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A review by nickstarr
Supernova Era by Cixin Liu
2.0
1.5/5
Yikes. Don’t bother unless you’re a Liu Cixin super fan, and even then…
I loved the Remembrance of Earth’s Past series, but this book shares the same flaws magnified tenfold, and almost never hits the same heights. The basic premise is interesting, but it gets extremely bogged down in uninteresting tangents (or entire sections) and there are too many deus ex machina moments to count. The characters are dull and at best one-dimensional, and at times the consequences of the premise feel oddly under-explored. I would’ve been far more interested in reading about how day-to-day life was handled in such a strange future, but most of the book is devoted to national and then global politics, and IMO doesn’t even handle those topics all that well.
If I weren’t under the wire for my 2023 reading goal, I would’ve DNFed this about halfway through. Half a star for the few moments where his future skills shine through, but if this book interests you, I’d recommend just reading the plot summary instead.
Yikes. Don’t bother unless you’re a Liu Cixin super fan, and even then…
I loved the Remembrance of Earth’s Past series, but this book shares the same flaws magnified tenfold, and almost never hits the same heights. The basic premise is interesting, but it gets extremely bogged down in uninteresting tangents (or entire sections) and there are too many deus ex machina moments to count. The characters are dull and at best one-dimensional, and at times the consequences of the premise feel oddly under-explored. I would’ve been far more interested in reading about how day-to-day life was handled in such a strange future, but most of the book is devoted to national and then global politics, and IMO doesn’t even handle those topics all that well.
If I weren’t under the wire for my 2023 reading goal, I would’ve DNFed this about halfway through. Half a star for the few moments where his future skills shine through, but if this book interests you, I’d recommend just reading the plot summary instead.