First book was good and catchy, second one was even better but man the third book was total mindfuck. i read nearly all of scifi classics, this book is absolutely elite and better than many of those classics.
Great discussion guys! I have about 100 pages left in Death's End and this series has absolutely blown me away. The scope of this series in both space, time, subject content, science and everything is ridiculously impressive and has gone places I would not have expected whatsoever when I was reading the first book. I absolutely agree that the translation shift between the books provided a different tone and writing style when it came to the character work, sentence structure, and pacing, but I don't think it was a huge pro or con in either way; it was just different. I've enjoyed all 3 books' translations for different reasons. The ideas that are posed in this series, especially in the last two books are mind-blowing and I really think everyone should at least give this series a shot because there's so much to take away from it. Awesome video guys!
Just dropped by (saving the review / recommendation for later!) to thank you for recommending this series. I've just finished the Three Body Problem. I feel like it has actually changed my brain!
This series is a trip! I’m glad more and more people are catching on! Second half of The Dark Forest is my favorite part of it all. I also enjoyed Deaths End, it was challenging mind-altering read but well worth it. Thanks for the cool conversation!
@@WordsinTime If you’re feeling withdrawals after reading it, I highly recommend the epilogue book “Redemption Of Time”. It isn’t written by Cixin, but he endorsed it as canon. Gets a bit weird, but answers some questions!
What a coincidence! Today stopped by the bookstore and was contemplating on whether to get "The Three-Body Problem" and now I get your vid recommended. I definitely have to grab a copy now haha
Thank you Jonathan and Baron, I agree with your analysis. These books contain some amazing and thought-provoking ideas, and yes the Dark Forest has a particularly brilliant ending. I first encountered the series on audiobook a few years ago but I'm planning to re-read them soon, after recently acquiring the trilogy in hardback.
Off the rip, this was an amazing series for me too! However I was waiting for the author to address the 'hard problem of consciousness' in the third book, and I was hopeful as long as we had Luo Ji in the picture, but it didn't come. At the end I felt a bit disappointed that consciousness /thoughts/mind was unaffected in the least bit across dimensions, and even in the light tomb or universe 647, time vacuum etc. I felt having some ideas in this direction would have made the series richer and more complete. Awesome review guys! Subbed both your channels.
Hahaha thanks Slacker! I’m glad you enjoyed the series as much as we did. That is an excellent question regarding consciousness across different dimensions. I think a creative answer to that problem could have elevated the 3rd book even higher than the 2nd, which I loved.
Hahaha that’s great to hear you loved it as well! I’m glad you enjoyed the video, we’re working on a group spoiler discussion for the series in the near future!
I've wanted to read this since I first heard about it. I've tried to avoid a lot of spoilers, but from the reviews I've seen, I don't think I've seen any negative ones. I have been buried under books and don't dare start anything new for a long time. I do look forward to it when I can finally read it. What I really wish is that I could read it in the original language.
I think this will appeal to most sci-fi readers as the concepts are pretty mind blowing. It might fall short for character-first readers as that is not the focus of the series. It would be great to read it in Chinese and see the differences and nuances. I hope you enjoy the series when you get around to it!
With regards to the translation differences, I think saying that Death's End is a mix of the previous two is fair. In the translator's afterword, Ken Liu notes that Joel Martinsen's translation inspired and helped him move forward with the third book, so there might be a bit of a mix as Liu was inspired by Martinsen to some extent.
The only bad part of this series was a couple of sections at the beginning of the second book. Those who've read it know exactly what I'm talking about. Another issue I had with the second book was how it's structured - there are no real chapters, so finding a specific section to re-read on an e-reader is very difficult. It'd be nice to see some frank and open discussion on the books with spoilers. Everyone on YT seems to do spoiler-free reviews, but it's not as interesting as seeing what other readers think of some of the concepts. Spoiler-free is like - you talk about things without talking about them. Not a criticism.
Well I finally finished this series and I have to say, it was really good. The first book was really interesting and held my attention well. The second book upped the excitement and was better than the first. The third book is a chunker and I feel like could have been shorter but I never lost interest. Some books get these lulls in them that you really have to push through. In all of these books you might think you're getting into a lull but it turns out to be super interesting and very pertinent to the story. Great series. Using your scale I'd give The Three Body Problem an 8, The Dark Forest and 8.5, and Death's End an 8. There seems to be a fourth book that is written by a different author but I think the original author gave the ok for it. Have you read it. Thanks for the recommendation on these books Jonathan.
That’s great to hear Dale! The Dark Forest was also my favourite, I can’t believe how many ideas he packed in there, and you’re right that he kept pushing the story in different directions. I have not read The Redemption of Time as I’ve heard mixed things, but maybe I’ll give it a try one day!
