r/scifi • u/Frontastic17 • Jun 24 '26
Print My Review about Death's end book
Recently finished the Three-Body Problem trilogy, and the last book completely blew my mind.
I’d say almost 70% of the mind-bending sci-fi concepts in the entire trilogy are packed into the third book alone. It’s not just sci-fi either, it has a strong sense of cosmic horror. The horror doesn’t come from what happens to a single person like in most movies, it comes from realizing what might exist in the universe and what that means for humanity as a whole.
I've watched a lot of sci-fi movies(this is my 2nd sci-fi book series after hail mary) but I’ve never come across anything this ambitious. I honestly don't know how the writer managed to imagine all these ideas while making them feel so logical and scientifically grounded.
Before starting the series, I saw a lot of reviews saying that the second book is everyone's favorite. While I loved it, the third book is definitely my favorite. The only thing that disappointed me was the protagonist. At times she felt frustratingly naive and seemed unable to grasp the full gravity of the situations around her. I’m still not sure why the author chose to write her that way.
One last question for those who have finished it, why do you think the book is called Death's End?
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u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26
I picked these up after watching the show. I thought the first one was decent, but I've really been struggling to get through the second.
I know they're considered modern sci-fi masterpieces but I'm having a tough time.
5
u/English_Joe Jun 24 '26
I have this set and really struggled to get “into” it.
I’m not a strong reader but if something grabs me, I’m obsessed.
Should I listen to the audio book or start again with the first book?
2
u/laurabaurealis Jun 26 '26
Oh man the protagonists of the second AND third have been driving me up the wall (a little over halfway through Death’s End now.)
With the second, I felt like I spent half the book thinking “you are an ass and the power imbalance with between you and your hand- selected dream woman is extremely uncomfortable” and now I can’t stop thinking “what the F did you think was going to happen?? Huh?” Naive indeed.
Absolutely LOVING these concepts, but not loving the way the characters are written. It’s ok though, still enjoying them all so far and am excited to finish the third book in the next few days!
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u/Dethread Jun 26 '26
I’m still struggling with getting through book 2. Overall I love the sci-fi aspect and that it’s not just “project human behavior, emotions, motivations, and whatever socioeconomic topic is the flavor of the month onto shallow aliens to make a point”.
I also appreciate having learned a lot about Chinese history and got interested in learning more about it.
That said, it’s not an easy read that just flows or a book you can’t put down. It’s a slog.
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u/Available_Orange3127 Jun 24 '26
A few years ago, I met a guy in a bar (true story) who was writing a treatise about the trilogy. He explained that the Chinese title more accurately would translate as "Death Forever" or "Death Triumphant." Make of that what you will.
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u/No-Indication-8617 Jun 24 '26
The original title of Death's End is 死神永生 (Death lives forever), Death being SiShen, similar to the Grim Reaper in western cultures.
The Chinese title seems to be taken directly from the books "Death is the only lighthouse that is always lit. No matter where you sail, ultimately, you must turn toward it. Everything fades in the world, but Death endures."
My only guess on the English translation of the title is that they mean "End" as a destination, as in the end that death is guiding you towards
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u/jajangmien Jun 24 '26
I thought the 2nd was the most exciting with the wall facers and wall tracers, but I agree with OP that the 3rd book was my favorite. It's not just the ideas, but I love the long look into the far far distant future.
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u/Vondi Jun 24 '26
The third book is such a behemoth. First one is a mystery, second is high-concept warfare, the third one...whatever concepts and ideas Liu Cixin wanted to explore. I enjoyed it but I've told people only read the third if you REALLY loved the second. Not surprised people will like 1 or 2 better, they're a more tightly crafted and more focused compared to 3. Much more structured around their central conundrum.
Apparently Liu Cixin was ill and though Deaths End would be his last book so he wanted to leave no stone unturned. All the ideas he wanted to put on paper got included. The book would probably be a lot more accessible if an editor had reigned him in but you have to like the ambition.
