Never would I have thought mixing hard-scifi with some cosmic horror could work so well. I haven’t been this captivated by a book since the original Dune.

It is the first book in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, originally written in mandarin. I have not read a translated book in about a decade and was pleasantly surprised. Although I can only speculate about the original, both it and the translation appear to be works of love. The translation is written very eloquently and contains footnotes to convey cultural references, literary devices, and jokes that don’t translate well directly.

The story takes place in China between the cultural revolution and “the present” and did a great job keeping my wandering mind interested. The scientific mysteries slowly turning into a sense of slowly but surely impending doom was great, although by the end most of the mystery was gone. I was struck by the portrayal of political and religious zeal and fervor during the “Madness Years”.

The science is far more grounded than the usual handwaving in Star Wars, Dune and especially the Culture series. Most of the mathematical and scientific concepts mentioned in the book either exist or at least seem realistic or plausible. Towards the end there are some “explanations” I could have done without however, in particular the proton stretching. Partially because I didn’t find them very as believable and partially because they removed some of the mystery/cosmic horror built up throughout most of the book.

Next up: The Dark Forest

P.S. Considering the carefully constructed translation, I half expected a pronunciation guide for the characters’ names, but there wasn’t. I found one on the internet early on which helped me keep track of the different characters.