Death's End: 3 (The Three-Body Problem) Paperback – 4 May 2017

Love this trilogy, bought it after watching the netflix series 1, so glad I got the books as these are so much better! the third book is my personal favourite, I absolutely loved it so so much! It wraps up the whole thing so nicely, goes in directions you never thought it would go, and has left me thinking about it for weeks after!!!the first book takes a while to get used to the writing style (if you're reading the English translation), as how it's been translated from the Chinese can feel a bit clunky for the English language (I think, i'm not a language professor or anything, but got this for my dad too and discussed it) - but I think its so interesting how language can represent culture, norms, everything.I'd reccomend getting the physical book copy if you aren't used to reading translated copies, as I got the Chinese names muddled up quite often (I also didn't realise until about halfway through the second book that Firstnames and Surnames are the other way round in Chinese too!) and forgot who was who, but at the start of the book there's a name guide to remind you who is who, but I wasn't aware of this in the kindle version!.The first book can be a bit tough going, but once you get used to the language and the names, it is absouetly fantastic, i would say it's the best sci-fi series I have read, ever!!! it has also translator's notes which add in more depth to the Chinese culture and facts a Westerner may not know, which was really interesting and so helpful.

Until the day I set eyes on the first book of this trilogy, I had not read any SciFi authored by a Chinese writer. I must say I approached it with certain trepidation and clearly unsure as to what to expect. Suffice to say, reading these 3 books has been immensely rewarding and enjoyable.The whole saga is at once complex and unpredictable. Events larger than life are described summarily and then, what at first sight seems a minor detail, turns out to be pivotal to understand what is really going on. The text flows easily and apace. Descriptions are vivid, colourful, masterly created to shade light on truly complex ideas about cosmology, planetary evolution or quantum physics.Characters are painted with great care but it feels effortlessly. There is a giant imagination at work here.In a sentence, these 3 books take the reader from the Chinese cultural revolution to the end of the known Universe. All the way we are silent witnesses to an incredible succession of unparalleled events, seen through the eyes of what we may call ordinary (but not so) individuals.Finally, the translation is great.

It was a a difficult trilogy to get through. However, sometimes you have to dig in and work to get something from life. This is one of those occasions. The final hours of the book were quite exciting and well worth persevering for. It’s going to make good TV. As a reader I make my own images and the characters in this story came together well. There are difficult patches - of technical or mathematical concepts but even then it fits together very well. I feel an achievement in reading this. It feels like reaching the top of a hill . However from that viewpoint I can see so many other books or hills to climb it’s daunting yet needs to be done !

The Three-Body Problem Trilogy is one of the very few books that way exceeded my expectations. It’s a real epic tour not just down the rabbit hole but worm holes, black holes, interdimensional portals, parallel universes, time tunnels, in multitude ways that defy the known laws of physics, but at the same time never loses sight of the human elements. I am sure the bold scientific tenets in the book could be easily dismissed as fantasy but as a Possibilitarian I don’t rule anything out and I think “being unrealistic” is how Sci-Fi should be, helping us to consider and explore the hitherto Unknown. Besides, a very important message in the 3 books is how human arrogance and blinkered vision had led to its own demise. Anything is possible, nothing is what it seems, never stop questioning, what’s true today could be overthrown tomorrow, don’t be too sure of yourself, what on earth (pun intended) makes us think we are so special ? remember the mystery of the universe will bring you to your knees without a moment’s notice.To me, where the books really excel is in highlighting the human frailties. There are so many lessons strewn through the story. To say it’s thought provoking is an understatement. It put into question what it means to be human and our place in the vast Universe. It’s really freeing once we break out of our limited beliefs and embrace the uncertainties around us. At points I almost agreed with Ye Wenjie that humanity is beyond redemption and it will probably self-destroy if not slaughtered by extra-terrestrials. Even in the wake of an alien invasion, humans still cannot unite against a common enemy. Its naivety, arrogance, selfishness, failure to learn from mistakes and take ownership of problems, and a deviousness that even corrupted warlike aliens, do not paint a very flattering picture of my kind but there are always exceptions. There are still goodness in this world but are the human values we hold dear going to save us in the face of an apathetic universe ? There are so many sober reminders that we should not assume, take things for granted, or be complacent. Who can say that our star system will not be “cleansed” in the end by a lowly person like Singer from a remote corner of the Universe with just a flick of his finger, in the same way that a pests terminator rid our house of termites. I found that part of the story particularly humbling. And I am glad the story does not have a happy ending because that makes it more real. Without giving any more away, all I can say is that it’s an open ending. That gives arise to more possibilities just like what the books did all the way through. You never guess what will happen next. Even the sky is not the limit. Life is a true adventure.

A great read that makes you feel small and insignificant when compared to the expanse of the universe and time.