I finished 2015 by reading a couple sci-fi books back to back. The second one was the first part of a trilogy by Chinese author Cixin Liu, translated to Remembrance of Earth’s Past. I liked the first book (The Three-Body Problem) okay, but wouldn't say it was spectacular. This one, though, was glorious. I've put a quick spoiler-rich review below. I finished this one a bit early and should continue at this place to build up a good buffer, but I sense a slow-down with this next book. We shall see.
Society is doomed. How do we handle it? Mostly badly.
**Spoilers**
The end of the first book leaves Earth in despair. It has been learned and publicized that a fleet of warships from our neighboring star system are on their way towards us. Accelerating to 10% of the speed of light followed by a long deceleration to match the speed of our sun, Earth and the other planets will take the alien invaders over 400 years. Given our increasing rate of scientific discoveries, we should be able to match and exceed their technology before they reach us. However, our enemy has created a technology that can completely obstruct any attempt to remove the shroud between our current knowledge and the secrets of the universe that exist below the atomic level. Without this knowledge, our technology is destined for an impassable roadblock.
In this book, society becomes split. Some think we can blow by this roadblock (we can't). Others believe it is impossible and we are doomed. More think a representative part of society should flee earth in search of other habitable locations (and that they should be part of it of course). This last idea is soon outlawed and deemed unfit for any plan for salvation. The strategy adopted for the first 20 years or so, is to keep working the problem in somewhat blinded hope.
The book deals mainly in discussing, through the various characters, how we should respond to the knowledge of our own demise. Superficially, we all know that humanity will eventually die out. It could be in 100 years due to nuclear weapons or biological warfare, or in 200 years after dealing with a runaway greenhouse effect brought on by global warming, or in 1,000 years by an uncharted comet impacting our planet, or in 1,000,000,000 years when the sun gets hot enough to boil off our oceans. Why do react differently when we know the exact date? Especially when that date is 17 generations away. We have kicked every other problem our species faces down the road, why would this one change our behavior? I have strawberries right now, why should I care about the honey bee becoming extinct?
Stories in the present, near future and 200 years down the road are all superb. An excellent study of human nature, some cool scientific ideas, and a great ending.
There's always a bigger fish.
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