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My rating: 5 out of 5

My review:

The world had never ceased to change, but it would also never change for anyone.

I got to this book through reading Ken Liu’s translation of Three Body Problem (one of my favourite sci-fi series). He has done similar great work translating this story.

The story reminded me of William Gibson writing in many ways (especially Neuromancer storyline), but sprinkled with Chinese culture. The ecology, technology and culture mixing and transforming each other in an interesting way. Everything done in small steps, believable and not too outlandish or sci-fi, but more cyber punk.

Chen Qiufan provided a well balanced amount of information. Enough to form a sense of the world, but not drown the reader in minutia of how things work. And perhaps the greatest achievement from my point of view - after reading the book, I am not even sure who were the villains and who were the victims in the end. Perhaps nobody is without fault…