L

The three body problem was an amazing brilliant trilogy that made me question the scale of my thinking since it demonstrated that everything can be bigger than you realize. It's all just a small part of the story. One part I didn't like was how dumb humanity was on numerous occasions but then I decided it's probably realistic and meant to be a commentary on humanity versus a single human being. And how humanity can fail itself and the role a single person can have in that failure.

Beautifully written and Wharton had an incredible vocabulary. It made me come to the realization that love blooms from being surprised by a person. When they challenge what you think down to the foundation it makes people susceptible to affection. I found the story dauting though because he got in the way of his own happiness but I think it was symbolic of the aristocracy of the time period. They chose traditions over happiness even when they didn't matter anymore and no one would care.

This was surprisingly good for a fan fiction. I almost didn't read it but I'm glad I did because it pulled together some loose ends in a really fun way. It didn't match the book reality 100%. I caught myself thinking but the other books said XYZ so that can't be true a couple times but overall it was really well written and very creative and stuck to the universe pretty well. It carved out a different and extensive world from the already huge world of the three body problem. That was one of my favorite parts of the three body books was how the scale expanded with each book and this last one took that even further. It really made me realize how small my thinking is and how big reality could be.

This book was a mixed hat for me but the unexpected twist where he becomes the sword holder mad up for the creepy idealization of women in this book. I guess the point was to create an imaginary life so that he could be happy in isolation in the end but it was really creepy how much the character idealized women and how much he wanted a helpless weak woman to care for. One character did point out that as a flaw at least but I think if you were idealizing a woman maybe a strong woman would have been less creepy and more interesting. She could have helped him find the strength to be the sword holder and it would have made sense for her to steal their child away to force him to be strong. I suppose the fact that she stole the child away was a reminder that she was real and he couldn't idealize her will and personality away but I still think a strong woman would have been better in all his imaginary scenes.

The book also made humans so arrogant and stupid. I did find it a bit unbelievable that the ships would line up in a row and not be prepared for maneuvers. Coming from the expanse series that felt contrived. But the twist to becoming the sword holder after all hope was stripped away was really good. These books are incredibly creative and very entertaining.

This book reminded me of the sci-fi short stories I read as a kid where there was just one “duh-duh-duh” moment at the end. Kind of like old twilight zones. I started with the show which spoiled the surprise and the book had even less to the plot than the show so I was somewhat disappointed but it was my fault starting with the show. Maybe the rest of the books will make up for it. It was nice it was short though.