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mtstellens 's review for:
Death's End
by Cixin Liu
I’m gonna be honest, I really didn’t understand a lot of the science in this book and there were so many scenes that were so beautifully written, but were very difficult for me to actually imagine. Very mind bending. The beautiful architecture and the different eras of humanity and how they have arranged themselves given the changing circumstances. It was a little bit of a departure from the first two books, but seeing such expansive views of time was really interesting. It never felt packed, and it allowed for a lot of interesting ideas to be explored. There were so many little moments like the paintings, the notes outside of time and the fall of Constantinople that were woven in so well. It definitely made it less approachable, but also much better written for having those.
The gender commentary was odd, I don’t quite know where to put it. Again, at times I am unsure if what the author actually believes at times. I don’t think it muddled necessarily, but at times contradictory. I think that the part where Cheng Xin twice makes the choice of compassion dooming the human race (or at least in the humans in the galaxy) was confusing to me. It never really seems as though the narrative condemns her, and yes she is one of the main reason so many people die. I would have made the same choices too, though. It’s very human and good to choose life and kindness, to spite the dark forest. And I think in the end, making the choice to leave the pocket universe and rejoin the big universe to hopefully allow a new one to emerge even if they die and don't get to see the new universe is also the right choice. And one that needs to be made communally, one that all of the beings in pocket universes needs to make.
The fairy tales hiding a hidden message was ingenious. I loved the stories (or one story broken into parts). The painter who was able to trap people in portraits, the special soap, the prince who defied proportions. And it was woven in so well with the evental reveal of faster than light speed, of the idea of going dark and cutting off all ability for the human race to expand, of the horrifying meaning of the paintings.
The moments of horror around the mass relocation to Australia and the almost forced cannibalism or the final understanding of what the painting reference ment, the collapse of the third dimension into two. The horror of mass extinction and knowing there really isn't anything to do. Hearing a tomb talk in the second dimension is one of the most interesting things I have read in Sci Fi.
The gender commentary was odd, I don’t quite know where to put it. Again, at times I am unsure if what the author actually believes at times. I don’t think it muddled necessarily, but at times contradictory. I think that the part where Cheng Xin twice makes the choice of compassion dooming the human race (or at least in the humans in the galaxy) was confusing to me. It never really seems as though the narrative condemns her, and yes she is one of the main reason so many people die. I would have made the same choices too, though. It’s very human and good to choose life and kindness, to spite the dark forest. And I think in the end, making the choice to leave the pocket universe and rejoin the big universe to hopefully allow a new one to emerge even if they die and don't get to see the new universe is also the right choice. And one that needs to be made communally, one that all of the beings in pocket universes needs to make.
The fairy tales hiding a hidden message was ingenious. I loved the stories (or one story broken into parts). The painter who was able to trap people in portraits, the special soap, the prince who defied proportions. And it was woven in so well with the evental reveal of faster than light speed, of the idea of going dark and cutting off all ability for the human race to expand, of the horrifying meaning of the paintings.
The moments of horror around the mass relocation to Australia and the almost forced cannibalism or the final understanding of what the painting reference ment, the collapse of the third dimension into two. The horror of mass extinction and knowing there really isn't anything to do. Hearing a tomb talk in the second dimension is one of the most interesting things I have read in Sci Fi.