A Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy - Liu Cixin

1. Quick thoughts on the trilogy as a whole. 
2. Liu is one of those writers who makes you realise the reason why you liked Sci-fi in the first place: it's the idea that this is not necessarily all pure fantasy, because at least part of it could become true in the future.  Even if you can't imagine aliens making contact with humans, you can imagine us travelling at 1% the speed of light; dealing with game theory at the cosmological level or what hibernation and future tech might look like 200 years from now; you can also understand how humans might react to the crises of future generations that are space- event triggered and also human caused and the moral quagmires that result from the same.
3. But he takes this even further and makes it a story about the meaning of life and our existence in this universe, and he approaches it from his Chinese world view which makes it interesting 
4. The first two books are so far removed from the last book that it is just crazy - the former are just there to give context to the crazy events that happen later on in book 3. Book 1 was a puzzle; book 2 was a game of cat and mouse and strategic thinking at a universe level; book 3 was about the Earth in the fight for its life and purpose.
5. In the end, the way I see it - it's a trilogy about the fragility of human life and how small we are in the universe, including relative to the laws of physics
6. It's probably a 4.4 or 4.5 out of 5

Death's End (Remembrance of Earth's Past #3)

1.  Starts off very differently to book 2 - there are distinct  chapters that jump between time periods,  including,  surprisingly, time periods that have already been explored in books 1 and 2.. and someone is narrating this story - as if outside of time itself - by reference to history 
2. It makes for a more fluid and exciting read
3. Book 3 tries to fill in some of the gaps by telling a story that runs in parallel to the events of books 1 and 2. We get a bit more insight into a sister project that coexisted at the same time as the Wallfacer project and into some of the technology and research that occurred in an attempt to catch up our tech with that of the Trisolorians, including the development space travel and hibernation... and the sister project tests the limits of what it means to be alive. 
4. Interesting and refreshing concepts are delved into (in addition to concepts already traversed in the first two books), at both the scientific, moral and philosophical levels including: 

• expanding the black forest concept of the universe; 
• the uneasy but prosperous alliance and exchange of cultures and information between two galactic races; 
• consequences of unethical decisions made in response to moral dilemmas in the previous book (including for the so called "dark battles" in outer space between those spaceships who felt they were cut off from humanity and made tough calls to survive); 
• having the Earth as a spiritual anchor (ie. Humans assume they will be attached to Earth for life but what if that assumptionis false); 
• astronautic psychology; 
• flaws with Earth's deterrence system; 
• the evolution of the Trisolorian's strategic thinking; 
• the importance of choosing the right swordholder and the probability of deterrence; 
• the risk of not developing your technology fast enough to compete with other civilizations; 
• can two space civilizations coexist with one another?; 
• is it possible to convince the universe to leave us alone ??!; 
• the effect of being watched all the time and having everything recorded..; 
• strategies to deal with a random alien attack; 
• life near Jupiter and the other gas giants and the various details and designs possible for living in space cities; 
• the high stakes involved for choosing the right path of technology and making sure you develop the tech in time; 
• slowing down the speed of light and the consequences of that on the passage of time (including the theory of relativity) and the creation of black holes..; 
• building mini universes;
• expanding and collapsing universes and starting from scratch..
• Weaponising basic laws of physics and mathematics  - what if the universe started with 10 dimensions and was being slowly downgraded to 1 dimension?
• Making the "good" choice can doom civilization - the universe apparently does not care
• Technology is double edged and the same tech can kill or destroy entire civilizations 

1. I can't pretend I understood every detail. I was lost towards the end of the book. The concepts can be very intense and detailed.
2. Hilariously Australia gets a significant mention including Warburton of all places. Imagine the UN moving to Sydney and the world moving into Australia as it becomes a super power overnight (think of all the immigration issues)...Liu is well researched and can describe Australian towns and the outback and the origins of parliament house...
3. Liu also makes a very big crack at guessing what entering the 4th dimension through the 3rd dimension is like and his imagination is insane. He introduces concepts such as dimensional strikes which include collapsing the nth dimension into a n-1th dimension 
4. There is a magical part of the book that is all about how to communicate a secret message when all your enemies are watching! Imagine trying to smuggle a life and death message to an ally right in front of your enemy who will kill you if they think you've betrayed any aspect of the critical message. This is another favourite theme of mine that was done very well!!
5. The ending is quite somber, reflective and bittersweet all at once. It's quite hard to describe. There is basically an air of "life is unpredictable" and "life is fragile" to the ending - or life is subject to physics
6. Spoiler - Yun Tianming and Cheng Xin are starcrossed :(
7. It's quite a supercharged book. The first 60-75% is an intense roller-coaster ride but in the final 25% it gets more contemplative and you start to think about the bigger questions like the meaning of life and where we come from
8. I'd say it's a solid 4.5/5. Even if you aren't one for understanding all the scientific details, Liu's imagination and visualisation of the future is to be respected and contemplated. I think the first two books are clearly a setup for the last book. 

