Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Bought on Day 1 and finished on Day 3. It was a fantastic Sci-fi reading experience from beginning right to the end. You just couldn't stop feeling surprised and stunned by those choices and decisions made by the characters all the time, regardless they matter or not. The unthinkable scope of the plot and sceneries just repeatedly stroke your imagination and nerves like forever. Twists and turns in both large and small scale are blended into the whole logical story-line, which is so well-arranged that it turns out to be better than a mind-bending blockbuster movie. Comparing with the first volume, the new translator localized the writing in a more "English" way, making the reading for English speakers feel like reading an original Western literature instead of an Eastern-Western translation, which may not be too good for "preserving" the original writing, but... there isn't too many Chinese culture/history related content in this second book anyway. One more thing to add, unlike vivid human beings appear in regular full-length fictions, most characters Liu sculpted in his works look like symbols instead, which I fancy is on purpose, being probably the only "obstacle" for this book in the way of becoming a true saluter to those real Classics back in the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Definitely a powerful Hugo/Nebular contender and a likely winner next year. For your own sakes, read it yourselves.