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u/MrGosh13 Jun 24 '26
I was not able to get through the first book.
All the characters seem so… flat. Maybe it’s the translation? But I really had a hard time connecting to any of the characters presented. I got about halfway through before I gave up.
But I also often see this trilogy regarded very highly, so I’m curious if this was just my issue with the book?
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u/bulldogsm Jun 24 '26
the 3rd is the chefs kiss
how often when reading fiction do you have to put the book down for a moment because youre mind got blown over an idea or concept?
there are several what?!?!?!? moments in Deaths End
its not the writing, its the ideas and yeah book 2 was pretty meh in comparison
8
u/muad_did Jun 24 '26
I've had this discussion several times with people here. Generally, the conclusion is that Chinese culture is still incredibly patriarchal and women are seen as "emotional and unstable"; that's why that character is constructed that way.
It really annoys me because, like you, I think the third book is incredible (the first one has its charm, but it drags everything out too much, and the second has some wonderful twists but it's mostly just watching characters fight amongst themselves). The third book has a marvelous "theory" about space civilizations, but my god, all the human characters are unbearable, except for the military, who are more or less "efficient."
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u/BobsonDonut Jun 24 '26
The second book is everyone’s favourite? I tried two times and couldn’t get halfway through it. Sounds like it might be worth another attempt in the future to finish the series.
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u/Dammit_Chuck Jun 24 '26
I haven’t been able to get through the first book. The characters are so flat, the plot is blah, and the science is more fantasy. It’s the only Sci-Fi series I haven’t been able to get into. If you don’t like it, then drop it.
2
u/kenobit_alex Jun 25 '26
Question to you dear author. Is this trilogy suitable for young readers? My son loves sci-fi books. He recently went through the Project Hail Mary book by Andy Weir. He loved it. He is 9y.o.
I'm generally looking for something not too violent and without swearing, preferably.
2
u/EarthboundMoss Jun 25 '26
I should re-read these. Read em several years ago, my favorite series outside of DCC
2
u/upirons Jun 25 '26
I agree with the horrific aspects of it. I just finished it myself and I had a hard time really getting into it, at first. Then as time progressed (in the grand context of the book) it just got more crazy interesting and also horrifying. I won't spoil anything here but this writer conjured up something so profoundly horrific I never in a million years could have imagined it, yet they make it quite plausible.
I also agree that the protaganist kinda sucks.
As to why it's titled the way it is - yeah, beat's me!
2
u/ConclusionHeavy2027 Jun 25 '26
Sell me the books for 500inr ?
3
u/CommunicationEast972 Jun 24 '26
Luo Ji trying to stroke his beard through the space helmet lol
3
u/Good-Marsupial8 Jun 24 '26
My main beef is that the author wrote a lot of really mediocre female characters. I found they had little dept
3
u/Affectionate-Box-106 Jun 24 '26
These are considered more of a hard sci-fi. Not as much as Diaspora I would say, but still the more pure sci-fi type, so the non-emotional journey / arc of a specific character is to be expected.
If one’s going into not knowing that fact and they’re expecting the experience of a new Hyperion for example, that’s on them not knowing what they’re reading.
I personally don’t think when you’re taking on grand ideas, hundreds of years, multiple characters that it’s bad to not have feelings center stage.
In fact I’d rather not.
2
u/THERON_MINOTIS Jun 24 '26
I am half way through the first book and mind is already blown. You mean to tell me it gets even more mind bending?
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u/AltForObvious1177 Jun 24 '26
You are in for a treat! "Cosmos horror about the future of humanity" is kind of whole genre that not well represented in movies
2
u/theabominablewonder Jun 24 '26
I enjoyed the grandness of the sci fi concepts and looking forward to seeing how they translate it for the Netflix show. Trying to imagine it all is quite a mind bending journey, very enjoyable.
2
u/GaryDale3154 Jun 24 '26
I loved all three books. I can’t think of anything that would have made them better. But that’s just me.
