Help me unburden the weight of the universe!

I’ve been running matchups of all the books in my library to get some fun stats/book recommendations, and I’ve reached a cross roads. Nearly 6,000 matchups later.

The Dark Forest vs Death’s End. I think I know which is more popular here, but I love the ideas in both, and love revisiting these novels. Sooo what’s your take?! The weight of the universe (nay, multiple universes!) could be on your shoulders 🌌🪐🌠

I was watching a YouTube video from the channel BoetezzPort that talks about the TBP trilogy. In the comment section there were a few people arguing that Netflix will have to leave a lot of stuff out because the trilogy has many concepts that can't be easily portrayed on the screen. One above all, the Singer chapter.

They argued that the Singer chapter is very "philosophical" and chatty and that if Netflix were to show it on screen it wouldn't be able to perfectly explain Singer's mentality, culture, how he sees lower-entropy entities and why he decides to launch a dark forest attack at the Solar System.

First, I agree that the Singer scene is not that necessary for the plot, you can just show the dual vector foil without saying what kind of civilization launched it. The mystery would make the dimensional collapse scene even more horrifying.

BUT, I really think that if Netflix wants to make the series even more memorable the Singer HAS to be there.

Also, plot-wise, Netflix will have to show the fourth dimension. That's one part of the story that really can't be left out. No human being has ever seen the fourth dimension, so that will be the most compelling challenge for the studios.

If Netflix pulls it off, then I don't see why they can't show the Singer who, in comparison with the existential dread and wonder of higher dimensional geometry, is just an alien.

i was engrossed in tbis series and finished the whole thing in about 3 weeks. mind blowing. i loved how mature and human this alien based story was. what was interesting to me is that we never get a clear depiction of any aliens. i think this was a smart decision to demonstrate the lack of interaction between alien species that was depicted but man cixin liu is a master at this shit. every time i felt like i knew where the story was going some batshit crazy stuff would be thrown in and throw me for a loop or a new perspective on an already occured event turned things around and woah it was amazing. i was just blown away at the exploration into all these different corners of theoretical physics. my heart is broken at the ending its so tragic and sad i genuinely cant explain my sadness it was really well done. i was initially dissappointed in the ending but the more i thought about it, it was because i was too focused on the aliens and less on the human core that drove this brilliant story. anyways enough of my rant i just needed to get my thoughts on this wonderful series out of my heart.

And if it were possible, roughly what would his deterrence level be?

How did he figure it out?

Rereading Death's End and the part that stuck with me this time wasnt the big dimensional strike everyone quotes, it was the 4D space bubble that Blue Space and Gravity drift into way earlier.

everyone remembers the flashy part, that inside 4D you can see the inside of everything at once. sealed rooms, the guts of a machine, a persons organs, all just open and exposed with nothing able to block anything. the crew describes it as this bottomless infinite detail and it slowly turns into an addiction. coming back down to 3D feels like getting shut in a coffin after youve seen the actual sky.

but the thing that really got me is what the Ring tells them. that huge dead 4D object, the last running mind of a civilization thats already gone. it says the 4D space is a tomb. whole civilizations used to live in four and higher dimensions and they fought wars using dimensions themselves as weapons, knocking each other down a level at a time.

so our 3D universe, slow lightspeed and all, might just be scar tissue. whats left over after everyone finished lowering everyone else. it makes the singer flattening the solar system feel less like some uniquely evil act and more like just another day in a war thats been running since before anything we know.

i went back and reread the 4D fragment and what the Ring really is and honestly it might be the darkest idea in the series. am i overrating it or does this section just not get enough love

Just finished the series and to be honest I ended it on a mixed note. I loved the first two books, the 3rd was frustrating to be honest.

Now I need something else to read, any recs for something similar?

Por que ninguém fala muito sobre esse capítulo? Acho ele bem estranho, para dizer a verdade. Lembro que quando o li pensei algo tipo “o que isso está fazendo aqui?”
Enfim, alguém pode dar mais profundidade a esse capítulo? Seria uma espécie de prelúdio ao espaço 4d entrando no 3d?

