Month 30 of 260 (11.54 percent)
Size of list: 86,513 pages (9.8 percent above start)
Pages read: 15,250 (17.63 percent)
H-list: 4,464/23,114 (19.31 percent)
N-list: 5,953/36,694 (16.22 percent)
O-list: 4,833/26,705 (16.22 percent)
Finished: The Three-Body Problem
Reading: The Fires of Heaven, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Reading: The Fires of Heaven, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Added: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Masters of Modern Soccer
The Three-Body Problem is the only Chinese fiction I’ve ever read, and it was a fascinating read. It stars out with the Cultural Revolution, about which I knew practically nothing, and it was horrifying. Then it slowly turned up the science fiction.
There is a lot of narration in a style that we would expect from a historical narrative and not a novel; I figure that’s the difference between Chinese and English fiction. The last several chapters unravel in a sequence of holy-shit moments and really creative ideas.
It’s a trilogy, but it’s more self-contained than a lot of first volumes. The story could end here and still be great. I want to read the sequels, though, partly because the second volume has a different translators and I want to see how it’s different, but mainly because I want to see what Cixin Liu, the author, comes up with next.
The Three-Body Problem is the only Chinese fiction I’ve ever read, and it was a fascinating read. It stars out with the Cultural Revolution, about which I knew practically nothing, and it was horrifying. Then it slowly turned up the science fiction.
There is a lot of narration in a style that we would expect from a historical narrative and not a novel; I figure that’s the difference between Chinese and English fiction. The last several chapters unravel in a sequence of holy-shit moments and really creative ideas.
It’s a trilogy, but it’s more self-contained than a lot of first volumes. The story could end here and still be great. I want to read the sequels, though, partly because the second volume has a different translators and I want to see how it’s different, but mainly because I want to see what Cixin Liu, the author, comes up with next.