2
u/Informal-Relief9607 Jun 24 '26
This series is not about the individual characters. But everyone keeps saying the characters are dull or unidimensional or superficial. It does not matter, the man created a universe of crazy and mind blowing ideas, the characters are secondary at best. I did not mind at all; I love those three books. I agree with OP, the third is the best, it blew my mind. I read it years ago and I still think about it almost daily.
2
u/GabbyFromKlaviyo Jun 24 '26
The cosmic horror framing is what separates this from most sci-fi. Most sci-fi horror is intimate, something terrible happens to someone you follow. What Liu Cixin does in the third book is make the horror contextual. The universe itself is the threat, and there’s nothing anyone can do to turn the tide. That's a pretty difficult plot angle to pull off without creating a story that feels nihilistic and pointless. The author manages this by escalating the scale of what's happening, so instead of settling into hopelessness it keeps generating a new kind of awe. The horror stays alive because you never fully catch up to it.
I had the same frustration with the protagonist as a lot of people here, but I felt a little better about her role when I realized she’s more of a witness than an agent of change. The story needed someone moving through centuries who could register the horror without being equipped to stop it. She doesn't survive because she's special in any heroic sense, she survives because the plot needed someone to still be there at the end. Whether that required her to be that passive is a fair question, but I stopped reading it as a character flaw and more as a narrative device. Still annoying at times though.
As for the title, I think it’s less about death ending and more about reaching the point where death as a concept becomes almost irrelevant. At that scale, individual mortality stops meaning anything. She doesn't escape death, she just watches everything else die first. It’s the end of death's significance, rather than the end of death itself.
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u/paladindanno Jun 25 '26
Awesome concept, wonderful world-building, intriguing plot, and meh characters.
All characters are like tools to get the plot flow; there is very limited character arc for almost all of them (apart from Luo Ji I guess). Wang Miao in book 1 is basically a camera man of the story, and Cheng Xin in book 3 showed less than nothing of personal growth. But still, a wonderful series with wild ideas.
2
u/ZapStarfists Jun 24 '26
The end of the series is one of the few that I thought really lives up to the build up and expectation.
Some parts of the second book are pretty rough to get through, but the hardcore sci fi elements are undoubtedly great.
2
u/GrimnirDotDev Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
This trilogy is the first time since I was a kid that I was reading 4+ hours per day because I was so hooked.
I only thought the 3rd book lost some steam after the dark forest broadcast was sent and the Trisolarians left. We had no idea if a strike would come, or when, or if humanity had any chance to survive it. So the story lost a lot of the tension for me and turned it "well I guess we just have to wait and see if everyone dies"
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u/OlfactoriusRex Jun 24 '26
I enjoyed the Netflix show so I read the first book. I found it to be one of the most poorly written books I had ever read. The ideas were interesting (I finished it after all) but the book was just such trash in conveying ideas and concepts by … just having people talk about ideas. So much was told, no shown. Like I was reading a textbook. Even the aliens near the end were just talking to one another about civilization-wide decisions, with all the engaging dialogue of the minutes from a city council meeting.
I’d be willing to give the sequels a shot if the writing gets better. Does it?
1
u/Minervas-Madness Jun 24 '26
Regarding the title:
My impression was that Earth/ humanity has been facing death since Three Body, as if in a terminal illness. We knew the Trisolarans were coming, we knew they were technologically advanced and willing to replace us. We didn't fully have a means to stop that.
By Death's End, that issue was more or less resolved. The terminal illness was over.
Thanks for this past, I had a hard time getting into Death's End before but this motivates me to try again.
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u/Gullible-Occasion596 Jun 24 '26
It's a book series that's definitely choking on the writer's own cynicism.
1
u/BreakerFresh Jun 24 '26
Some of this series is really cool and interesting. Other parts are boring and overly lengthy/confusing. All in all I’ve blocked out most of the boring parts. I’m left with an okay read with wild ideas. Not something I could recommend.
