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I liked the idea that you have to make good out of bad because that's all there is. I also liked the idea that god couldn't make man perfectly good or they would just be god so he made them flawed and bad so they then could again create good and have it mean something. I also like the idea that someone could do one terrible thing and spend their whole life trying to do good to make up for it and whether or not that makes them a good person or a bad person.

I found the idea that we get the politicians we deserve as humans because we never listen to numbers or logic to be an interesting one in the context of he story. We act viscerally based on rage and charisma and don't ask critical questions. That one fact alone rigs the system and changes the good men into the bad men which they willingly become to do some good. And is perhaps the only way good can even be done. But the bad they do starts piling up and even changes them as a person.

Ultimately I found the main character's pathological aversion to making a decision or making a life to be exhausting and distasteful. He also ended up not being attached to his best friend in a chilling way. He did nothing to get him justice and shrugged off his death while also seemingly shrugging off the responsibility he had in killing his dad. It was setup like he changed but his actions didn't seem to show that. So while there were some good nuggets, I found the story daunting in the end. Which maybe was the point, but I didn't love the book personally.

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.

I liked walking through an academic career with the narrator and I liked the fantastic explanations of physical phenomena. I enjoyed getting to pretend to be a physicist for a few nights. I think the macro probability cloud will stick with me for a while. His idea that a life well spent is in pursuit of a curiosity was interesting and felt like a truth that I wish I had put into words earlier in my life. The author spends a lot of time idolizing women in many of his books so I find the female characters to be a bit one dimensional in many of his books as a result. I guess his idolization was echoing his pursuit of ball lightening and his notion of self sacrifice.

I enjoyed learning about the people's revolution in China. It showed me that problems are inherent in any revolution even if it's not rooted in religion. I enjoyed the main character in this book. She was written well and you empathized with her experiences and how they lead her to hoping someone could save humanity from itself. I think many people have thought humanity can't seem to save itself from time to time and this book series put perspective on the dangers of that thought and the dangers of reaching out into the unknown for redemption instead of working towards it yourself. The translation on this book was amazing. It felt very precise like an engineer would translate. It was noticeably better than the second book.

I really liked how this book reimagined human potential. It created a universe in the future where humanity remains in its familiar forms but also had evolved into something new by expanding the capabilities of humanity through the spacers, bene gesserits, and mentats. I found myself wondering if people really could be capable of more if we had systemic training developed over the next few thousands of years. Could people even be capable of more now and we just cant conceive of it? Are we limiting ourselves with our thoughts of what's possible? There was a lot more to the book than just the guilds but I found this idea stuck with me the most.

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.