Book: Death's End, Cixin Liu, Ken Liu

If The Dark Forest was The Three-Body Problem squared, then Death's End continues on that exponential curve. The stage is much grander, the ideas of a much grander scale, and the science the best I've experienced in fiction for a long, long time. This was more like a tachyon Star Trek TNG episode than a BSG soap opera, and the unabashed (if a little out there) science-first approach was a welcome change from the more gizmo futures we've been offered in contemporary sci-fi.

Cheng Xin, the new protagonist for this volume, is, quite frankly, an idiot and quite possibly the most frustrating anti-hero I've had the pleasure of reading. Expect that her character and her decisions are essential to the unfolding plot and even the lessons being taught. By the end of the book I realised the real idiocy lay on the opposite side of the fourth wall.

But the real genius of the book (and thinking about it now the series as a whole) is how it almost manages to undo itself, and the author is nothing less than brave for the approach. The slight downside is that, similar to The Dark Forest, in this vacuum of world building the ending feels almost rushed. I've decided to accept this as the book's character though.

Overall the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy (to use its formal name) is like a breath of fresh air. No, actually, it's like a reset on the genre of science fiction, throwing back to the likes of Arthur C. Clarke and Asimov in scale and approach. This approach isn't popular or even one that necessarily prioritises accessibility, but by avoiding the dumbing down of concepts we end with something much purer and better for it.