This review is cross posted with my GoodReads account.

Death’s End is the third in a series of science fiction books that I have been reading. It details the story of the Earth as it moves into space. There are a lot of fascinating, really compelling physics and philosophy illustrated here. And surprisingly enough, each of the three books get better than the previous one.

I do not want to give spoilers, but here is a little stage-setting. The first book (The Three Body Problem) is probably the weakest of the three - but it gets everything else rolling. A Chinese woman with a rather dark estimation of humanity’s abilities discovers a way to use the Sun to send messages across the cosmos. She uses it to send a message to Proxima Centauri. Immediately she receives a return message, urging her to stop sending messages because the universe is full of wolves and they might come to conquer humanity. She replies immediately, inviting them to do so. This single action starts a tragic chain of events.

The philosophy is challenging. The essential concept - the seed from which all the other ideas emerge - is that the universe is full of intelligent civilizations that want to survive. Because these civilizations are at different stages of technical advancement and are at threat from their peers, the logical thing is that these civilizations want to destroy each other. Pretty dark if you ask me.

The author spins threads of gold from this single mine. I thought that the second book was brilliant, with a jaw dropping ending that tickled and stunned me. After 500 immensely frustrating pages, I could not help but dance in giddiness at how wonderfully I had been played.

The third book also has moments like what I came across in the second. But it is not set up as a triumphant victory over the aliens. This is a distinctly Chinese book, meaning that it does not adhere to Western concepts of hero story-telling. The protagonists are true dictionary protagonists - they are simply the people we follow and not people we want to root for. They are immensely frustrating people - who make decisions that I (or anyone else coming from the West) do not agree with.

With that being said, this sort of story telling has opened my mind greatly. I am not sure if this has to do with the fact that the author is from China, a different culture, but I saw to the depths of his limitless imagination and I cannot help but assert that such a vision could not come about without the aid of hallucinogenic drugs.

I give this book 5 stars. Please read it and feel free to message me with your thoughts. The first book is the worst, so power through it. It starts getting really good with Book 2.