This could've been a fantastic tale, and to be fair to Liu Cixin, the high wire act he tried to pull off was ambitious as hell. The story weaves historical fiction (set for the most part during and in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution), hard physics-based sci-fi, and a tale of personal tragedy. For at least a third of the book, I was absolutely engrossed. Unfortunately, the set-up provided no real pay-off. Twists seem thrown in for the sake of getting thrown in. One character who we become emotionally invested in makes a bizarre and frankly horrific decision. Random and uninteresting characters pop in just to provide background. All action stops so characters can tell long stories to other characters just so the holes in the plot can be filled. The scientific concepts were fascinating, but occasionally delved far too deeply into technical details. I wanted to love this book, but could barely keep my attention until the rather dull conclusion.