Reviews

Cixin Liu’s understanding/reflection on human nature and society introduce terrifying concerns about the future of humanity in the face of external global threat. The power and threat of individualism, complacency, overconfidence, and stagnant thinking all pose threats to continued human evolution. His theories and world create pause for concern, exciting “what ifs”, and intimidating hypotheses. This is a book on humanity.

bigbookslilreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Several people online have mentioned that the second book is better than the first (which could be considered just a set up, and even skipped). I will say, those people are wrong. Not that this book is worse, but it's at the very least not better and on the same level of quality as the first. I am probably rating this even lower because of my crushed hope. A common criticism of the first book is its poor overall characterisation work. I think Cixin at least tried to improve that in this book. However, what he added was the most boring and mindnumbing content I could ever think of. Adding to this, the whole wallfacer/wallbreaker thing was so dumb and annoying in my opinion. I could not take this premise seriously. There are still good moments in this book and series, and this is the reason I keep going (if at least to read it before I watch the series, since a lot of these moments will probably look amazing on screen). But I don't think these compensate for the rest...

koberreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

a thought-provoking exploration of humanity's resilience and survival strategies against an impending alien invasion, with a strong emphasis on scientific concepts.

I always thought Robert Greene (author of Laws of Human nature) is the smartest author regarding the encompasing and grand scale of humanity society but Cixin Liu toppled him