I finally finished 3 Body Problem after giving up halfway through, and starting in on the Broken Earth series (now there’s a series that deserved its awards). It did finally start to move right at the end, but before that, what a slog. Not being able to read Chinese, I can’t tell if the problem was the translation, the writing, or just that writing styles don’t translate well between the cultures, but it was terrible; stilted, poor characterization, long boooooring stretches where little happens; pulpy; and generally just plain bad. Some interesting ideas, but the writing … I can’t really explain how it could win the Hugo. But then again, the Hugo’s have often been a bit odd; Iain Banks never won one, but J.K. Rowling did.
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