Damn, this is embarassing that I still can’t spell embarrassing. Nevertheless, I’m still glad I found this draft just bumbling about when I was switching from Evernote to Joplin. I wouldn’t shut up about this science fiction series and my nesting partner finally picked it up: Remembrance of Earth’s Past by Liu Cixin.
I threatened him with My Thoughts on The Third Book once he was finished. And yo did I have some feelings about it. So here they are! With minimal editing since I wanted to preserve as much as my initial thoughts as possible. This series– and the fourth book, when did that happen!? That’s amazing!– requires a (re)read as well.
OK. There’s some editing: I added memes. THERE’S ALSO SPOILERS.
EDIT: One more thing, actually.
I never posted this on Bookreads because there were waaaaaay too many sexism-apologist scifi bros being lil shits. So this was tucked away in my Evernote and rattled about. Until now.
But yeah, right at the jump: if you don’t agree with my read on this book, I don’t care. … Don’t bother engaging; I’ll just mock the shit outta you.
So. There’s spoilers and silliness.
Last chance to back out.
No?
OK.
The whole series was certainly somethin’, but it was the last book that really stuck to me. I’ll leave the summaries and reviews of the previous two to others and get right to Book 3.
Okay, so the ending of the second book lets you get a little bit hopeful. The grass was green, there was a child skipping along, and the L word was mentioned. We’re talking about Love, y’all. The one Trisolaran pacifist that sent the warning-reply setting this whole thing in motion speculated that they responded as such, out of love. What could it mean? To co-exist with their would-be conquerors? It would be uneasy at first, but there’s something to be said of the potential camaraderie between two different beings stumbling together in that Dark Forest.
Hang onto that puny shard of hope. And then chuck it as far away from you as you can. Because it is fucking obliterated in this book, and you’re probably next.
Not only did Liu throw that shred of hope out the airlock, but he shot it into the sun. And made it go supernova. And dropkicked it into a blackhole. And did it again. Then mailed the blackhole-in-a-blackhole to his house so he could smash it with a hammer. And the hammer is powered by mildly annoyed kids with loving families, but the batteries just died in their favorite mobile gaming device of choice so they’re forced to think up metaphors for their essay homework. "You can figure out how that works, it’s fucking physics and science fiction! FIGURE IT OUT," screamed their Language Arts teacher. Who hurt future!me?
The main character, Cheng Xin, just cannot catch a break. Deep down she always hoped for the best and did things out of love. Someone really should’ve given her the memo that she was just not in the right universe for it to work out!
And if you’re expecting An Epic Moment like the likes of Luo Ji and– of course!– Ye Wenjie… well, don’t. Or really regret not being careful of what you wish for.
First on the agenda was the Trisolarians getting right back on their bullshit of calling humans "bugs" and swiping our 20% cooler planet. Turns out, Cheng didn’t have it in her to push the button that’ll doom both worlds– and that threat was the only thing keeping the aliens at bay. But how did she get into that position to begin with!? She was voted in, because the majority wanted someone nice and innocent and other things you probably don’t want anywhere near a Mutually Assured Destruction Button of any kind. The Unfortunate Implication being, "ah, she’s a woman," the shorthand for everything Soft and a stand-in for a world just wanting more peace.
Well, fuck that noise.
That bluff was called and literally everyone was ferreted to Australia in an extreme game of Survivor before you can reference an Australian stereotype.
Several (and I mean several) years of Trauma Conga later, we fast-forward-freezenap to her second claim to fame. Turns out, a broadcast still popped off from a tower out of the Trisolarian’s reach, so decades were spent fretting and panicking as the aliens Noped out of their plans and humanity prepared for their sun to get Hit. In the meantime, they wake Cheng up to get her opinion on something, yanno, because she was so nice. If you thought the Doomsday Battle was devastating… How about halting the one technical leap that could’ve saved humanity because you wanted to avoid a bloody space war?
Noble, yes, even relatable (who likes war?) but it really bit her in the ass later, and she realized that when she’s on the only ship with this miracle engine to Outrun the Annihilation. She sped away with her best friend, Survivor’s Guilt, and artifacts that’ll just eventually crumble to dust while the solar system (and everyone stuck in it) got Squished instead. whoops.
Talk about depressing.
I don’t even know where to begin… or end, about the ending. It seems like everything after that was just there to kick her while she’s down. Her ship tripped into a really dark shadow, making her miss her rendezvous with old friends by a kajillion billion years. After that, the gifted mini-universe from an almost-sweetheart was, well, sweet. It felt like a overdue apology for the shit hands she kept getting dealt. Too bad grand gestures like that were actively responsible for the entropy of the universe that’ll eventually destroy it.
for fuck’s sake
Besides Making Bad Decisions, Cheng Xin didn’t do too much. She was put in hibernation until the Fate of Humanity knocked on her tube. Plot-wise, she only seemed to be there to screw things up or get fucked over! And we were never allowed to forget how compassionate, and feminine, and motherly, and disgustingly nice she is. As someone who looked forward to a woman protagonist more in the forefront, and perhaps a heroic foil to Ye, that was incredibly disappointing– we got a woman-shaped scapegoat and punching bag instead.
Shit like that is why I’m so wary of men writing women.
I’m fucking tired.
Besides the protagonist with suspiciously misogynistic reads, I’m also @#$@%^ miffed because my reactions have betrayed my outer cynicism. I wanted humanity to somehow get out of this not unscathed– I know that’ll be asking for too much– but at least on a more playing field with the rest of the universe. I was hoping co-existence would’ve been possible. And dammit, some sort of happy ending? Maybe tea with the cool Sophon robot-lady?
I suppose there’s a glimmer of optimism in me, after all. I just hope I’m never in a position to doom the entire Solar System, no matter how much I think I’m able to put it aside and do what needs to be done.
I’ll end this with a new note-to-self: read the fourth book. At the time of editing, I still haven’t. Maybe a happier ending will await me there.
And upon that revelation– I sold this series to him as a trilogy— my nesting partner only said "augh." I love you too.
…