The Siege of Macindaw (Ranger's Apprentice #6)

1. This is the second part to book 5, and follows Flanagan's trusted / usual formula of doing things in pairs.
2. There are interesting dynamics at play here and the story is fun - this time Will and friends try to raid a castle to save his childhood friend- the tactics involved for castle raids being very different to any situation previously encountered by Will especially since it's his first major mission in charge and without Halt's guidance
3. Some of the dialogue or small talk is a bit cringeworthy or it feels like it belongs to the wrong era
4. One aspect of the story regarding Will's allies for this mission also seems a bit too convenient and unbelievable
5. But I can ignore those two points which are relatively minor and kind of excusable for a kid's book
6. The ending is satisfying but a bit too conventional. I still liked it though
7. While I wanted to see more of Halt it was nice for a change to see Will acting independently 
8. The battle tactics were also done well, as usual - and the secret messages of the Couriers was neat to see.
9. The villains of this book were quite weak though and a bit of a let down- I didn't like how it was too easy to beat them. 
10. Would probably give it a similar score to book 5, say 4.1-4.2. I feel it's just part of the same story as book 5 and all it does is provide a resolution 

The Sorcerer in the North (Ranger's Apprentice #5)

1. Note: do not read the back cover and the title of book 6 - they both contain spoilers which is kind of silly
2. We fast-forward a few years to a time when Will is a qualified ranger, and it takes about 40 pages for real drama to kick in. 
3. Was a bit frustrating not being able to see Seacliff Island on the map..
4. Some of Flanagan's conversations are again showing their age and seem archaic
5. There's a bit more subterfuge, disguises, espionage + cloak and dagger in this book, particularly as the Diplomatic Service get involved - this makes for a nice change. We see Will partnering with his childhood friend (sweetheart?) Alyss who is in the Service
6. Will is also embroiled in a tense and dire situation as he travels to the outskirting fiefs of the land - as he tries to unravel the politics of Macindaw castle and figure out the relevance of that to ghosts and spirits found in a nearby haunted forest 
7. A key theme is things don't always appear as they seem
8. Ending is clearly a set up for book 6 which is unsurprising by now as Flanagan seems to like to do books in pairs
9. I found this quite enjoyable as it featured new surroundings, focused on Alyss and showed Will fending on his own again including in disguise ..but it was not as good as the first two books. 
10. Would probably give it a 4.2-4.3/5

The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth's Past #2)

1.  "Make time for life, because life won't make time" 
2. Do remember the title of the book and pay close attention to the opening chapter (as boring as it initially seems) - it's a metaphor and explains the basic concept as to how the Trisolorians can be defeated!! But you can probably guess at least half of the solution well before the end..
3. The first 100 pages were frankly a bit dull and slow-going but it's actually quite interesting to see how it all fits together by the end - apparently, from what I've read,  most people found this to be the case too
4. I love the idea that there are 4 "Wallfacer" humans tasked with creating secret stratagems in their mind to save the earth (that only they know about); and there are 4 "Wallbreaker" humans / cult members (working for the aliens) tasked with finding out what the stratagems are. There is plenty of smoke and mirrors in that regard and I really enjoyed that.
5. I particularly enjoyed how the committee overseeing the Wallfacers are sceptical of the Wallfacers' plans, yet have to fund and accept the fact that they can't know everything about each Wallfacer's plan because those plans need to be kept secret from Aliens who are listening to and watching everything the humans are doing - it's kind of like being Merlin in a game of The Resistance:Avalon - Merlin doesn't want his identity to be found out or the Minions / bad guys win!
6. The idea of hibernation - sleeping for hundreds of years and waking up in the future - is a very interesting concept and the exploration of what the world should look like in centuries from now was done really well. 
7. There are some aspects of the book which ..kind of.. fall into what I or others would typically describe as the slice of life genre - these are the initially boring bits. The main character Luo Ji seems to spend a lot of time enjoying his life and abusing his position as and the near unlimited resources available to him as a Wallfacer - there are also some other random characters who talk about the alien crisis which is Liu's way of showing us a different angle of the crisis as experienced by society eg the urge to flee before the aliens arrive ie escapism, and later the surge of complete foolish overconfidence on the part of the human race.
8. However it becomes quite interesting/exciting when you realise Luo Ji is being targeted specifically by the aliens and they appear to consider him to be the greatest threat - so he has to dodge all these assassination attempts - and he has no idea why but slowly guesses why and it becomes quite cool when he..appears..to start truly planning a strategy to defeat the aliens.
9. The game theory and prisoner's dilemma concepts being applied at a cosmic scale are fascinating to read but it takes a long time to get to that point...it suffices to say that the book certainly makes you think about what's out there in the universe and how Earthlings would be viewed/perceived/treated by others if there are indeed others out there, and the high stakes involved to survive in the cosmos (...the dangers of the dark forest indeed...). It's a great fleshing out of a thought experiment as to how to deal with other lifeforms in space. 
10. Score: probably not as strong as the first book (but could have been had it been less convoluted): I say 4.2-4.4/5

