I can always count on Liu Cixin to write a story full of elements I've never seen before and to put it together in an interesting and thought-provoking way.

In The Cretaceous Past, intelligence has been bestowed upon the dinosaurs and the ants. These two species start off on disparate paths, but when a chance encounter shows them the benefit of mutual cooperation, their paths slowly converge. This symbiotic relationship is fruitful and leads to advancements and improvements for them both. But how long can their cooperation last and what happens when it comes to an end?

This is an allegory, so don't let the fact that it's about animals throw you off. Liu is using this story to explore and comment on the social, political, religious, and environmental issues of our time. Though his original writing is in Chinese and this is a translation, the topics in here feel relevant and timely, even if we're from different cultures.

His writing always reads like a feast for the mind. They make me think of a giant thought exercise, where he takes his reader along on a journey of what-ifs. Who is to say that humans are the only intelligent beings to ever grace the earth? What if dinosaurs and ants not only roamed here, but also possessed intelligence and ingenuity? How might our history have shaken out then?

It follows that Liu's writing style very much matches his narrative content. His writing at times feels more like nonfiction than fiction. He is essentially presenting an alternative history, and that's how readers should approach it. This isn't character-driven at all. Rather, it's a historical text, just of a history that may not have come to pass.

I first came across Liu with his magnum opus, The Three-Body Problem trilogy, which is among the best science fiction I have ever read. And while this novella doesn't reach that level of brilliance, it's still a riveting read from beginning to end.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

Profoundly brilliant, Death's End is the stunning conclusion to a science fiction trilogy that has held me in its thralls. It will undoubtedly rank as my favorite of all time, unlikely to ever be surpassed.

What a journey it has been. When I think back to what I expected when I first started the series, it certainly wasn't this. Or rather, what was in my head was so small in scope, so limited in thinking, it was only a tiny fraction of what this eventually turned out to be. There was no way my imagination could've ever prepared me for this.

The sheer audacity of the ideas in here and how far Liu Cixin took them throughout this series, I stand in absolute awe. Not only is he telling a story, but he also tackles some of the most fundamental questions of the universe and existence, questions that have puzzled scientists for all time, and he manages to weave a cohesive framework to examine and explain them.

Liu Cixin's style when it comes to unfolding the plot works particularly well here. He takes something fairly complex and makes it easy to grasp by the end. He would leave hints early, then come back again and again to poke at them with examples. Along the way, I would think to myself, where is this possibly going? Then when he finally gets to the explanation, it's a complete eureka moment. Every puzzle piece slots in perfectly, and the groundwork he's laid up till then makes the whole thing easy to understand.

There's a part of my brain that constantly craves novelty. When I'm reading, I just want new, new, new. And this book delivers by the boatload. Just when I've got a handle on what's going on, another development will happen that completely throws me for a loop. Then I'll have to rejigger my thoughts all over again. And this just kept happening, over and over. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.

I have to mention the fairy tales in here. Seriously, is there nothing this author can't imagine and write? Anytime there's an opportunity to have a story within a story, I'm a huge fan. And the fairy tales in here are so creative and compelling in their own right. They completely work as standalones, but then to see how they fit within the framework of the larger story is absolutely astounding. If Liu Cixin ever gets in the business of writing fairy tales, I'll be the first in line.

At its heart, what makes this series so riveting is that it feels like it's real. It very much reads like a historical account of human history. And to achieve that effect, the science in here is true to what we understand today. There's no handwaving, no hoping that the reader will just forget about it and move on, if only the author could pull enough wool over their eyes. Instead, every clue laid out eventually fits into the big picture and is thoroughly explained, and that makes for an extremely satisfying read.

When you think about it, very few books contain truly innovative ideas. The few that do are so unique as to be transcendent. They offer entirely new, never before seen or heard or thought of concepts put together in ways as to delight and astound and transfix. This trilogy is that. Reading it has been the experience of a lifetime.

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!

Well, that was absolutely insane. Please excuse me while I go pick my jaw off of the floor.

The Dark Forest picks up not long after the end of book 1, and I admit, I was a bit confused at first. Because you see, it starts off really slow, so slow I was left wondering how it's possible this same author could've written the fast-paced and information-dense story that was its predecessor.

For most of Part I, we just meander along, seemingly without any point or much plot advancement at all. We come across random asides and the weirdest love story I have ever read. At one point I even thought to myself, Liu Cixin has lost his mojo. He blew his entire bag of tricks on book 1 and now he has nothing left for book 2. Ha, I have never been so glad to be wrong.

