Loved the first book. I couldn't finish the second book. It had a different translator but maybe that was why it was hard to be interested in.
Also, it felt like a Russian novel in that we had to learn about what happened to your grandparents, their treatment during the counter revolution to understand what was happening to people in today's world. I found that not very persuasive in terms of character. Is that really the way people in China see the world? As an american, I do think I'm optimistic and don't want to think about how history affects people. But it does a good bit. But my forefathers were not tortured and brutalized in the same way the people in the story faced. My grandfather was in WW2, but since he came back and went to college, that made it easier for my father and me and hopefully for my son.
Maybe if I was African American, I might see things differently. They certainly suffered from brutal treatment making it harder for later generations to succeed.
But the novel itself, I wanted more character. Once I got the 3 body problem idea, I wanted to find out what happened in the second novel, but it was hard to be interested.