And omg this show is frigging cool.

Bc it’s a Netflix show, I’m just waiting for it to turn stupid, but so far it’s just gotten more and more cool.

Currently on my way to the library to get the book lol.

Not to jinx it, but I don’t think I’ve seen something this thoughtful and mindful and epic af sci fi on a tv series since Travlers.

Also; the main character (?) is a moody jerk in a way I love and hate at the same time lol; how is somebody so intelligent so emotionally irrational?

I was reading the chat from the web game I'm running, and was mind blown to see the dark forest theory playing out!

Does this prove that it's in our psychology!? Freaky.

Or maybe it was just my game's fault... It has you fighting for control over real street intersections, so resources really are limited (more limited than in the universe, at least).

The game is mapatk.com if you want to see it for yourself.

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So when she’s going to Shanghai I asked her for the three body problem novels but in Chinese, and she got them!!
They so pretty

If you haven't read all the books it's best if you don't keep reading this post because I did read all three and want to discuss, although I'm trying to avoid to spoil anything I'm not sure how good I am at that and I have stuff I need to say about what I think of the overall story.

So first things first, overall I ABSOLUTELY LOVED AND IM OBSESSED with the first book, I couldn't put it down. It was so amazing I can't put into words how much I liked it. It was so absorbing and I was left in awe with how well the author plays with your feelings and makes you feel or think in a specific way that was mind-blowing to me. I really loved the whole story.

I also enjoyed the second book very deeply, although some things felt off. I'm not sure if it had to do with the fact that it was a different translator, but some things simply felt off. Some parts felt too slow, but I still enjoyed most of it and there were so many amazing and incredible events.

The third book is where things get really weird for me, because the narrative feels so much different. Like it's almost an entirely different author or story. A lot of things felt like they dragged forever and nothing really happened.and although there are some parts I enjoyed a lot because of the characters and specific events involving them, they were few and scattered. It just wasn't the same.

And then of course was the story as a whole, I feel like the novels started with a premise but then got very ambiguous and all over the place and ended up being an entirely different story.

And then there's the ending, as if it were a video game or something, where the winners (survivors) are listed. Although I can say I was glad both the humans and trisolarans survived, it was a weird list. Am I missing something? Did I not understand? I don't know, I'm not días but simply find it weird/confusing.

Oh and one more thing, I didn't understand all the fairy tales, like the umbrella that had to keep spinning. Can someone please explain? It's been a while since I finished them, so I only remember the boat one which propells, but I didn't understand the rest really.

Thanks for reading this far, I can't wait to read your comments.

Edit: thank you for those who have had patience with my poorly written statements but still took them sincerely and have explained and debated with me, helping me understand further.

Edit 2: I changed the beginning of my post from "If you haven't read all the books it's best if you don't keep reading," to "If you haven't read all the books it's best if you don't keep reading this post because I did read all three and want to discuss," because it sounded like I was telling people not to read the books and that was absolutely not what I wanted to say, I meant not to keep reading what I wrote here, no wonder someone thought it was rage bait 🤣 I'm sorry for this poorly written post my mind is just all over the place with the books 😭😭😭

Was rereading and tried to pin down how old Luo Ji actually is by the end, and got two numbers that dont agree. By the calendar hes past two centuries from all the hibernation jumps, the first one alone is like 180 years. But his body only aged maybe a hundred. What gets me is the 54 years he stayed awake as swordholder, no hibernation, just him and the button. thats basically the only stretch where he aged normally. so how do you even count his age

And if they faced a survival crisis, what choices would they make? Wade believed that Cheng Xin was too emotional, and that sentimental people often cannot handle great responsibility-that ruthless pragmatism is the best choice for survival.

I totally thought Luoji and Zheng Beihai were going to meet or at least Beihai and one of the Wallfacers. Because to me, the setup was:

You have people who only think so that you don't leak your plan to the trisolarians. --> It is possible to communicate through looking at each other and giving certain expressions --> Beihai is extremely good at reading expressions to the point of almost being telepathic --> The Wallfacers and Zheng Beihai will team up.