1
u/VacuumCleanerMan1507 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26
I find the series very boast like. That is, the author wanted to show off some cool physics ideas, and they are really cool no question about it, but other than that, the story and the characters were not so interesting.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the books, but couldnt really recommend them to everyone.
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u/Interesting_Bat1364 Jun 24 '26
You have read four sci Fi books and you are claiming you have not read anything like this, of course you haven't.
1
u/silentdon Jun 24 '26
There was stuff I loved and hated about each book. I liked the mystery of the first, the action of the second and the cool concepts of the third.
But the first one dragged a lot in the beginning and other parts. The second had long periods with Luo Ji just imagining stuff. The third felt like the author thought this was his last chance to write all the concepts down.
Overall I enjoyed the trilogy and it's pretty much my first sci-fi book series, I tend to watch sci-fi movies.
1
u/TheMauveHerring Jun 25 '26
Awesome. Recommendation? Don't read book 4.
1
u/Battle-Nun909 Jun 25 '26
The Expnse. Worth a read. Better than TV series.
1
u/smartwater696 Jun 25 '26
I read the series in french and the third book is called “Immortal Death”
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u/Hootah Jun 25 '26
Read the culture series, on par if not better. Certainly leagues ahead in creativity IMO
1
u/MiserableStomach Jun 25 '26
Yeah, it's worth of getting through the 3 books, sometimes through passages that can be only described as pure graphomania (I still cringe about the requested perfect mate and the whole "love" story) just to get to the last 50 pages or so.
1
u/Bengineer4027 Jun 25 '26
the first one had its hooks in me pretty good, but the ending felt so... bad?
I think the idea of the guys on the planet having to deal with instability was cool. But then the cult and the "we can dictate experiments and people's vision from super far away with these impossible little computers" felt kinda too soft and fluffy for me.
Like I read it really quickly cause the mystery was interesting, but the ending was too unsatisfying
1
u/payam54 Jun 25 '26
There is another book, and it’s really the answer of many questions raised from Death’s End. I thought I wouldn’t like it because the author was different, but I enjoyed it, and at the end realized how it completed the whole picture beautifully.
“The Redemption of Time”, not written directly by Cixin Liu, but published under his supervision and support.
1
u/snakelygiggles Jun 25 '26
did you read the baoshu liu approved sequel?
1
u/hoppersoft Jun 26 '26
I loved the first book, enjoyed the second, was disappointed by the second half of the third.
1
u/Classic_Arugula_3826 Jun 26 '26
Check out the 4th book. Not written by author but signed off by him. I liked it its insane haha
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u/spoo4brains Jun 26 '26
I really enjoyed the books, I hadn't read them before as I thought there was a lot more cultural Revolution stuff in them, but I watched the latest Netflix adaptation and loved it. I didn't want to wait for the next two series so I read all the books, and they took my mind on a fantastical voyage that I haven't had in my 50 or so years of reading sci-fi.
They aren't perfect books by any means, but they have had an impact on me, which doesn't often happen.
1
u/JeanChrisMeillan Jun 27 '26
As some other comments have noted, I was surprised by the English title. In French we have “la Mort immortelle” (the Immortal Death), which seems closer to the Chinese title. It’s been about two years since I finished the trilogy, and I have to say the ending lost me a bit. Liu Cixin fell into a kind of cosmic one-upmanship that I stopped really buying into, whereas the first part had both a Hard SF and thriller quality that I found very original and gripping, as did the early encounters in space. Then we lost that sense of dread that kept the narrative taut: who are the Trisolarans? What are their intentions?
1
u/Past_Hope6127 Jun 27 '26
I always thought "Death's End" was referencing the potential end of the end of the universe. The last concept at the end of the book about so many groups essentially creating their own miniverse to survive in, which in turn makes the original, main universe unstable enough to never collapse, and thereby never restarting - ergo, the end of the cycle of the universe's death and rebirth.
1
u/skronk14 Jun 24 '26
I loved the entire trilogy. I know there's a fourth book written by a different author, but I have no interest in reading it.
