“Death’s End” by Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu)

This is the final novel in Liu’s “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy. Clocking in at over six hundred pages alone, this book brings the trilogy’s total page count to well over fifteen hundred. This story circles back on many of the philosophical themes of the previous books, with a continued emphasis on physics, cosmology, free will, and the nature of language. “If, as soon as you were born, you were locked inside a small box, you wouldn’t care because that was all you’ve known. But once you’ve been let out and they try to put you back in, it feels completely different.” Liu’s story also compels the reader ask what it truly means to be human. “Life reached an evolutionary milestone when it climbed onto land from the ocean, but those first fish that climbed onto land ceased to be fish. Similarly, when humans truly enter space and are free from the Earth, they cease to be human.” This novel’s time scale is also even more epic, with over eighteen million years elapsing during the course of the story. “The known universe is about sixteen billion light-years across, and it’s still expanding. But the speed of light is only three hundred thousand kilometers per second, a snail’s pace. This means that light can never go from one end of the universe to the other. Since nothing can move faster than the speed of light, it follows that no information and motive force can go from one end of the universe to the other. If the universe were a person, his neural signals couldn’t cover his entire body; his brain would not know of the existence of his limbs, and his limbs would not know of the existence of the brain.” However, as in his past novels, this story also remains rooted in the specific lives of a few core characters, who are able to transcend time and keep the reader rooted in humanity’s journey. “This wasn’t a decision born of thought, but buried deep in her genes. These genes could be traced to four billion years ago, when the decision was first made. The subsequent billions of years only strengthened it. Right or wrong, she knew she had no other choice.” This is a novel that makes one deeply ponder the meaning of humanity, the meaning of the universe, and the meaning of time, as well as the meaning of an individual life. “The child that was human civilization had opened the door to her home and glanced outside. The endless night terrified her so much that she shuddered against the expansive and profound darkness.”