Ah, ok, I haven't read DF yet. I think what you've given me here is a bit of a spoiler, but enough to make me actually want to read it.
Is the English translation that's out right now good enough? I've heard very mixed reviews about it - does it make sense to wait for a possible new translation, or should I just dive in?
Also, I thought that the Sophons were an AI, and that their actions on Earth were largely self-controlled - not driven by Trisolarians remotely.
I think the rules for the sophons are not entirely clear, because he set them up as a plot device for a few of the things he needed (FTL, no more science, omniscience of the enemy) in order to create the special conditions that force humanity to defend itself by creative thinking and this is also why I didn't spend too long cross-referencing their viability. Nevertheless I vaguely remember them being some kind of giant PCB when unfolded in 2D with a fairly high level of abstraction and autonomy without being strong AI (and therefore a new civilisation). It's a given in the plot anyway that you don't want to create a higher civilisation, because of the DF... well, I'm not going to spoil it, but the Trisolarians have very good reason not to create real intelligence capable of resetting its goals.
The translation is as good as it's going to get. The main issue is that Liu is from the PRC and spent most of his life there. It took me years in Asia to slowly realise how differently the Chinese think from Westerners (hell, Westerners themselves think very differently just across borders - compare the worldview of a Brit to that of a Nordic or a Frenchman). If you compare Strugatsky and Asimov, you also get this huge cultural difference that is untranslatable because of the large amount of metadata bagage that Russians would already have coming into Strugatsky's work after growing up in Russia.
The book is "very Chinese", if that makes sense, which I think is what confuses people (and to me is a feature). A quick intro to what that means might be watching a few episodes of If You Are The One (非诚勿扰), a slightly crazy dating show that since the second season has had a government censor added to the panel to moderate the gold diggers; an Australian TV channel has started subtitling a bunch of episodes, although I unfortunately could never find the infamous season 1 ("I'd rather cry at the back of a BMW than smile on a bicycle"). You both get a sample of PRC normal citizen thinking and a taste of how the government is setting the tone culturally.
I'd love to get an annotated translation that dives deeper into the characters' motivations. The translation I had was full of footnotes, but mostly explaining historical and cultural allusions. But I think the book would probably be three times longer, and would raise more questions than it would answer.
Thanks for taking the time to have a nice, long conversation with me about this!
Is the English translation that's out right now good enough? I've heard very mixed reviews about it - does it make sense to wait for a possible new translation, or should I just dive in?
Also, I thought that the Sophons were an AI, and that their actions on Earth were largely self-controlled - not driven by Trisolarians remotely.