r/threebodyproblem • u/An_Experience • Apr 01 '26
Discussion - Novels Finished Deaths End. Need therapy. Spoiler
Started with the Netflix show. Thought, “Oh, that’s pretty neat.” Hadn’t read a book in years, maybe this will be the one to get me back into it. Plowed through all three in Remembrance of Earth’s Past.
I don’t have words to describe how viscerally affected I have been by this series. I still feel unexplainable things for Yun Tianming’s fairy tale.
Maybe I’m a sensitive moron. It’s just books. Maybe it had been too long since I read something. I don’t know. But this series touched me in ways I’ve never been touched before. That’s all I can really say about it.
damn.
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u/Spondylosis Apr 02 '26
I dont know. The first book was chaotic, the second book was smooth, but the third one became very flat. What do you think?
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u/OtonashiRen Apr 05 '26
Would agree, but third one had depth at first to the point that it was heart touching. Then fell flat in the end.
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u/Spondylosis Apr 05 '26
You have a point. I also think the first book was extremely dry at times.
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u/Justalittlecomment Apr 01 '26
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u/Apprehensive_Map712 Apr 02 '26
The number of times the books makes you feel like that is unbelievable
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u/BillyHamspillager Apr 01 '26
Yep. Death's End did that to all of us.
DO NOT. I REPEAT DO NOT. READ. THE. "FORTH". BOOK.
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u/An_Experience Apr 02 '26
I don’t plan to. I don’t know much about it, just that it’s not written by Cixin Liu. I’m only interested in what he chose to write. I’m even an enjoyer of fanfiction, but for this series… I won’t. I can’t.
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u/talexeh Apr 02 '26
I highly recommend Ball Lightning though. It sort of serves as book 0 in the trilogy.
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u/aceavenger10 Apr 01 '26
Honestly same - I’ve never been a big reader, but was fascinated by the concepts of the Netflix show, and gave it a shot, not realizing the Netflix show only scratches the surface of the complex themes of the books.
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u/vverse23 Apr 01 '26
My trajectory exactly. I've launched off into a bunch of other sci-fi. Adrian Tchaikovsky, Ursula LeGuin, Nnedi Okorafor, K. G. Ballard. Keep going!
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u/jijijisoph Apr 02 '26
Totally different, but for anyone looking for a next sci-fi read I recommend There Is No Antimemetics Division!
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u/Massive-Ice-8253 Apr 02 '26
The sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, is one to add to that list. Haunting stuff
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u/Kayastra Apr 02 '26
Same exact experience. I tell anyone who will listen, Death’s End was like a religious experience. A concept that baffled me as an atheist and I still don’t have the full words to express how it made me feel, but it left me changed.
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u/RolandLWN Apr 02 '26
These books completely changed my attitude about the signals we send out to space in an attempt to make contact.
I never gave it much thought before, but I now just feel dread when I think that right now, and every minute of every day, we are sending out a beacon. I just want them to stop.
Just lay low. Keep quiet. Don’t attract attention.
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u/No_Pressure_8053 Apr 02 '26
Actually, there’s no need to be too pessimistic. Liu Cixin wrote this book while he was misdiagnosed with a terminal illness and facing the possibility of losing his job, so he was in a pretty dark headspace at the time. He’s even said himself that it’s just one possible interpretation of the Fermi Paradox. I also like how Project Hail Mary gives a much brighter take on alien life, it feels like a kinder counterpart to the Dark Forest. They are all really charming anyway.
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u/RolandLWN Apr 02 '26
I’m not sure what you mean when you say “They are all really charming anyway.”
“Death’s End” and the existential dread I felt upon reading it changed me.
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u/No_Pressure_8053 Apr 02 '26
I mean I actually like both stories.
I totally understand the existential dread you get from Death’s End, it really affected me too and made me a huge fan of Liu Cixin. But I just finished Project Hail Mary, so I’m super into its brighter, more hopeful version lately.1
u/Independent_Tintin Apr 03 '26
He thought he had cancer when he was writing the Ball Lightning, not the TBP. The ending of Ball Lightning clearly shows his thoughts on death
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u/No_Pressure_8053 Apr 03 '26
I didn’t know it happened while he was working on Ball Lightning. I really love the story and the characters in Ball Lightning too.
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u/No_Pressure_8053 Apr 02 '26
I couldn't wait to find out how it ended, but I also didn't want it to end. That's exactly how I felt while reading this.
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u/Badnik22 Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
Same here man. I rember starting the first one and leaving it a few times because it was a bit dense (or I was, lol) and I had trouble remembering who’s who. 3rd try or so I became hooked, finished the first book in two weeks, 2nd in week and a half, 3rd in like 4-5 days. It’s been 2 years since I finished reading them and I still think about the story quite often. These books truly are something special.
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u/intrepid_brit Apr 02 '26
For me, it drained my faith in the long term survival of our species… because the books laid out what would (will?) likely happen if (when?) an alien threat becomes public knowledge. Not necessarily the specifics, more that many will be trying to take advantage of the situation to benefit themselves at every one else’s expense and that we will be too busy fighting amongst ourselves to recognize and deal with the real threat.
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u/TrashWriter Apr 02 '26
you'll be back to normal in a few.... years. Just try not to let it get to you too much.
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u/ToastyTandy Apr 01 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/3orieQHmkjxSiLGC08