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ly_hoa 's review for:
Death's End
by Cixin Liu
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
As the past two books, the science fiction is imaginative and mesmerizing. However, such a futuristic book is betrayed this time by an old fashioned perceptions of gender roles (or gender generally), which sometimes took me out of the story. The review further down contains some big spoilers!
The science fiction: it was amazing to imagine what another livable planet could be like, or what exactly could lead humans to master light speed (and what this would do both to time and light). These passages felt both informative and fantastical, and I truly enjoyed them.
The sociology: this is where the age of the author starts to be felt, and clashes with me (and I would assume other modern readers, certainly women). For the first time his main character is a woman, but she feels flat, the invention of a man’s fantasy rather than an actual character with complex goals and motivations. Her illogical actions because she believes in “love” are hard to understand; and it’s grating that the logical, world saving actions are all taken by… men. There is a whole passage where the author imagines a world that is full of excess and softness, and where men are so “feminized” (author’s description) they are almost unrecognizable. In a later period he says something like “this was an era where men could be men again.” To someone who studied a little how gender is literally constructed, it’s ridiculously old fashioned to read that a man is feminine because he cares about beauty and grace. This really weighted down the book. The author is inventive in his problems and imaginations of other societies, but not so when it comes to thinking of the future of the human race!
The science fiction: it was amazing to imagine what another livable planet could be like, or what exactly could lead humans to master light speed (and what this would do both to time and light). These passages felt both informative and fantastical, and I truly enjoyed them.
The sociology: this is where the age of the author starts to be felt, and clashes with me (and I would assume other modern readers, certainly women). For the first time his main character is a woman, but she feels flat, the invention of a man’s fantasy rather than an actual character with complex goals and motivations. Her illogical actions because she believes in “love” are hard to understand; and it’s grating that the logical, world saving actions are all taken by… men. There is a whole passage where the author imagines a world that is full of excess and softness, and where men are so “feminized” (author’s description) they are almost unrecognizable. In a later period he says something like “this was an era where men could be men again.” To someone who studied a little how gender is literally constructed, it’s ridiculously old fashioned to read that a man is feminine because he cares about beauty and grace. This really weighted down the book. The author is inventive in his problems and imaginations of other societies, but not so when it comes to thinking of the future of the human race!