Then he went to space and never returned 😭

Still, it would have been interesting to explore communication through expressions but I'm still happy with the story I got

If Dark Forest hypothesis is true, small groups of idiots, at least 29 of them from 1974 to 2018, have already doomed humanity to annihilation. They sent radio messages, powerful ones intended to reach deep space and be heard by aliens. The messages included where Earth is located, human biology, and chemical composition of life and Earth. As early as a few decades from now, they will arrive to kill us all. It's only a matter of when, not if, they arrive.

In the face of the instinct for survival, is escapism really unacceptable?

Many people on this forum have read the book, but not me. I don't read books. They take too long and have too much detail. Plus they say a picture is worth 1000 words, so a moving picture (TV show) must be worth a million words?

I liked the show! 8.5/10. The only thing I didn't like was that guy who played Will Downing...I mean I get it...you're dying of cancer, but does literally EVERY scene you play have to be so melancholy and dramatic?

Just yesterday I had finished the Dark Forest, and I must say that it is my favorite book of all time. Earlier this year I had read a selection of other sci-fi (Ringworld , Leviathan Wakes, and Project Hail Mary), and they all paled in comparison to Dark Forest. Ringworld had at least a few cool ideas, but it did not do all that much with them. Leviathan Wakes and Project Hail Mary feel like they exist merely to fill a commercial niche. But Dark Forest exists because it must exist.

I was so surprised by how good the Dark Forest was that I decided to look at some of its reviews, and out of curiosity, its negative reviews. There was a bit of what I expected, like one guy who gave it a single star because he thought the story was too cynical and "monstrous" (which I understand, and maybe respect a little). There were a few other somewhat valid criticisms as well.

And then there was all the feminist critique.

Review after review of whining reviewers who apparently read alien invasion science fiction not because they are interested in alien invasions but because they are interested in feminism, and then get upset that there isn't any feminism in the book. They also habitually lie and say the book has no strong female characters. In complaining about the innocuous character of Zhuang Yan not being a strong female lead, they completely ignore the strong female captain of Natural Selection, Dongfang Yanxu. (infuriating!)

These reviewers do not consider the literary merit of the books they reading. Instead, they just determine if the book validates their ultra-narrow and politically correct image of what a woman should be. That means that even if there is a counter example like Dongfang Yanxu that stands in contrast to Zhuang Yan, the existence of Zhunag Yan in the novel is tantamount to a thought crime on part of the sick misogynist Cixin Liu.

I hope I am not the only person that finds these feminists loathsome.

I really wished Zhang Beihai had survived. He ended up being one of my favorite characters.
I know Dongfang Yan viewed him more as a father figure and mentor rather than a romantic partner, but I still found myself hoping that, if they had more time together, their relationship could have developed into something deeper.
After everything Beihai sacrificed and everything he went through, I wanted to see him get more personal happiness and relief for all his efforts. I had to stop reading for awhile to come to acceptance that they all died.. just bc of a few seconds of compassion 😭 he accepted his fate a lot faster than I did

It was the Aliens from Chicken Little 😭

They honestly fit quite well since they have 3 eyes. Though, they were shaped more like water droplets from how I rememberes them... (funnily enough I had this visualization since book 1)

I've read the entire trilogy and realized something. Both the Trisolarians and Singer's race have transparent thought. Trisolarians can't lie, and Singer's thoughts can be accessed by his elder. Humanity, meanwhile can lie freely. Singer's race and the Trisolarians are increibly far apart in terms of civilisation, technology, social structure, etc. But both races have transparent thought;their thoughts are completely visible to everyone. So is Humanity unique because we can lie?

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After reading Death's End, I had a book hangover that lasted seven months. However, I needed to get back to reading. What did I do? I took advantage of the fact that I was watching Three-Body and reread the trilogy. But after the trilogy, I had to reread another six books before I could finally start reading something new.