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ndsipa_pomu parent
Do you want Trisolarans? Because that's how you get Trisolarans
schwartzworld
Trisolarans lived in a 4 body system. Also that book is hot garbage.
captainclam
As evidenced by lots of people enjoying it.
schwartzworld
Have you read it? The plot is tropey at best, and the characters' motivations bizarre. Whatever interesting ideas the author has are overshadowed by his lack of storytelling ability.
captainclam
I have, and I totally agree with your critiques, but I still enjoyed it. Do you have any suggestions for really good science fiction?
schwartzworld
It's a big category.

In the last year, two of my favorite reads were Children Of Time and it's sequels (Adrian Tchaikovsky) and Embassytown (China Mieville). I also really enjoyed reading the Lilith's Brood series (Octavia Butler). All three of these present a more nuanced look at humanity's interaction with alien intelligence

hn92726819
Did they? I thought it was 3 suns and a planet and the planet had a negligible impact on the suns orbit.
andrewflnr
Stable solutions are explicitly not how you get Trisolarans.
taneq
But stable solutions are what the Trisolarans want to escape to, so while they're not how you become Trisolarans, they're definitely a way to be targeted by them.

Edit: While we're discussing the Remembrance of Earth's Past series, there are few books I have more mixed feelings about. On the one hand, it had many fascinating ideas. While trying to avoid spoilers, the dark forest theorem is far too plausible, the Swordholder gambit is well done, the first encounter with the Trisolaran teardrop probe was really well done, the 2D weapon was legitimately terrifying, the curvature drives' effect on spacetime was a nice twist, I could go on. On the other hand there were a lot of things that just didn't gel. The apathy of the humans after the end of the Deterrence Era, a lot of human reactions to events (could just be cultural though?) and why does the sun have a crust?! Argh.

gadders
Good books but the protagonist in the 3rd book was INFURIATING.
burnte
I couldn't make it through book 2. Book 1 set up some interesting ideas without exploring it too much, and book 2 completely moved on without exploring things, and it was slow, boring, and annoying. I read the wikipedia summary and realized I was much better off forgetting the entire trilogy.
MenhirMike
Luo also wasn't THAT much better, mainly because he's an author self-insert that got to get his perfect mail order bride and then proceeded to play his role without any fail or mistakes once he has to step up. But the whole idea of the Dark Forest concept was IMHO legitimately good science fiction. But yeah, Cheng is a complete and utter moron. Maybe that makes her human, but I stopped reading Death's End halfway through and looked up the remaining plot summary on Wikipedia. I don't know if the author had a real plan while writing the story, because the series begins really strong and then just runs out of good ideas.
moribvndvs
All of the books follow this pattern where 2/3rds or more is split between really bad and unlikeable characters meandering and waxing philosophically for whole chapters at a time–putting the plot in limbo–and terse, emotionless, transactional conversations sprinkled in to break up the log jam with boring exposition. It was absolutely infuriating, and I originally quit in the middle of book 2 because I could not stand another second of Luo, until my reading buddies at work hounded me to finish. They would all climax with a sudden scramble to wrap everything up in an interesting way, but the problem became worse with each subsequent book. I really don’t get how this series took off.
MenhirMike
> I really don’t get how this series took off.

My guess: The novelty of Science Fiction from a Chinese Author, which isn't commonly translated to English, and a legitimately interesting SciFi concept. If you read the plot summary on Wikipedia, it actually sounds amazing, it's just that the books themselves don't deliver on the premise nearly as well.

ndsipa_pomu OP
I only read the first book and that was only after having watched the Chinese dramatisation of it that I really enjoyed: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20242042/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_...

Apparently Netflix are due to do an english version of it too.

anonporridge
Sadly being produced by D&D. After their massive Game of Thrones season 8 fuck up, I'm not holding my breath.

Then again, maybe it'll be fine because all the source material is finished and they don't have to fail at writing the end of the story on their own.

ndsipa_pomu OP
I didn't realise that.

I was already somewhat sceptical as I heard that the story is being moved to the U.S. which seemed odd, but it was apparently signed off by Liu Cixin.

I'm still a bit in shock as to how bad GoT season 8 was. So many plotlines and character development were just shredded, burnt and then thrown away. And that battle looked impressive on-screen (if you like watching a black screen with little points of light) but just made absolutely no sense tactically.

irrational
If only there was someone else who could have written the ending of the GoT for them.
gadders
Still waiting...
coremoff
the first 4 seasons, where they had complete source, were really good; fell off a cliff afterwards obviously - they should do OK with a complete trilogy, though personally I don't understand the interest in those books beyond the premise.
hooverd
Eh, as long as they have source material they're okay.
tanvach
For me the second book was way worse.
torstenvl
The second book was by far the best.

The first has a bit too much lead-up. The third is a bit too philosophical.

tene80i
How so?
gadders
I don't want to give any spoilers so I've converted my comment into Trisolaran (ROT13):

Gur yrnq srznyr punenpgre va gur 3eq obbx znqr rirel vapbeerpg qrpvfvba vg jnf cbffvoyr gb znxr, naq ol ure vapbzcrgrapr qbbzrq uhznavgl.

deanCommie
Ohg gung'f gur cbvag? Gung'f yvgrenyyl gur cbvag bs gur obbx. Ubj pna lbh or znq ng gur punenpgre/cebgntbavfg? Lbh qba'g unir gb or unccl gung uhznavgl vf qbbzrq, lbh pbhyq/fubhyq srry natel nobhg vg. Ohg vg'f n gurzr guebhtubhg gur fgbel. Synjrq uhznaf if Vapbzcerurafvoyr Havirefr-fpnyrq guerngf naq gvzrfpnyr
gadders
Ubarfgyl, V jnf rkcrpgvat n fgbel nep jurer uhznavgl qrsrngf gur gevfbynenaf naq ng yrnfg fheivirf, be orggre lrg orpbzrf n cbjreshy enpr va gurve bja evtug.

Rira vs jr qvq nyy qvr bhg, V jnfa'g rkcrpgvat vg gb or qhr gb bar jbzna'f vapbzcrgrapr.

deanCommie
BX, fb lrf, GUNG cneg qvq unccra orpnhfr bs bar jbzna'f vapbzcrgrapr. Ohg gur obbx raqf jvgu n pbzcyrgr qrfgehpgvba naq erovegu bs gur ragver havirefr! Gb zr gur cbvag jnf n erzvaqre gung ng gur raq bs vg nyy, nyy bs uhznavgl, gur jne jvgu Gevfbynevnaf, rira gur hafrra guerng bs gur nyy-cbjreshy nyvraf jnf hygvzngryl zrnavatyrff. Ba n havirefny fpnyr, vg raqf, naq zhfg erfgneg.

Senaxyl gb zr vg'f n ohzzre. V gel gb or na bcgvzvfgvp avuyvfg, ohg nf na ngurvfg vg'f n erzvaqre gb zr gung gur zbfg vzcnpgshy guvat V pbhyq rire qb sbe uhznavgl jvyy arire or rabhtu.

Vg'f bar bs gur ernfbaf jul V ernyyl ybir gur fpv sv pbaprcgf va gur frevrf, ohg pna'g oevat zlfrys gb er-ernq vg.

electric_mayhem
Well played

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