My complicated relationship with this series continues. So much about this one is brilliant, but it is absolutely buried in things that made me so frustrated.

Too many times did characters suddenly have a nose dive in intellect so that the science can happen, when the science in question is so far beyond what they were capable of any way that it didn't need them to spend 10 mins scratching their heads. The human element was so weirdly clinical and inconsistent, but half of them spoke like they were all vying to get the perfect soundbite. Plus it added pages just to explore the human element but somehow still managed not to add much depth to any character other than Luo Ji. It's bizarre how many pages were devoted to this and I still barely know any of them.

I loved the actual plot and I think so many of the ideas were beyond creative, but it was just brought down by the weird need to 'but wait there's more!' its way to the next section. 

epic but translated work makes it hard to appreciate and get through. it proceeds from one scene to another clunkily, sometime abruptly plowing through plot points, other times indulging in chunks of dreamy observations, science and philosophies. 

For a book whose story I feel like I understand so little, it really manages to hit something. Not sure what my emotional reaction is, but it's sure something! 

The first half of the book is a bit of a slog--you're spending a lot of time with a main character whose main personality traits are laziness and (I would describe it as) misogyny. Luo Ji just isn't as compelling or complex of a central character as Ye Wenjie was in the first novel.
That said, once things really start moving halfway through, the plot picks up and the book dives again into the big-picture, sci-fi/sociological ideas that Cixin Liu is so brilliant for. The payoff is definitely worth it, but this one is more of a slog than the first book to get there.