The Redemption of Time

May 1, 2019
A strange hybrid of a yarn that seeks to embellish and extend a universe created by another writer--in this case, Cixin Liu's superb Three Body Problem trilogy, which culminated in Death's End (2016). Baoshu's tale began life as online fan fiction, and it shows in a confusing opening. Trilogy readers will need to recall that a dying Yun Tianming allowed his brain to be captured by an approaching alien Trisolaran fleet. He hoped to trick the invaders, who are constitutionally unable to lie and cannot understand subterfuge. Instead, they trap him in a virtual reality, and eventually, the aliens force him to help them subjugate humanity. Yun survives. Much later, long after both Earth and Trisolaris have been destroyed, a consciousness calling itself the Spirit of the Master arrives. The Spirit needs Yun's help to locate the Lurker, an evil entity that threatens to destroy what's left of the universe. But, as Yun eventually comes to understand, the Spirit's plan involves rewinding everything to zero, followed by another Big Bang and a rerun identical to the current version. And what, Yun wonders, would be the point of that? The entities at odds since the beginning of time bring to mind the creation story in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion. The universe-engulfing struggle recalls John C. Wright's astonishing multibook Eschaton saga. And the whole has a transcendental quality that might earn a nod from William Blake. Baoshu writes powerfully about difficult concepts (one such is the self-explanatory "ideabstraction" in Liu's felicitous translation), and his central thesis, involving dimensional collapse as the key to explaining the evolution of the universe, is an absolute stunner. None of this will mean anything, though, unless you're very well-acquainted with the original trilogy. A narrative that assumes far too much previous knowledge but ultimately finds an identity all its own.

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May 13, 2019
This exposition-heavy prequel to Liu Cixin’s Three-Body Problem trilogy will be a challenge for newcomers, and even fans of Liu’s work are likely to be disappointed by the ponderous writing and murky story. The interminable opening section consists of a prolonged conversation 600 years in the future as Yun Tianming relates his experiences as “the greatest spy in the history of the human race,” who, “embodied in an isolated brain,” sought information to help humankind avert destruction by the mysterious aliens known as the Trisolarans. Yun constantly schemes to outwit his more powerful captors, but the slow pacing and paucity of action makes his efforts boring. Things don’t improve when Yun finds himself involved in a conflict between cosmic beings known as the Seeker and the Lurker. Even the revelation of the Trisolarans’ true nature feels anticlimactic, and the final twist is gimmicky rather than clever. Readers will need to be deeply immersed in Liu Cixin’s original trilogy to get anything out of this overambitious homage. Agent: Seth Fishman, Gernert Company.

June 1, 2019
This "paraquel" to Cixin Liu's Three-Body Problem trilogy centers primarily on Yun Tianming, whose brain was launched into space in Liu's Death's End (2016) where it was picked up by the Trisolaran fleet. This novel concerns itself primarily with filling in the gaps in Yun's story, such as what his time in Trisolaran captivity was like, what the Trisolarans really look like, and what he did after he left their fleet. While much of the story follows the plot of Liu's established series, Baoshu adds his own grand cosmic struggle between a 10-dimensional being known as the Master and its child, the Lurker, over the very fabric of the universe. Yun is drafted into the Master's service as it attempts to restore the universe to its original "Edenic" state of 10-dimensional immanence. While some of the more fan-fiction aspects about existing characters from Liu's trilogy may mystify unfamiliar readers, Baoshu's narrative contains enough cosmic scope and adventure to keep readers engaged. Recommended for fans of Cixin Liu or readers interested in Chinese sf as a whole.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)