** some thematic spoilers **
I loved The Three Body Problem and had high hopes for the sequel. But I found this book so hard to get through. It’s dense. The first half or so is so slow. I persevered, because I also found the first book hard to get into and all that critical acclaim had to have some justification. But as the pace started to pick up, more dimensions of disappointment unfolded.
Even before the nihilistic Battle of Darkness took place and the metaphor of The Dark Forest was fully laid out, the bleakness of its point of view seemed so unreal to me. Most of the human reactions to the impending crisis seemed inhuman to me. Maybe much of this can be put down to cultural differences? I am not usually so averse to dark themes in novels or harsh views of human nature.
But maybe I was already disengaged from this book’s point of view by the misogyny. I was surprised by it, as The Three Body Problem had an engaging female lead character. But this book has few significant female characters, little interest in their points of view, and a constant undertone of treating women as lesser.
The central character dialed this up to 11 for me. He is an annoying man child who uses the power he has been given as one of Earth’s potential saviours to get the government to make his imaginary girlfriend real for him. Given the multiple layers of misdirection in the narrative I was surprised, actually disgusted, when this relationship is not revealed as as hollow as it had to be, at least initially, but is held up as a love so profound that it demonstrates what sets humanity apart in the universe.
I don’t know if I’ll read the third book. I don’t like to leave a highly acclaimed series unfinished. But the reviews I’ve seen don’t point to a more satisfying experience for me. I’d be interested to hear what others with similar qualms decided.
