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This is the first time I’ve watched one of his reviews and I felt such a disconnect with how much he enjoyed the book and the way he was talking about it. Was still struck when he commented on his enjoyment at the end of it

Thank you for this!

My least favorite of the 3 books. Don't get me wrong, it's still great and everyone should read it but it's very bloated. I have to wonder if it's due to having a different English translator than books 1 and 3

I mean tbh I didn't think the book was sexist because Cheng Xin is passive or w/e. I thought it was weird how often it's mentioned that "men don't look like men anymore." I didn't see the purpose of that. I mean if it were a passing observation after hibernation, sure, but constantly it's like "THIS man was clearly a Man™" like OK. Was there supposed to be something deeper about it? Maybe. I found it distracting. Especially since every manly man was attractive. It's like...did you fill the world with "unattractive femboys" just so your main character wouldn't fall in love with someone they could see and touch instead of someone lightyears away? It felt more like a parroting of manosphere talking points than connecting it to the world and philosophy. I know this was written in China but I've interacted with enough Chinese media to know that "men aren't men anymore" is an argument globally. Feels more homophobic than sexist, but like same idea of gender roles being absolute. I don't know. Every time masculinity (or lack thereof) was mentioned I just felt like rolling my eyes. We get it. This is your least interesting point. Find a new metaphor if you want to explore it more in depth, but please stop obsessing over how manly these men are.

Gosh you're beautiful

I really enjoyed this book and the series as a whole (if a near constant feeling of dread can be enjoyable). The concept of scale is something that kept coming to my mind. Humanities inability to comprehend the scale of events, actions, social changes, the universe and the laws of physics and our role in them. We are almost hard coded to think selfishly, as a species (even as an individual) that we are the most important things to exist. We're the centre of the universe so to speak. Some of that is impossible to escape, but this series nails that humanity, absolutely does not matter (and thats ok). We aren't the biggest, strongest or smartest civilisation in the universe. We aren't more brave or determined than other civilisations - all life wants to exist and all life wants to grow. Life will fight to survive, which can be equal parts amazing and totally and utterly, boringly predicable. The alien that ends up sending out the dimension bomb, uses a weapon that isn't a big deal to them, with destroying other life / potential threats, so that they can survive a fraction longer (in terms of the universes existence) is a job for the lowest in their society. The alien isn't even really focused, as they are called out for thinking about the civil war that is going on in their own civilisation. Humanity does not matter. Again, thats ok. Another thing that hit me, is the whole time humanity spent (800 years or so) worrying and building and planning, ended up as borderline useless for 99.9999% of the human race.

E, Agree. Characters in 3BP are vivid and the cultural context is ever-present; e.g. Ye Wenjie, Wang Miao, Da Shi. TDF not so much. Ty for your excellent critique.

Great job on this video

Funny, but the only thing i've learned from these novels is that peaceful cooperation is the only solution. You just have to trust, if you like it or not.

I enjoyed the book but told myself I will read it again when I had time to Google the references in every other paragraph.

XX? Its AA LOL

They sent the foil to defeat the bunker project

Who wouldn't choose Wade? He's a boss. No fucks given

I absolutely loved the plot, the hard sci-fi and weirdly, also the side characters and side stories (the story of Blue Space and Gravity alone is a masterpiece). But some of the main characters, especially Cheng Xin, were not my thing. Things just happen for here every step of the way. Felt to me like she was guided through pre-determined scenes and not like a character who makes her own decisions and evolves. The only characterization she got is that she is dead inside because of the stuff that happened to her. But she doesn't act like it. I liked Luo Ji though! The first Swordholder <3

This book is Lord of the Flies, meets Stephen King's Dreamcatcher, and John Carpenter's The Thing. I totally agree with everything you said. Narrator is everything with an Audible book.

300 pages too much. Interesting topics, but Causabon is a stiff protagonist. Belbo’s supposed to be the protagonist but he gets into dire straits, and then the rest of the book you are waiting for the moment the book begins to happen so the book can proceed, haha. The Templar history list is very cool that they make when re-establishing history, but I agree with your assessment that there is no plot. The rest is filler.

The book is fantastic due to references and connections between minds

The real pendulum is a hoax

Great video man!

Glad to find your review. And the unpopular critique of Dorothy Bryant's book. I, too, can barely stomach the narrator and his narcissistic traits that dumb him down from understanding his new surroundings and native culture.