Because the moment I turned the pages to Part II, then bam, Liu Cixin is back! From then on, the story intensifies relentlessly into a crescendo of revelations that is sure to stun and satisfy any science fiction lover. Liu has a really interesting style of writing, in which he invites the reader to take a journey with him. He'll lay down breadcrumbs early, then come back later to coalesce them into fully-formed thoughts and ideas. As a reader, it makes for an extremely satisfying experience.

And the last 100 pages was the best 100 pages of anything I have ever read. I still have goosebumps just thinking about it. Liu Cixin, sir, well played!

But if the rest of the book was so amazing, what was going on with Part I? Well, I was talking to my husband about it, and he mentioned that it could be a common trope in Chinese literature. I think the Western equivalent is "zero to hero" but the Chinese version puts more emphasis on the zero part. The character is shown to be lazy and dithering for quite a while, until something finally comes along to force him to live up to his potential.

I have to touch upon the book's treatment of female characters. They come across as distinctly there to bolster the male characters' pride and reflect their glory. However, this is also the case with the younger characters in the book being there to bolster the older characters. I suspect it's because Chinese culture has always prized being male over female and being older over younger. It doesn't make it right (and in fact, I have rebelled against this my entire life), but I try not to be too harsh against an author who is accurately portraying the culture.

Regarding the translation, this book is translated by a different writer than book 1, and I personally preferred book 1's. I found this book's translation to be awkward at times, sometimes translating too literally and obscuring the meaning, while other times being too Western with the translation, so losing the cadence and style of Chinese that made book 1 such an effortless joy to read.

Even with the flaws, I've been loving this series so much and I think a big part is due to how fully it embodies the spirit of science fiction. Science fiction, more than any other genre, explores the social and technological aspects of humanity and ponders their consequences. It is a literature of ideas, if you will. But where Liu Cixin excels is not just in using these ideas, but also in fleshing them out to a degree never before seen and building them up into a grand epic tale. It truly is a feat to experience.

Readaroo Rating; 4 stars

I'm going to call it right now. Even though I only just finished book one, I'm certain The Three-Body Problem will go down as my favorite sci-fi series of all time.

This book blew my mind so thoroughly that it leaves only destruction in its wake. Where could Liu Cixin have possibly come up with all of these ideas and concepts? No wonder everyone says this is wildly imaginative. Even a single one of the ideas in here would have sufficed for a book of its own, but to put them all together into a single cohesive epic tale is absolutely jaw-dropping.

The pacing is relentless and the surprises just keep coming. In fact, it has more twists and turns than most mysteries and thrillers I've read. Not only is the story utterly riveting, but it's also insightful and thought-provoking, touching upon science, politics, philosophy, and history. I found myself glued to the pages. I wanted to inhale the story as fast as I could, but I had to slow myself down periodically to reread and fully absorb all that the book was trying to tell me.

This is my favorite type of science fiction, one that puts science front and center and unabashedly celebrates everything about it. There's no handwaving, no hocus pocus. Every point brought up is eventually explained via actual science in ways that made complete sense. And what ingenious explanations they are, sure to stun and amaze any reader.

I found the initial pages, set during the Cultural Revolution, to be enlightening. This was the defining event of my parents' generation, yet they hardly talk about it. How do you put into words the frenzy that overtook a whole country, such that science and learning were denounced, and friends turned on friends, neighbors turned on neighbors? It's like a fever burned through the population, and left famine, trauma, and destruction in its wake. This emotionally fraught experience influences all who went through it, including the characters in this book.

With translations, there's always the fear that some vital but intangible part of the story will be lost. And this is especially the case when the two languages in question do not share a common linguistic ancestor, so translating between them is not as simple as one-to-one. In the translator's notes at the end of the book, Ken Liu mentions that he was cognizant of this and tried hard to preserve not only the story, but also the cadence and feel of the Chinese language and culture in his translation. I think he did an excellent job.

One thing to note is that the official book blurb is quite short for this story, but in my opinion, even that gives away too much. This is a book best experienced blind, so if you're going to read it, don't look up anything about it ahead of time.

What a tremendous way to start the trilogy. My expectations for the remaining two books are sky high, and I'm assured by everyone I know who has already read them that they will be met and exceeded. I have no doubt only goodness awaits me.

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!