Very mixed feelings about this. Came recommended by several friends whose opinions I hold in pretty high esteem, but I couldn’t help but feel this was as cheap and poorly-motivated as a Dan Brown novel, while feeling particularly unimaginative as far as Sci-Fi goes.
I understand that the author is trying to draw delibirate parallels between human civilazation and “Trisolaran” civilization 1), but to have your alien civilization sleep and dream, of all things, just feels absurd. What are the odds that a life-form that developed in an entirely different system developed a biological mechanism as specific as dreaming?
The way random physics and computer science tidbits are shoehorned into the story also feels awkward, at best. A little reminiscent of what Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance tried to do for Philosophy, which felt equally contrived. I think I’m just not big on novels that try to be pseudo-educational on the side. I’d rather have my novels be thought-provoking by virtue of it’s narrative, rather than having bits of textbook exposition sprinkled throughout the story.
I’ll probably try reading the other books in the trilogy, hoping that things will get a little more interesting, but for the time being, I remain somewhat ambivalent.
A name that bugs me to no end, because Sol is a specific star, people, not just any star. But I’m willing to put that down on the translation. ↩