Oakleaf Bearers (The Battle for Skandia) (Ranger's Apprentice #4)

1. A solid addition to the series. Whilst the first 50-100 pages was slightly slower, I enjoyed the further exploration of the geography and world of RA
2. It's better than book 3 but that's probably because of: 1) the fact that all of our characters are finally reunited and working as a team; and 2) just as books 1 and 2 were meant to be one book, it appears book 4 is merely the second half of book 3's story - it concludes the story arc of the search for Will and Evanlyn. 
3. (Although books 1-4 feel like 1 big book or saga really split into 2 sections)
4. One of my favourite themes of shaky alliances is explored well in this book
5. Plots, counterplots, archery and battlefield tactics and coordination make for great reading in the last part of this book! The feels!
6. Some of the earlier dialogue appeared to me to be a bit..cheesy and skewed towards eg young readers or antiquated views re the traditional role of girls and boys, but I turned a blind eye to that. 
7. It's particularly uplifting to see Will regain his fitness, and it's interesting to see a new enemy and country brought in the series (including their tactics, military structure and way of fighting) - also interesting to see Halt's backstory weave into their introduction
8. We also learn more about the Skandians and their country, fighting style and attitudes (building upon what we learnt since book 2) which adds to the flavour of the series in addition to what we know of Gallica
9. I have to say though that the Skandian's rudimentary knowledge of fighting / war tactics seems a bit too unbelievable and naive. Halt is certainly a tactician but some of his advice is common sense
10. Our main characters also finally get the reward, closure and payback us readers have been looking for - with everyone caught up with their exploits since book 2 and 3 - though not without a twinge of bittersweetness at the end
11. Minor gripe: the title of the book is a bit weird - why Oakleaf Bearers? Seems a bit more anticlimactic and evocative than previous titles
12. I'd probably score this 4.25-4.4/5
13. The Battle for Skandia is a much better title (America only apparently)

The Icebound Land (Ranger's Apprentice #3)

1.  Didn't like it as much as the first two books but still a great addition to the series. The first half of the book was not as good as the last half but perhaps that is normal. 
2. I was half wondering how John Flanagan would be able to sustain the super high standard - and here's my answer. While this is still very good I think it was lowered here 
3. However I loved how Halt's and Horace's feelings for Will (including those of friendship, loyalty) are explored early on
4. It was awesome to see the world map expand and new Kingdoms traversed
5. It's also fun to see Horace develop including in his interactions and friendship with Halt
6. Will and friends continue to be split and the challenges they face are quite different now - broadly, without spoilers, there is a greater focus on survival not in the sense of battle but on more primal aspects and re: fundamental threats like hunger, the elements, captivity... and more relating to captivity
7. There isn't really a big supervillain in this book to be defeated so again this book strays from the formula a bit but there is a mini villain
8. I enjoyed it - perhaps the City of Rats from DQ was more enjoyable at this relative juncture (again, continuing this clearly not apples to apples comparison of the two series)
9. The story was focussed more about raw physical survival (including looking for Will) than battles, messages, strategies and tactics - which I guess I didn't like as much. I prefer the latter. 
10. The ending is satisfactory but is a clear set up for the next book
11. Maybe a 4 -4.1/5