I listened to this book on the recommendation of my sci fi friend and for my book club. It provided an entertaining way to pass the time while I painted on of the rooms in our house.
Liu Cixin is the first Chinese National's book I've experienced, and I found myself wondering if the intense governmental regimentation and surveillance of the society he describes is supposed to be dystopian or something actually more akin to the current Chinese form of government.
It took me some time to understand what was going on, and at first, I found the author's exhaustively drawn out descriptions and lack of character development and discernible plot boring -- but since I was busy painting, I kept listening. I was pleased to find that as the narrative continued, the story began to unfold. Given the non-linear storytelling and time-jumping, I'm not sure how much of that is a convention of sci fi writing, or something more representative of the different ways mainland Chinese literature approaches plot vs. Western writing (its tendency toward building tension and more immediate gratification). The willingness of characters to commit suicide and/or doom society by reaching out to alien life (based on an assumption of human corruption) also struck me as very un-Western. Self-interest seems to me a hallmark of Western culture/psyche. I have no idea how such two opposing cultures will get along in the future...sigh.
I didn't understand all the nitty-gritty physics details thrown in, but I didn't try to. The author is obviously quite steeped in physics, which more hardcore physics/engineers would probably appreciate.
I doubt I will seek out the rest of the books in the series. There are too many other things out there for me to read.