Tremmpleton Family Book Reviews: The Redemption of Time

Hi everyone! Here is another Tremmpleton Family book review! However, this time it is just Michael writing since he is the only one who read this.

The Redemption of Time by Baoshu is an "unofficial" fourth book in the Remembrance of Earth's Past series (or... the Three Body Problem series), which was a fantastic sci-fi epic that won many awards. The first book in the series was the first ever written by an Asian writer to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel. I read it and loved it, though the level of existential dread and/or loneliness it inspired did make it hard at times to get through (but really, it may sound odd but that's what makes it good in my opinion!). The original series definitely has serious problems, which I allude to in relation to the issues in the Redemption of time, which are mostly the same but, in my opinion, more damning.

If you haven't read the Three Body Problem books and you really love hard sci-fi, do it! If you don't like them, it should be pretty clear before you finish the first book. If you fall deep into the story like I did, pick up this book when you are done and give it a read. It doesn't match up to the original trilogy in any positive way, but it does add to it and make for an enjoyable read for anyone invested in this world.



I've tried to make the following review more digestible to someone who hasn't read the series (there are also some minor spoilers!) but this is probably most useful to someone who already knows the Three Body Problem books (and, as I said, this is really who I think should be reading this story anyway).

The Redemption of Time is both an extended epilogue to the Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy and also greatly expands on the details regarding the story of a secondary (though critically important) character, Yun Tianming, taking place concurrently with the original trilogy. In particular, it details his experience as a captor of the alien race called the Trisolarans. These details further contextualize several aspects of the original Trilogy, mostly for the better but sometimes I felt the details cheapened the original story (see below). The story picks up more or less where the original trilogy leaves off, with Yun and his soon-to-be lover, AA, marooned on "Planet Blue". Yun recants his past adventures to AA, and the reader learns about Yun's interaction with the mysterious "Spirit". It ends up that Yun is a part of a Universe-scale war waged since the beginning of time!

The core concept of this intergalactic shadow war waged since the Big Bang is very interesting and I really enjoyed the new perspectives it offers the reader on the ideas explored in the original trilogy (particularly the "Dark Forest" theory). Most of the additional details the reader learns about the adventures of Yun add to the original story positively, though I felt some details were superfluous and really took me out of the story. For example (spoiler here!), there is an alien artificial intelligence in the original story that takes the form of a woman. It is revealed that this form was taken from Yun Tianming's mind so she has the form of the porn star he was obsessed with in his youth. He doesn't say this specifically, but it is implied... and a quick google search shows that she is actually a real life person. I found this detail completely unnecessary and also pretty gross and weird (why did the author make it a real person!?). Details like this take the reader out of the story unnecessarily (as it did me!) and cheapens the overall experience.

The main issue with this story is that, unlike the original trilogy, it is very focused on two specific characters, Yun Tianming and AA. When reading the Remembrance Trilogy, I regarded character development as by far the weakest aspect of the story, but the nature of the story made that a minor grievance. To me, it was Humanity that was the main character and the reader regards their history through the eyes of a few characters. The characters were not dynamic, but that was ok because I felt more like I was reading a book recanting the future history of the Human race. I do not have this feeling about this story. Yun Tianming is clearly the main character, yet as a character he is quite weak. There is little personal development, nor does it feel as if his flaws or personal challenges are driving the narrative at all. Rather, he feels more like a plot device meant to drive the bigger story, which I grant is a very interesting one. Some of the more minor characters felt more developed and interesting by comparison, such as a couple of aliens responding to the destruction of their civilization.

Another shortcoming, which is shared by the original trilogy, is how the story handles female characters (and the concept of femininity all together). Femininity is stereotypically associated with love, caring, and overall weakness. This was a recurring theme in the Remembrance Trilogy and, while it is actually less of an issue all together in Redemption of Time, it is made blatantly obvious. For example, AA has a PhD in astronomy and yet one would ever know this by the way her character behaves. Were it not for a few direct reminders put in for the reader, it really would never have come up. The first half of this story is meant to not only expand on Yun's past adventures, but to develop the relationship between him and AA. Not only does it fail to do this because of poor character development and dialog, but AA as a character feels flat and pointless to the story. Her only role, it seems, is to provide a companion for Yun to be naked with on the lonely Planet Blue, a fact that the reader is repeatedly reminded of for little reason. Many of the interactions between Yun and AA, particularly the intimate ones, ended up taking me out of the story and feeling as if I were reading the fan fiction of a horny college boy (which, given that this was originally fan fiction is probably not entirely untrue). At best these details were unnecessary and at worst they further betray the misogyny inherent in the book and really the entire series.

Overall, I enjoyed this book for the creative concept it put forth for the origin and future of the Universe, and because I was already heavily invested in the world developed in the original Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. Yet there are seriously flaws in the story that definitely hindered my overall experience and would, I think, make it pretty unpalatable to any reader not already invested in the series.