Strange that nobody mentions The Illuminatus Trilogy by Wilson and Shea, a satirical take on conspiracy theories, also includes a detective, a computer etc, clearly elements that Eco used for fhis book, which is also a satire.

Glad to find someone who appreciates the fascinating and profound cultural elements of the first book. People misprize the 3BP most for it is not "hard" enough in SF ideas like the second and third ones. I don't think the author "failed" in the sci-fi concept of 3bp, he just chose to do a different thing in the first book which gives a very special flavor of thick culture and a sense of reality. I love all the historical contents very much of 3BP, which is very unique in SF books.

I am a retired technical writer. Do you think I would like this book?

As a woman, I didn’t get offended by this book at all. If I read it when I was younger and felt like I had to prove myself somehow I might have thought this book to be a bit sexist. Now that I’m older I realized that women and men ARE in fact different based on hormones and physicality. There’s no need to force ourselves to believe we are equal in all aspects. Of course both sexes deserve the same human rights but masculinity and femininity is not good or bad, it balances each other out. I believe the people that get upset by it are either projecting, in denial, too prideful, or has a personal agenda.

Death's end has really had a profound effect on my life. Nobody asks me to make them a cup of tea anymore 🥷🍵 Joking aside, I love how the whole tale plays out, the way the themes are woven in. The one issue that does pull me out (especially 3 body, Death's end) is the use of Devil in the translation. It's used so frequently for everything remotely Evil or devious. I'm quite surprised repeating descriptors like that aren't picked up and naturalised a little. The whole work is a solid 9/10 👌 I think deaths end is the weakest for me in terms of technical story telling, but the big ideas, and set piece moments work for me. It does feel like a story written to hit those predefined moments. I don't think Cheng Zing or AAIAAaaiiii pass for PHD scientists in the way they're written. This wasn't an issue with the female characters in 3 body.

Great analysis

That intro had me shivering, bro. Super well done.

You said it perfectly. He wrote himself in a corner MANY times. I got frustrated with the lazy writing. There was a pattern of despair and then some coincidence or some person would come up with the answer on the spot. It got so bad at the end, that I just couldn’t stomach the end. Just pure lazy writing bs. That said, the theoretical ideas and sci fi elements are worth the read.

the book is useful when u start bring it down to lower and lower levels from universe to earth, country, family and individuals.

So who really is responsible for the end of human civilization? How far do we follow the chain of responsibility? Was it Cheng Xin ordering Wade to disarm Halo? Humanity itself for electing Cheng Xin to Swordholder? Ye Winjie for sending the message? Or the person who killed her father during the Struggle Session? No matter who ultimately is to blame is irrelevant.

The books are certainly not perfect. The whole launch a brain into space so you can spy on aliens idea is idiotic and backfires on humanity. But even the wall breaker idea is dumb. Why would you only assign one person to figure out what a wall facer’s plan is? Any cop show would tell you that using a group of people is a better idea to figure out what one person is trying to do.

Please don’t spend too much time looking up references and connections when you read this book for the first time! The point isn’t to get all the references and understand everything the first time. The point is to overwhelm you with loosely connected erudition to the point where you become like the characters and start to see connections where there aren’t any. It’s designed to make you paranoid about conspiracies, so the ending completely destroys you. It’s actually a better read the second time, with Lia’s explanation at the back of your mind.

Trisolarans are Muslims. Think about it.

The dark forest is a provincian way to look at advanced civilizations. Yeah its possible, but why a stelar traveler technological advanced spicies would destroy a primate tech noobies like us? We would be much more interesting to be studied than be conquered. And please do not compare advanced alien civilizations to fourteen century europeans arriving in South América.

Augie in the Netflix show is stubborn far leftist that isn't able to make the right decision to save the human race.

It is an excellent book for several reasons. One reason is that the modern media throws the word conspiracy around to make people who challenge the MSM narrative about anything. Yet, years after, things eventually came out to prove that certain events/groups people warned about really did happen or existed but at the time were called conspiracy theorists, i.e., Operation Mongoose, Operation Northwoods, the Phoenix program (when I was in the military, my boss had been in that program and had a tough time living with himself), JMMWAVE, MKULTRA to name a few. Now granted, this novel gets more into the Knights Templar, Bavarian Illuminati, etc., but this does not negate that there is an evident "Shadow Government" behind the scenes, very apparent today as they have got brazen and cocky about it. So, is Eco trying to tell people to believe the narrative or question it?

