Death's End

Death's End

United States edition cover
Author	Liu Cixin
Original title	死神永生
Translator	Ken Liu
Language	Chinese
Series	Remembrance of Earth's Past
Genre	Science fiction, Hard science fiction
Publication date	2010
Publication place	China
Pages	592
ISBN	978-0765377104
Preceded by	The Dark Forest

Death's End
Chinese	死神永生
Literal meaning	God of Death Lives Forever
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin sǐshén yǒngshēng IPA [sì.ʂə̌n jʊ̀ŋ.ʂə́ŋ] Yue: Cantonese Jyutping sei2 san4 wing5 sang1 Southern Min Hokkien POJ sí-sîn éng-seng

Death's End (Chinese: 死神永生) is a science fiction novel by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin. It is the third novel in the trilogy titled Remembrance of Earth's Past, following the Hugo Award-winning novel The Three-Body Problem and its sequel, The Dark Forest. The original Chinese version was published in 2010. Ken Liu translated the English edition in 2016. It was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel and winner of the 2017 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

Plot

The story is divided into a number of eras, each corresponding to a different stage in humanity's advancement and evolving relationship to other civilizations. The Common Era includes all of recorded history up until the events of The Three-Body Problem. The Crisis Era includes the events of The Dark Forest.

Common Era (Present - 201X C.E)

During the Fall of Constantinople in AD 1453, the passage of a "four-dimensional fragment" through the Solar System imbues a prostitute with temporary powers to retrive objects from enclosed spaces by exploiting the fourth dimension.

Crisis Era (201X - 2208)

In the early years of the Trisolar Crisis, young aerospace engineer Cheng Xin is recruited by the Planetary Intelligence Agency (PIA) under its coldly-rational chief Thomas Wade. They initiate the "Staircase Project", which attempts to send a human to the approaching Trisolaran invasion fleet to gather intelligence. Due to technological contraints, they are unable to send a live human and are limited to sending a human brain, which they hope the technologically-advanced Trisolarans will revive.

Cheng persuades her terminally-ill acquaintance and secret admirer Yun Tianming to donate his brain for the Staircase Project. Coincidentally, Yun had anonymously purchased the distant star DX3906 for Cheng in a UN-organized fundraising auction. Cheng enters hibernation to await the Staircase Project's outcome.

Deterrence Era (2208 - 2270)

Earth and Trisolaris have entered a truce due to the dark forest deterrence. The deterrence is enforced by the "Swordholder": an individual who, should Trisolaris violate the truce, is authorized to send a cosmic broadcast containing Trisolaris' location, which would invite the mutual destruction of both Trisolaris and Earth by third parties. Cheng wakes from hibernation, and is elected to succeed the aging Luo Ji, the inaugural Swordholder who established the dark forest deterrence.

However, immediately after the Swordholder succession, Trisolaris breaks the truce and launches an attack on Earth's cosmic broadcast abilities. Cheng refuses to activate the deterrence as per the Trisolarans' prediction.

Post Deterrence Era (2270 - 2272)

With Earth-based deterrence systems neutralized, Trisolaris announces a renewed invasion effort. However, one remaining functional broadcast system remains onboard the starship Gravity, which was initially sent to deep space to capture the fugitive ship Blue Space. Trisolaris' attempt to attack Gravity is thwarted by Blue Space's crew, who exploits the fourth dimension to do so. Believing Earth to be lost, the two ships' combined crew activate Gravity's broadcast system as revenge against Trisolaris' treachery.

Broadcast Era (2272 - 2332)

Gravity's broadcast result in Trisolaris' destruction. Understanding that Earth is also at risk of imminent destruction, the surviving Trisolaran fleets abandon their invasion attempt. Having intercepted Yun's brain and revived him, the Trisolarans permit Cheng to converse with him. He sends a coded message containing survival advice for humanity. Three survival tactics are decoded:

• the "Bunker Project": building of space cities in the gas giants' shadows to survive the Sun's destruction
• the development of lightspeed travel (which is later banned)
• the development of a "black domain", a region of space with decreased lightspeed that can act as a shield.

Bunker Era (2333 - 2400)

By the Bunker Era, humanity has built several space cities according to the Bunker Project, but progress on the Black Domain Plan is stalled. Cheng is awoken as Wade has successfully but illegally developed the backbone technology for lightspeed travel. She forbids its use. She re-enters hibernation, pending the dark forest attack on the Solar System.

Several decades later, an unknown hostile alien race launches such an attack, which progressively collapses the three-dimensional space within the Solar System into two. As the escape velocity from the dimensional attack is lightspeed, the vast majority of humanity is killed.

Cheng and her aide AA are awoken. They visit Luo Ji on Pluto, who informs them their spaceship contains the only surviving lightspeed engine from Wade's experiments. Cheng and AA escape to DX3906, the star bought for her by Yun.

Cheng, AA, Yun, and the crews of Galaxy and Blue Space are thus the only humans remaining in the universe.

Galaxy Era (2273 - unknown)

Cheng and AA arrive at DX3906's "Planet Blue" 286 years later, though the voyage passes quickly for them due to time dilation from the lightspeed travel. There they encounter Guan Yifan, a civilian cosmologist on Gravity, who explains that the two ships' crew have founded several interstellar societies.

Leaving AA on Planet Blue, Cheng and Guan fly to the nearby "Planet Gray", where they discover several unstable seed elements of a black domain. As they attempt to escape back to Planet Blue, the black domain grows to encompass the entire DX3906 system. The significantly-decreased lightspeed within the black domain cause Cheng and Guan to experience severe time dilation; almost 19 million years have passed on Planet Blue's reference frame by the time Cheng and Guan manage to decelerate and return.

In their absence, Yun had visited Planet Blue to deliver "Universe 647": a Trisolaran-constructed self-contained micro-universe that exists outside of the conventional timeline. Cheng and Guan live in Universe 647's pastorally-decorated interior, hoping to outlast the main universe and observe its rebirth in a Big Bounce.

After a period of idyllic living, they receive a message from the main universe, stating that the presence of micro-universes deprives the main universe of mass, disrupting its cycle of expansion, collapse and rebirth. Cheng, feeling a moral responsibility to the universe, orders Universe 647's re-integration with the main universe.

Key characters

In the following, Chinese names are written with the family name first and given name second.

Cheng Xin (程心)

Aerospace engineer from the early 21st century, the proposer of the Staircase Project, the second Swordholder, and the owner of the DX3906 star system

Yun Tianming (云天明)

Cheng Xin's university classmate who is romantically interested in her. His brain is sent into space and captured by the Trisolaran fleet, who clones his body and returns him to life

Thomas Wade (托马斯·维德)

The cold-hearted and ruthlessly rational PIA Chief who later leads an effort to create lightspeed propulsion

Ai AA (艾AA)

Astronomer from the Deterrence Era; Cheng Xin's aide, friend and travelling companion

Luo Ji (罗辑)

Cosmic sociologist, former Wallfacer, and the first Swordholder, returning from The Dark Forest

Guan Yifan (关一帆)

Civilian astronomer aboard the spaceship Gravity

Awards

Awards
2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel	Finalist
2017 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel	Won
2017 Dragon Awards for Best Science Fiction Novel	Nominated

External links

• Official website