Book Length: 721 pages

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Science Fiction, Aliens

Series: Remembrance of Earth’s Past #3

Read Start Date: January 6, 2024

Read Finish Date: March 15, 2024

Goodreads’ Synopsis: With The Three-Body Problem, English-speaking readers got their first chance to experience the multiple-award-winning and bestselling Three-Body Trilogy by China’s most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu. Three-Body was released to great acclaim including coverage in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. It was also named a finalist for the Nebula Award, making it the first translated novel to be nominated for a major SF award since Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities in 1976.

Now this epic trilogy concludes with Death’s End. Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But the peace has also made humanity complacent.

Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?

My Review: Death’s End, the final book in Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, picks up where the second book, The Dark Forest, left off. Decades after the Wallfacer project exposed humanity’s vulnerabilities to the Trisolaran fleet, a precarious peace reigns. The “Dark Forest” doctrine—every civilization is a hunter in a cosmic jungle—keeps the Trisolarans at bay, but tensions simmer. Earth thrives under a technological boom fueled by Trisolaran knowledge but with the constant threat of invasion looming. But this is only the beginning of the story.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, so I will just say that the novel explores the evolution of human society and technology over thousands of years as humanity confronts the challenges posed by the Trisolarans and other cosmic forces. The narrative spans vast distances and periods, from the distant reaches of space to the inner workings of subatomic particles. Readers encounter different dimensions, space cities, new civilizations, and humanity’s last hope.

This book is an epic saga in and of itself, at over 700 pages. Cheng Xin is a central character introduced in the third novel. She is a scientist from the 21st century who becomes a key figure in humanity’s response to the Trisolaran threat, and not to put it lightly, in humanity’s destiny. Like the other novels in this series, the pacing is somewhat slow and delves into scientific concepts too advanced for this reader. Whether science fiction or humanity’s science future, I cannot say. Nevertheless, I found it intriguing and awe-inspiring and…just wow. This series is phenomenal and should be on everyone’s reading list.

Although I am sad that I have finished this wonderful series, I found 3 other books written by the same author at the library, so my journey is not over yet! Stay tuned for more from Cixin Liu!

Other Books In the Series:

See my review of The Three-Body Problem by clicking here.

See my review of The Dark Forest by clicking here.