting concept. He creates a universe (universes?) that are rich and deep, but the story really is just OK. I didn’t really believe the people would act the way they do. I never felt a connection to most of the people in the story. The main character, Cheng Xin, seems to mostly just have things happen to her. When the going gets tough, some sort of handwavium or deus ex machina resolves the problem, or at least bumps it a few centuries into the future.
I also find the concept of the Dark Forest depressing. Perhaps I’m too optimistic, raised on Star Trek and its Federation of Planets, but I can’t believe the central concept of really all of these books that recognition by aliens means planetary and species wide extinction. As I said, Cixin Liu is great when it comes to imagining universes, in concepts of where science could go, etc. I don’t believe these concepts, but they seem plausible in the context of the stories. I just don’t find the stories themselves as plausible. The characters tend to be one-dimensional. Few of them are actually likeable. And maybe my biggest problem is just the long, barely related passages that do not add a lot to the central stories. A book that takes us from the 21st century to near the end of the universe probably needs to be a long book, but at nearly 30 hours of listening time, this one is too long.
Matt Truxaw’s newest book is Monster. This urban fantasy, horror, thriller will keep you turning the pages.
He is also the author of the hard science fiction thrillers: “Plastiphobia/Plastivore” and “Anthrophobia: A Teacher’s Tale”
You can find them all on Amazon in Paperback, Hardback, Kindle and/or free to read with Kindle Unlimited.
When you read any of them, he would really appreciate a review/rating on Amazon or your favorite book seller/book reader site.
More about Matt:
He was born in Orange County California many years ago and he still lives there. He has been reading books for most of those years and writing up book reviews for the last few years. He gets MANY of his books out of the library/Libby so expect a lot of old science fiction classics book reviews and other science related reviews in addition to newer books he comes across.
If you want to be ‘in-the-loop’ on these and other works, you can follow his website( MattTruxaw.com), his author’s page on Amazon or his Facebook page.
For more reviews and articles by Matt here on Amazing Stories (Click here).
Monster: A Novel by Matt Truxaw