Rewrites for the beginning of book 3. The witch gets to talk to Constantine V because she’s sleeping with a verengian guard named Beowulf. (Viking bodyguards for Byzantine emperors) That’s a MUCH better reason for her to be able to talk to the emperor. The she fails to kill mehmed the emperor orders her killed but, Beowulf saves her. They fight their way through Constantinople and escape sailing to Italy where the renaissance is Kicking off. They then set up a secret society of people that can enter the 4th dimension including Leonardo da vinci, chesra borga and niccolo machiavelli. This secret society knows the threat aliens pose and seek to prepare humanity.
Just found the second trailer to the Chinese adaptation for the Three Body Problem, which will be a TV series. It looks promising. *careful for spoilers, tho* ruclips.net/video/GbD6Ssucq24/видео.html
@@JohnG225 Nice! He’s one of my favourites too. Cixin Liu’s writing has some modern and Chinese influences but I think there are some similarities with Clarke.
![Death's End [Spoiler] Review | The Three Body Problem](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Yz5n3888buE/mqdefault.jpg)
Thanks for having me on Jonathan, this was a lot of fun!!! 😎
I’ll see you around in the dark forest 👀
First book was good and catchy, second one was even better but man the third book was total mindfuck. i read nearly all of scifi classics, this book is absolutely elite and better than many of those classics.
I'm glad it blew you as well! I'm actually working on another video on this series right now!
Great discussion guys! I have about 100 pages left in Death's End and this series has absolutely blown me away. The scope of this series in both space, time, subject content, science and everything is ridiculously impressive and has gone places I would not have expected whatsoever when I was reading the first book. I absolutely agree that the translation shift between the books provided a different tone and writing style when it came to the character work, sentence structure, and pacing, but I don't think it was a huge pro or con in either way; it was just different. I've enjoyed all 3 books' translations for different reasons. The ideas that are posed in this series, especially in the last two books are mind-blowing and I really think everyone should at least give this series a shot because there's so much to take away from it. Awesome video guys!
Thanks for the kind words Alex! I’m glad you’re enjoying the series. I’m looking forward to hearing your reactions to the ending 🤯
Dark Forest is my favorite of the trilogy. Heck, I think it's one of my top favorite sci-fi books!!
I feel the same way Petrik! I loved the series and The Dark Forest is also one of my favourite sci-fi books. Thanks for watching!
Absolutely.
Just dropped by (saving the review / recommendation for later!) to thank you for recommending this series. I've just finished the Three Body Problem. I feel like it has actually changed my brain!
That’s awesome, I’m glad you enjoyed The Three-Body Problem! I think the ideas on the sequels get even crazier, so I hope you enjoy them too!
This series is a trip! I’m glad more and more people are catching on! Second half of The Dark Forest is my favorite part of it all. I also enjoyed Deaths End, it was challenging mind-altering read but well worth it. Thanks for the cool conversation!
This series does get trippy indeed! I’m glad you enjoyed the discussion. I hope more people pick up the series!
@@WordsinTime If you’re feeling withdrawals after reading it, I highly recommend the epilogue book “Redemption Of Time”. It isn’t written by Cixin, but he endorsed it as canon. Gets a bit weird, but answers some questions!
@@JamezDahlMusic Sounds cool, thanks for the recommendation!
This series really blew my mind when I read it a few years ago, great discussion guys!
I’m still reeling from reading this series haha. I’m glad you enjoyed the video!
What a coincidence! Today stopped by the bookstore and was contemplating on whether to get "The Three-Body Problem" and now I get your vid recommended. I definitely have to grab a copy now haha
Haha it was destiny! I hope you enjoy it!
Thank you Jonathan and Baron, I agree with your analysis. These books contain some amazing and thought-provoking ideas, and yes the Dark Forest has a particularly brilliant ending. I first encountered the series on audiobook a few years ago but I'm planning to re-read them soon, after recently acquiring the trilogy in hardback.
That’s great to hear you enjoyed the series as well! It will be interesting to see the details you pick up on a re-read!
Thank you so much for this review, I'm gonna check out this series now, please make more videos like this, its awesome! 😀
Will do! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
@@WordsinTime Yaaaaaay!😆
Off the rip, this was an amazing series for me too! However I was waiting for the author to address the 'hard problem of consciousness' in the third book, and I was hopeful as long as we had Luo Ji in the picture, but it didn't come. At the end I felt a bit disappointed that consciousness /thoughts/mind was unaffected in the least bit across dimensions, and even in the light tomb or universe 647, time vacuum etc. I felt having some ideas in this direction would have made the series richer and more complete. Awesome review guys! Subbed both your channels.
Hahaha thanks Slacker! I’m glad you enjoyed the series as much as we did. That is an excellent question regarding consciousness across different dimensions. I think a creative answer to that problem could have elevated the 3rd book even higher than the 2nd, which I loved.
