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budge's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Fascinating and gripping, keeps you guessing until quite near the end. It has an intriguing plot which switches about in time and between reality and virtual reality. The two main characters are easy to identify with but having said that, the zoomed out perspective is quite bleak at times because it's not afraid to look at humanity analytically as a stage of evolution. The physics involved takes a bit of effort (if you stopped at A level in 1983) but it's really cleverly explained and opens up a whole new way of thinking about pretty much everything, which is very exciting.
I didn't realise until the end that there are two more in the series, what a treat!
I didn't realise until the end that there are two more in the series, what a treat!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Forced institutionalization
Minor: Suicide
maddowils's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Violence, Murder, Gun violence, Suicide, Death of parent, and Blood
kstericker's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Suicide, War, Blood, and Violence
Minor: Body horror
becksusername's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
I was so intimidated by this book, but once I got started I was immediately sucked in and found it not only very readable, but incredibly thought-provoking. I feel like I'm smarter for having read it. And I can't wait to get my hands on the next two books!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Death of parent, Self harm, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, Child death, Gaslighting, and Torture
nny_c's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
For me, this was the first and only scene I truly enjoyed, the only one to make me want to go back to reading as soon as I had the time. But after this captivating start, the intensity levels dropped dramatically and never quite made it close to the top again.
Overall, the parts in which we follow Ye Wenjie’s life were consistently more enjoyable for me to read than the rest of the book. She is the only mildly interesting character, which can in part be attributed to the Execution Scene in the beginning. It is through her that we are told the history of China’s Cultural Revolution, repressions, political agenda, and the state of the scientific community. But even here the book’s biggest shortcoming undercuts the enjoyment — this is by far the most exposition-heavy book I’ve read in a long time.
The very few characters that actually matter and stick around for long enough — Ye Wenjie, Wang Miao, Da Shi — just have things happen to them most of the time, their agency insignificant compared to the amount of information the book tries to force on you. And when they actually do something, although their motivations are for the most part clear, the lack of any kind of discernible personality behind these names on the page makes the stakes that much lower.
However, I feel like I must mention, that my issue with the amount of exposition, especially when it came to unbearably frequent crush-courses on physical phenomena and occasional mathematical theory, is much more personal because I have studied astrophysics. So I don’t want to make claims about how interesting these parts of the book may be to someone not connected to this topic at all. But I still believe that the delivery could have used a lot of work: the information is just being monologued to one of the main characters by slightly less important ones, the most ‘creative’ storytelling device was framing some info-dumping as an interrogation record by the very end.
I do feel bad for talking about this book in such a negative light, but it does surprise me just how praised it is, considering the experience I got from it. I can attribute at least part of its popularity in the West to a fascination with the themes of revolution and repressions under China’s communist party. But considering where I am from, it is an inseparable part of who I am and my culture, so these topics lack shock value for me.
Granted, it is only the first part of a trilogy, but I cannot imagine picking up the other two books, at least not in the foreseeable future.
5/10 — barely finished it tbh.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Death of parent
Minor: Suicide
f18's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Child death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: War, Torture, Suicide, and Pregnancy
Minor: Drug abuse, Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, Sexism, Racism, Genocide, Infidelity, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, and Cursing
braynard's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Starts slow, gets faster. The science sections are a bit complex at times and the plot isn't super action heavy, but the story line is very interesting. I finished the whole thing in two reading sections.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood and Death of parent
Minor: Suicide
Unshown but referenced suicides. A character is beaten to death early on.cinnamonandpancakes's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This book is a very interesting read but I would honestly describe it more as a political thriller with hard science fiction elements. The aliens are vague and their advanced technologies are more fantasy than based in hard science, though the science on the human side is much more realistic.
Quibbles about genre aside, I found a lot of the conclusions people draw in this book to be very pessimistic and narrow minded. It is a very gloomy book. Many characters make terrible discoveries and then just give up. A terrible doom is coming and we can't do anything about it so we're just going to give up fighting?! Maybe I'm just young but that attitude infuriates me.
That being said, there's some imaginative uses of science in this book and the sequels are set up well. If you like the prospect of doomy political thriller with aliens then this is a very well written example.
Quibbles about genre aside, I found a lot of the conclusions people draw in this book to be very pessimistic and narrow minded. It is a very gloomy book. Many characters make terrible discoveries and then just give up. A terrible doom is coming and we can't do anything about it so we're just going to give up fighting?! Maybe I'm just young but that attitude infuriates me.
That being said, there's some imaginative uses of science in this book and the sequels are set up well. If you like the prospect of doomy political thriller with aliens then this is a very well written example.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Violence, and War
Moderate: Blood and Death
Minor: Suicide
gladiolus17's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
As a translator, I can’t help but comment on the translation, and I gotta say, I would’ve died translating this. The amount of technical vocabulary astounded me, and Ken Liu did a great job (or at least sounded great, since I’ve only read the English version) making these terms make sense in the target text. He also handled the Chinese linguistic quirks with light explanations so the reader can understand rather than omitting them.
Wong has a flat character arc, so although I was interested in him, I was more interested in Ye, since her character arc dipped. I loved how the Cultural Revolution was the basis to her decision in contact the aliens.
My favorite character was Da Shi. He was an asshole, but he got shit done.
I’d recommend this to readers with a science background, since they’d enjoy it more than me, with all the STEM terminology. But if you’re interested in the nitty-gritty explanations of space travel and planets, this is for you
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Death, Murder, and Suicide
bestknownfor's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Suicide, and Violence