I don't think it's about them knowing whether Cheng Xin is going to press the button or not... It's more about Trisolarans ultimately learning the concept of deception, a concept they took a while to understand and execute, convincing humans that they can co-exist together which Cheng Xin fell for... Trisolarans would eventually destroy all the broadcasters using droplet even before she could do anything. They knew she would hesitate to make the decision that would finally be the beginning of the end of the human race... In either case there would still be half of humans that would despise Cheng Xin for her action or in-action... Isn't that the argument the author was trying to make... There is no way all humans could come to common consensus whether it's related to escapism or anything else there will always be someone who would disagree...😂😂

We can’t even overcome Putin and Trump…

I still theorize that after the Great Ravine the majority of humans were descendents of people who got the triumphalist brain treatment. How else would they have a tech explosion and an almost arrogant outlook on the aliens.

Later on Yun Tianming is an artificial human like Sophon?

if you're going to review something, dont hold back. If keep on saying I wont spoil that or this. I am here for the spoilers

I have been reading and had to stop and look for an explanation on what I was reading. I have highlighted over 100 words to look up. It's definitely for a Master's level reading.

The best way to read this book is in Kindle, so you can look up the historical context.

Manipulating physics to be used as a weapon is one of the scariest concepts I've ever heard of

I listened to the audiobook and I admit there were times I was zoning out but overall I loved it. I’d been researching secret societies and the occult for a while and I very much appreciated Echo’s kind of birds-eye perspective on it all, as well as the often snarky attitude towards it all that bleeds through the pages. (All while being very accurate and in a way respectful of the history and concepts). I mean a lot of the stuff they talk about is really weird and out there (like the whole section on alchemy) and i enjoyed the characters’ musings on it all.. but it’s all up my alley and yeah the climax was crazy but it worked for me. It’s an accurate portrayal of the madness and chaos that can result in messing around too deeply in conspiracy theories and the occult

I've read it twice now, and on both reads, I found the ending to be so good that it redeemed the entire book. The idea it talks about of their being a vacuum is my jumping off point. It feels to me as if each of the three characters have a yearning to find meaning, particularly Belbo. He's a failed writer and turns to Abulafia to fill that need, writing self-indulgent diatribes and making up stories. The stories we get of his past, particularly the trumpet scene, really make us see where that feeling of malaise comes from for Belbo, and I feel like he got closure on that at the end. I won't say any more for fear of plot spoilers. Diotallevi does seem rather superfluous throughout. He's just a foil for Belbo and Casaubon to bounce ideas off. There were large chunks of the novel where I zoned out and I even found myself skipping pages where I could see big info dumps that didn't move the plot along at all. I'm not quite learned enough to get what most of it was referring to, and I'm actually in the masonic order of Knights Templar myself, as well as being quite advanced in some other masonic degrees. I was going to like your video, but I saw it had 333 likes and thought I'd better not!

I've often asked people who think the characters in all three books are incredibly shallow to explain why and give me examples of good characters in other science fiction books, and no one has ever given me an objective answer. I could say that they are very accustomed to only overly character-focused literature, but I prefer to state that they have failed to grasp that the Universe is the true protagonist of the trilogy. However, I must admit that Cheng Xin made me frustrated enough that I put the book down for a few days. I read the first and second book in five days, it took me four days to read the third one, not counting the days I didn't even touch the book. She's an interesting character at the beginning of the book, but I think having the third book so focused on her was a mistake. The parts in Deep-Blue and Gravity were the best for me. As far as I know, the publisher forced Liu Cixin to create her as the protagonist. I wonder how much more in the third book had to be changed to please the publishers and western readers. The social criticism and hard sci-fi parts were still by far the strongest points of the book. I see the trilogy as being a flawed masterpiece.

One of my favourite books. My daughter is reading now, she's up to the book room 🙂

This book is simply mindblowing. The takeaway at the end brought me to tears. Knowing what I know now, I want to go back and reread everthing

My favorite series, right next to the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. Both explore similar dark and existential themes. It all kinda “connects”: as a reasonably logical man I find myself intrigued by both of the series endings and conclusions are very similar in an archetypal sense. Both mind blowing still.