There's enough going on at the level of story to keep me reading Cixin Liu's science fiction even when I don't have much of a clue as to the details of what's actually happening. I finished reading The Dark Forest in a couple of days, and I suppose I'm glad I persevered since at least I have some grasp of why there's a fuss about the writer and the trilogy of his novels that begins with The Three Body Problem. But I have to say that at the level of characterisation I cannot connect with his work.
I get the feeling I'm expected to feel something for characters that barely register as two dimensional and that's a lot to ask for. On the other hand, when the writer is busy wiping out lots of folk in suitably apocalyptic fashion there's a genuine melancholy generated. It's a question of scale I suppose.
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