The Redemption of Time

By: Baoshu, Ken Liu - Translator

Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan

Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

Set in the universe of the New York Times best-selling Three-Body Problem trilogy, The Redemption of Time continues Cixin Liu’s multi-award-winning science fiction saga. This original story by Baoshu - published with Liu’s support - envisions the aftermath of the conflict between humanity and the extraterrestrial Trisolarans.  

In the midst of an interstellar war, Yun Tianming found himself on the front lines. Riddled with cancer, he chose to end his life, only to find himself flash frozen and launched into space where the Trisolaran First Fleet awaited. Captured and tortured beyond endurance for decades, Yun eventually succumbed to helping the aliens subjugate humanity in order to save Earth from complete destruction.  

Granted a healthy clone body by the Trisolarans, Yun has spent his very long life in exile as a traitor to the human race. Nearing the end of his existence at last, he suddenly receives another reprieve - and another regeneration. A consciousness calling itself The Spirit has recruited him to wage battle against an entity that threatens the existence of the entire universe. But Yun refuses to be a pawn again and makes his own plans to save humanity’s future....

©2011, 2016 Text Copyright by Baoshu (宝树); English translation copyright by China Educational Publications Import & Export Corp., Ltd. (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

This is a tough one.

The author clearly states that this is a work of fan fiction. At its best, it is close to the most out there parts towards the end of Death's End. At its worst, it is, well, fan fiction. I am just not sure that this book is entirely necessary, and that is coming from someone who rates the original trilogy very highly. Read/listen at your own risk.

Speaking of listening, P. J. Ochlan is still great.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

I didn't like it or the fact that I read it

The author just added sci fi stuff to parts of the original story that were left purposely ambivalent. Where the original trilogy dealt with difficult and convoluted themes such as humanity, terror, crisis, and personal as well as societal growth, all while using actual laws of physics as a framework for the literary universe, Redemption of Time, just seemed to have "cool sci fi stuff"™ for no reason other than it seemed cool. Alone, this might have been a fun short story to read, but when compared to the magnificence and depth of the original trilogy, there is almost no comparison. I was expecting a lot more from it, from the praises it was getting.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

If you want a neat little bow tied around it.

If you finished Death's End and were wishing that every single loose thread from the trilogy could get some type of explanation, then this is the story for you. I enjoyed revisiting the Three Body Problem world for the first hour or so of this, but the need to explain EVERYTHING never lets you forget this is a work of fan fiction and it becomes harder and harder to take seriously. After a major shift for the second half of the book, things completely fall apart and I can honestly say the ending is perhaps the most groan inducing one I've ever read.

Overall I'm still giving this three stars because even though it was disappointing, I was happy to at least revisit the Three Body world in some capacity, and since I wasn't expecting much from this fan fiction going in I wasn't too disappointed. Ken Liu once again gives a solid if not spectacular performance, and even though Baoshu faltered on the story, his love for the universe it inhabits is evident.

If you NEED more Three Body despite some major flaws, give this a go. Otherwise pass.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

I'm glad the original author allowed this..

It's been a while since I read The Three Body Problem. I was impressed at how the latter part of the series was fleshed out the way it is in this novel; in fact a little more impressed with this than the 3rd novel of the series. My only detraction - mild spoiler here - is that at times the opponents that begin in 10 dimensional space seem confusing-with so many extra names like Creator and Master, Lurker, etc. it could be hard to tell which was which and what entities were serving whom.. albeit I realized with a moment of clarity that neither were villains, just different aspects or interpretations. Kudos to the author for revealing the true forms of the TriSolarans, and turning Sophon into more of a Loki like character versus the scheming murderer portrayed in the original trilogy.

Get it!

A delightful and worthy addition to the Remembrance Canon, with my favorite qualities of great Sci-Fi; humor, real people, interesting play with technical concepts, and callouts to the classics.

If you read the trilogy, read this.

It's indulgent fanfiction so that you don't have to feel bad about reading because it's published as a book. If you haven't read the trilogy and loved it this book is not for you.

non-hard science fan fiction

This is fanfiction, which while not bad in itself greatly diverges from the tone of voice and hard science style of the original trilogy. To me, it did not fit the original at all and it seemed as though no attempt was made to do so. Would have liked it better in a standalone, unrelated universe.

Reads like twilight

it's insulting to call this book 4 of the three body series. After a lengthy prologue explaining how it's fan fiction and approves by the original author it immediately addresses themes, lust desire and romance, that are absent from the original series.

Might be good, I couldn't get past the first 10 minutes.

Gushingly Good

Gushing is what this is; an overabundance of ideas and plot and character continuations that work a little more than they don’t. I jumped on this as soon as I saw it, since I would do ANYTHING to get back into Cixin Liu’s immaculate and genre-defining world. That includes letting a couple things slide in this superfan’s paean to the master’s work, like taking a little too much liberty by creating a new ending to the Three-Body trilogy. The author is so determined to cram in so many new ideas in and make them somehow fit and fill out Liu’s world that it gets a bit overwhelming. I was also worried that it was headed into spiritual and religious territory before it pulled back just in time. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, as will any fan of the trilogy. Fleshing out Singer was inspired, and it was wonderful to hear P. J. Ochlan’s characters again, especially Sofon. While The Redemption of Time can’t compare to the originals, it makes for a very nice reflection. More, please!

You can tell it's fan fiction

One of my biggest issues with Death's End was how quickly it rushed through events, leaving a lot frustrating gaps, so when I heard of this book I was willing to go to fan fiction to fill in those gaps. The results here are mixed. It starts off strong, the earliest portion details Yun Tianming's time aboard to Trisolaran fleet before his meeting with Cheng Xin in the broadcast era. In my opinion that should've been in Death's End in the first place, but the version described here is still quite good and wouldn't have felt out of place in that book. After a baffling and totally unnecessary "revelation" about Ai AA's past (probably the most "faniction-y" part of the whole book), it dives headfirst into an entirely new plotline where Tianming is drafted into a war between beings from the original ten dimensional universe, which is interesting in theory but complicated and somewhat technical in a way that isn't very well suited to the author's style (notably, basically the entire novel consists of characters standing around doing nothing but talking to each other). If you liked the pure sci-fi elements of the original trilogy then you might like it, but it has a couple of major problems. First, a very large part (about two continuous hours in audiobook form) is told from the perspective of an alien race and written entirely from their idiosyncratic point of view, it's a nice idea in theory but listening to it for two hours straight can get a little confusing/irritating. Second, it involves an insanely large time jump that makes the hibernation periods from Death's End look like nothing. I don't want to spoil things for people but it's seriously ridiculous, and the author's attempts to neatly tie everything together at the end are just hokey and eyeroll inducing.

I do like the idea of having "official" fan fiction to fill in gaps from the original trilogy, the one part of The Redemption of Time that concerned itself with that was great and I wish it had just been that. Maybe more fan works like this could be published later. Ultimately for fans of the original trilogy that want more, I think I'd probably have to recommend Ball Lightning over this, but if you've already read that too then this at least has a good first third or so. But I would never in ten billion years want to consider it part of the canon story