Wrapped up the first book after much struggle. Am I crazy for finding it extremely poorly written? Writing aside, the characters suck, the motivations suck, and the scenario building feels like it was tossed together by a 12 year old. I don't get the hype. Everything is paper thin. The fictional science aspect is the most compelling part but as a cohesive whole it fails to land.

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[–] frozenpopsicle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I read all three. I thought they excelled at creating new plot devices. Sentient particles, Thought as light, dimensional weapons. Its really hard to come up with new sci fi tropes! And Liu casually comes up with a dozen new ones. I thought the characters and plot were... unsatisfying. But I believe that is mostly intended as a portrayal of people's failings. I'd say it's a worth it read for real sci fi junkies though. Definitely disagree that it is "Not good", but taste is subjective. They seemed longer than they needed to be... I dunno.

[–] joonazan@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 day ago

It is easy to come up with nonsense. I much more respect works that explore the consequences of one fantastical thing.

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Its really hard to come up with new sci fi tropes! And Liu casually comes up with a dozen new ones.

Unfortunately, then he shoves them all into the same book. He needs to be the show runner of a sci-fi TV series.