#11: Death's End by Cixin Liu

Humankind and a remorseless alien invader have an uneasy stalemate, but both sides find out the universe is bigger and badder than they imagined in Death's End, the finish to Cixin Liu's mammoth sci-fi trilogy.

The Three-Body Problem was the most mind-blowing science fiction I read last year, or in recent years, and my favorite new novel to recommend to any sci-fi fans.  All three books are filled with crazy ideas and painted on a galaxy-wide, century-spanning tapestry.

But the trilogy, topping out close to 2,000 pages, is also relentlessly downbeat, with the human race continuously set back after missteps and missed opportunities, slivers of hope usually extinguished by overwhelming odds.  Although I admired much of the original thinking and plotting, even I felt a little ennui by the end of the third novel.

This trilogy is a great achievement, translated from Chinese and making a big splash in its English debut; it requires a debt of time but also an emotional debt for the willing.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana and had to renew it several times to finish it off.

#31: The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin

A seemingly unstoppable alien armada is a few hundred years away from arriving from deep space and conquering Earth, sending humanity through various highs and lows as the day approaches in Liu Cixin's epic The Dark Forest.

The Dark Forest is the sequel to one of my favorite reads of the year, The Three-Body Problem.  This one is less action-oriented, which is hard to say about a novel which had long stretches of math, but The Dark Forest is more philosophical in its plotting but still full of interesting ideas.

The decade-spanning and galaxy-stretching storyline features Earth's desperate plan to anoint several "Wallfacers" to develop secret strategies to defeat the invasion--and the confusion that arises when the aliens and their human henchmen seem intent on killing just one lowly, underachieving scientist. 

A really worthwhile read for fans looking for a fresh voice in science fiction.

I checked this out from the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana, and had to renew this behemoth several times to finish it.

#22: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

The drama of the Cultural Revolution ultimately leads to the rise of an alien invasion from a relentless, seemingly unstoppable foe in Liu Cixin's mind-blowing sci-fi epic The Three-Body Problem.

Readers of this blog know that I consume books voraciously, so I don't take lightly writing that The Three-Body Problem is the most astounding science fiction novel I have read in a long time--one has not altered my thinking so much since I finished Samuel R. Delany's Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, which turned me away from lantern-jawed Heinlein heroes to trippy Philip K. Dick antiheroes in an instant, never to look back.

I definitely skimmed a bit over the math and science, but just the sheer volume of ideas, and originality of thought, had my subconscious burbling for a long time.  Even though the novel is several inches thick, I read it in record time (although a long flight helped).

The Three-Body Problem is getting a lot of buzz and attention, and rightfully so.  It is on track to be my pick of the year, and I am recommending it to all fans of science fiction. 

I nabbed this off of Amazon in paperback and am on the prowl for the sequel.