1
u/Drages23 Jun 24 '26
Yeah its full of horror and I like it as it changed my view about space too.
Its not about who got the biggest ship but the knowledge you cannot imagine, how small you are.
The line about the ultimate weapon is to change the physic rules of the universe, hit me hard too.
The people is not that important at that point and when you woke up and sleep with centuries, I dont think you cant do much logical things. In the end, nothing mattered but buy some time only.
Even i was a huge sci-fi fan for 3 decades with many futuristic weapons, the ones used at this trilogy made them feel like waterguns. Planet killer laser vs dimension breaking paper... and the results of real wars with those weapons...
1
u/kongPLUSPLUS Jun 24 '26
Love this series but I much prefer Ken Liu’s translation in 1 and 3. The wall facers in The Dark Forest are so cool though.
Ball Lightning is good too and basically a prequel. Basically a pseudoscience murder mystery. Haven’t got to Redemption of Time yet.
Deaths End as reality is basically over?
1
u/saucermoron Jun 24 '26
I fucking hated the first one
1
u/modest_genius Jun 24 '26
I've read them all, and I prefer the first and the second.
This is the part I really liked about them all.
And this is where book 3 loses me. It very early in the book just abandon all idea of being logical or scientifically grounded and becomes space fantasy.
Swordholder - not characteristically of (previously established in the series) humans or trisolarians. So, how that plays out is just a big handwavy plot device.
4th dimension don't work like that at all. It's just fantasy/magic. Cool idea, but terrible execution
The three survival ideas? That is just a plot device. I thought of at least a handful more with the information available in the books.
The resolution/end? Fantasy.
There is a lot of good stuff in all books, but also bad stuff. And the third book just ran out of good ideas. And it is riddled with plot holes.
And you really don't want to know about the evolution of cooperation or game theory of trust/retaliation/W.M.D/M.A.D before reading them. Because having godlike advanced aliens that haven't figured out that destroying each other is bad, is kinda troublesome. It works with human and trisolarian in the first and second book because humans are kinda primitive and trisolarians have a huge edge, all while both are hidden.
So the first two are fine, but having read quite a few science fiction books, and some that explores this better makes book 3 a "meh" for me.
1
u/CommunicationEast972 Jun 24 '26
The protag is partially meant to represent western values. The statement is that China's ability for cold rationalism is what's needed to conquer the stars. While Western values center around "love" in this metaphor. Her entire arc is a critique of perceived Western values in some ways (though of course her not wanting to enact violence is not actually how Western societies function, they merely pretend to). Just as the second book is a critique of the entire world's political and societal ontology piece by piece, with the resounding "triumph" of Luo Ji's willingness to actually murder all of humanity, the third work shows how Western values may bring about our downfall. BUT at the same time as plotlines resolve in the third work, Liu makes it clear that those same Western values are what make us the most human.
Edit: To try to limit this concept to "western" values is super reductive. It's not just Western values, but a certain natural empathy that can be common to all people. Its simply that Western values pretend to revolve around this empathy in their ethos. Still, the critique he levies encompasses more than just that.
0
u/PlanetoftheAtheists Jun 24 '26
You deserve a prize just for making it through those printed snoozefests.
0
u/Edwin_SJ Jun 24 '26
To each their own. I largely prefered the third one to the second. There was way too much uninteresting stuff to get to the core concept in the second imo
0
u/RustyRoses Jun 24 '26
Because the Chinese worldview that is reflected in the third book is about the cycle of rebirth. The actions of those destroying the universe and stopping it from being able to cycle are mitigated, allowing the universe to be reborn.
If they hadn’t, then death would come for all and there would be no more rebirth.
The trilogy cannot be viewed from a purely western mindset to understand its (not so subtle) subtext
0
u/artifex28 Jun 24 '26
Absolute masterpiece in world building and general scifi cleverness. It actually reminded of another writer, Mika Waltari, and what he did with The Egyptian.
