Death's End

Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations can co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But peace has also made humanity complacent. Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the start of the Trisolaran Crisis, and her presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?

As a trilogy, this has left me somewhat conflicted, so I'm going to attempt to break it down best I canTHE GOODThis is a fascinating dive into how interactions with aliens could go if they were less than friendly, leaning heavily into the concept of the dark forest - a kill or be killed mentality that permeates the universe. It takes you through the full timeline, from first contact to a human space age and draws wonderfully from scientific concepts and cultural exchanges across time, and how they may change with the incoming crisis that threatens everyone. When the crew of Gravity began studying the 4th dimension I got really invested, and the whole concept of weaponising physics was superbly executedTHE BADthe trilogy feels very disjointed and the books struggle with pacing on the whole. The first is the best in my opinion, but the goal to solve the three body problem kind of gets left completely at the wayside after the first book, and the first third of the second book really drags. By the end of the third it was getting so weird that it was straying into fantasy and the ending kind of fell a little flat for meTHE UGLYBy god, the sexism in this book is BAD. The first is fairly devoid of anything overt (probably why it was my favourite) but it gets pretty bad after that. The 'romance' in the second book was honestly gross, and the idea of dreaming up a fantasy woman (who is constantly idealised for being childlike 🤢🤢) was weird, but for the MC to then use his ultimate power to kidnap a random woman that fits the description? Gross. By the third book I was getting really sick of it, the idea that the female sword holder failed because she had 'too much love and maternal instinct' was bizzarre, quite why is was portrayed as a bad thing is beyond me. Couple this with mentions of her 'girlish instincts' and that she ultimately causes the destruction of the universe because she *checks notes* is too nice? The ending really fell flat for me because it really began to feel like a woman hating manifestoIf you can get past the rampant sexism, there is a good sci-fi book in here, but I won't be recommending this to my female friends, that's for sure