Awesome video guys! This makes me what to get back to Dark Forest (I put it down because I wanted to give it my full attention lol)
Thanks RJ! I think it’s worth your time and probably one you’ll enjoy more if you can give it your full attention. Hope you enjoy it!
Great video I'll take your word and add it to the tbr 👍🏻
Thanks so much! I’m glad you enjoyed the video and I hope you enjoy the series!
Thank you for making this
You’re welcome, I’m glad it was helpful!
Off the rip, also loved this series. Well done with this discussion! Keep it up!
Hahaha that’s great to hear you loved it as well! I’m glad you enjoyed the video, we’re working on a group spoiler discussion for the series in the near future!
I've wanted to read this since I first heard about it. I've tried to avoid a lot of spoilers, but from the reviews I've seen, I don't think I've seen any negative ones. I have been buried under books and don't dare start anything new for a long time. I do look forward to it when I can finally read it. What I really wish is that I could read it in the original language.
I think this will appeal to most sci-fi readers as the concepts are pretty mind blowing. It might fall short for character-first readers as that is not the focus of the series. It would be great to read it in Chinese and see the differences and nuances. I hope you enjoy the series when you get around to it!
With regards to the translation differences, I think saying that Death's End is a mix of the previous two is fair. In the translator's afterword, Ken Liu notes that Joel Martinsen's translation inspired and helped him move forward with the third book, so there might be a bit of a mix as Liu was inspired by Martinsen to some extent.
That’s some helpful info! I think that makes sense and reflects the reading experience across the 3 books.
The only bad part of this series was a couple of sections at the beginning of the second book. Those who've read it know exactly what I'm talking about. Another issue I had with the second book was how it's structured - there are no real chapters, so finding a specific section to re-read on an e-reader is very difficult.
It'd be nice to see some frank and open discussion on the books with spoilers. Everyone on YT seems to do spoiler-free reviews, but it's not as interesting as seeing what other readers think of some of the concepts. Spoiler-free is like - you talk about things without talking about them. Not a criticism.
Glad you enjoyed the series! And yes, no chapter breaks is insane haha
Well I finally finished this series and I have to say, it was really good. The first book was really interesting and held my attention well. The second book upped the excitement and was better than the first. The third book is a chunker and I feel like could have been shorter but I never lost interest. Some books get these lulls in them that you really have to push through. In all of these books you might think you're getting into a lull but it turns out to be super interesting and very pertinent to the story. Great series. Using your scale I'd give The Three Body Problem an 8, The Dark Forest and 8.5, and Death's End an 8. There seems to be a fourth book that is written by a different author but I think the original author gave the ok for it. Have you read it. Thanks for the recommendation on these books Jonathan.
That’s great to hear Dale! The Dark Forest was also my favourite, I can’t believe how many ideas he packed in there, and you’re right that he kept pushing the story in different directions. I have not read The Redemption of Time as I’ve heard mixed things, but maybe I’ll give it a try one day!
Rewrites for the beginning of book 3. The witch gets to talk to Constantine V because she’s sleeping with a verengian guard named Beowulf. (Viking bodyguards for Byzantine emperors) That’s a MUCH better reason for her to be able to talk to the emperor. The she fails to kill mehmed the emperor orders her killed but, Beowulf saves her. They fight their way through Constantinople and escape sailing to Italy where the renaissance is Kicking off. They then set up a secret society of people that can enter the 4th dimension including Leonardo da vinci, chesra borga and niccolo machiavelli. This secret society knows the threat aliens pose and seek to prepare humanity.
I don’t remember all the details but this sounds like an interesting spin on it!
Just found the second trailer to the Chinese adaptation for the Three Body Problem, which will be a TV series. It looks promising. *careful for spoilers, tho* ruclips.net/video/GbD6Ssucq24/видео.html
Ooohh this looks good!
well if you can handle unfolding a proton from the 11th dimension or modulating the CMB, you will like it.
Haha true Stephen!
I totally agree with the chapter length thing. The dark forest chapters were ridiculous. Great series though.
20 pages should be the maximum haha. But yes, loved the series!
Yes
This guy gets it
On the complaint about Luo Ji, it's important to remember that this is a translation and Chinese society has it's own memes and cultural tropes.
Yes, personally I didn’t mind that character but I can see why others might. But I’m sure different things read differently in different places.
Hell yes great book !
Agreed James! I loved the whole series, it gets crazier and crazier!
I bought all 3 last week :)
Awesome! I hope you enjoy them as much we did!
@@WordsinTime I saw someone else compare to Arthur C Clarke. That sold me.
@@JohnG225 Nice! He’s one of my favourites too. Cixin Liu’s writing has some modern and Chinese influences but I think there are some similarities with Clarke.