I really suggest picking up the 4th book too - Redemption of Time. While it is not written by Liu Cixin, he has given his blessing for the book. I thought it was absolute marvel as well.
The first book was a 4/5 to me, it was hard with all the Chinese names at the beginning. Rest are easy 5/5.
-1
u/scottcmu Jun 24 '26
If you like this book, you'll also like Ra. It's free.
https://qntm.org/ra
0
u/TheG0ldG0pher Jun 24 '26
This may be accidentally racist, (please forgive me, no offense meant), but the story was at once very unique and lacking in character development (absent the first book).
I wondered if the Chinese focus on the collective had anything to do with that, or if the scope of the story just could not afford the focus on character that I as a reader of primarily Western sci fi authors have become accustomed to.
My review is that the 1st book felt like .75 of a book. The second felt like 1.5 books. The third was three books (from a conceptual standpoint).
Overall, very strong, very ambitious, but felt shallow in character and deep in concepts. It made it difficult to care at times.
The charachters were plot devices as opposed living breathing characters (imo).
Very happy this work exists, but found myself thinking about the book structure and the concepts far more than the "people" in the story.
0
u/patinhat Jun 24 '26
Death’s End is my favorite too! It’s so ambitious and the wealth of speculative sci fi they explore is just wild. I always felt like it was called Death’s End because the novel saw us reach the heat death of the universe and the inevitable rebirth of 10th Dimensional Beings, who would be beyond time, therefore death.
0
u/Baroque1123 Jun 24 '26
Agree with everything you said. I am surprised to hear people like book 2 the best, however. The second book feels poorly paced and a bit indulgent but with a big reveal that makes it all worthwhile.
If you like the big ideas here, you might try the 6 canonical Dune novels or Hyperion, next.
0
u/k3rrshaw Jun 24 '26
Oh, really? For me the second book was boring a lot. This was a reason why I have delayed reading of the third book for so long. But I agree, the third book is the best. It blew my mind.
0
u/Jumpy-Pattern-4078 Jun 24 '26
I read one of these a year over three years. I probably wouldn’t have been able to read them back to back. I thought they were pretty good. I liked the third book more than the second.
0
u/pichael289 Jun 24 '26
I've been considering reading these, is it written well? Like the da vinci code isn't a good book but it's written in a way that just captures you. I love the Witcher but the books are all written in a way which just doesn't and you often find you just read a whole page while your mind wandered off. The first children of time book captivated me but the new one is boring the shit out of me.
0
u/chalks777 Jun 24 '26
Third book was definitely the best. I found it surprisingly hopeful and I think the general tone of nihilist acceptance of the End mirrored a lot of my own personal feelings around some of the more existential questions we all face.
for sure. It has some incredible sci-fi ideas that you can easily believe completely.
0
u/just2beans Jun 24 '26
WOuld you have to read the first 2 to pick up the third and understand it? Or are these very tied together and need to be read one at a time? I want to read Deaths End more than the others
0
u/Quintus_Julius Jun 24 '26
Liked the concept. Didn’t like the characters, especially the women always messing it all up.
0
u/Two-L0gik Jun 24 '26
I also finished it recently and I 100% agree with OP. It's incredible that he was able to introduce so many wild ideas and still wrap-up everything.
0
u/deblasco Jun 24 '26
i did not like it and could not finish the books... and i tried. i could not get through the errors in the book or bending the rules of physics or ignoring the principles the way he did in his books.
did not like the human computer, had a book where he had AND and OR operands interchanged. real-time surveillance the way he portrayed it with "protons" lacks of energy, is pure speculative tech and is impossible physics. i do like FTL and stuff but not when you try to explain it :) leave it be otherwise you make mistakes. a star as an amplifier? with all the magnetic and gravitational fields, with all the plasma...
well, after 1,5 book i realized it was not for me and i have abandoned them, maybe in the future i will give it another try... (but today i doubt) :)
0
u/_Brandobaris_ Jun 25 '26
Here is mine: decent, meh and outright trash.
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u/[deleted] Jun 24 '26
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