This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“By an overwhelming majority, a
special session of the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution
declaring Escapism a violation of international law. In strong language, the resolution condemned
the division and turmoil that Escapism has created within human society, and
described Escapism as a crime against humanity in the eyes of international
law. The resolution called on member
states to enact legislation as soon as possible to put a stop to Escapism.” –
Cixin Liu, Chapter: Year 3, Crisis Era, Page 374
“It took just an instant for Luo Ji to comprehend the true
nature of his status as Wallfacer. Like
Say had said, before the mission was handed down, the ones who would undertake
it could not have been consulted. And
once the Wallfacer mission and identity were granted, they could not be refused
or abandoned. This impossibility was not
due to any individual’s coercion, but because cold logic, as determined by the
project’s very nature, meant that once someone became a Wallfacer, an invisible
and impenetrable screen was immediately thrown up between them and ordinary
people that made their every action significant.” – Cixin Liu, Chapter: Year 3,
Crisis Era, Page 424
“The Wallfacers were subject to increasing scrutiny from the
community. Whether they had asked for
the role or not, they had been set up in the eyes of the masses as messiah
figures. Accordingly, a Wallfacer cult
sprang up. No matter how many
explanations the UN and PDC issued, legends of their supernatural abilities
circulated widely and grew increasingly fanciful. In science fiction movies, they were shown as
superheroes, and, in the eyes of many, they were the sole hope for
humanity. This gave the Wallfacers an
enormous amount of popular and political capital that guaranteed things would
go smoothly when they tapped huge amounts of resources.” – Cixin Liu, Chapter:
Year 8, Crisis Era, Page 483
Is This An Overview?
The Trisolarans are heading to
Earth, with ill intent towards humankind.
Trisolaran technology is far advanced compared to what humans have, but
during the time it would take the Trisolarans to reach Earth, humans have the
potential to develop more advanced technology compared to what Trisolarans
have. A potential nullified by
Trisolaran sophon technology, that is used to prevent humans from understanding
physics, from gaining more knowledge about how reality works. This limits human technology to developments
using knowledge already possessed.
Sophons have another function, to inform the Trisolarans of everything
that humans are doing and saying. The
threat posed by the Trisolarans changes human society. Governments and economies change their
priorities, people suffer from psychological turmoil. Various methods are proposed to handle the threats.
A limit to the sophons,
is their inability to know what someone is thinking. Humans create the Wallfacer Project to take
advantage of the secrets people carry in their thoughts. The Wallfacers are four individuals chosen to
think of a plan without explaining to others what the plan is. Nobody can know what the Wallfacers are
actually thinking. With minor
limitations, whatever the Wallfacers want, others have to find a way to obtain
what they want. The Wallfacers come from
different backgrounds and begin to think of methods to overcome the Trisolaran
threat. The Wallfacers are treated as
saviors of humankind.
While there are those
wanting humans to overcome the Trisolaran threat, leading to support for the
Wallfacer methods. There are humans who
have allied themselves to the Trisolarans, and want the Trisolarans to
succeed. The Trisolaran human allies
find a Wallbreaker for each Wallfacer.
The Wallbreakers’ task is to expose the plan that the Wallfacers have in
their thoughts. Can the Wallfacers find
a method to save humanity or will the Wallbreakers succeed in reading the
Wallfacers thoughts?
Caveats?
This book not only requires readers
to have some familiarity with science, but the reader also has to become an
investigator. The reader has to become a
Wallbreaker, to continuously try to figure out the Wallfacers plan. This book is filled with events that appear
to have insignificant consequences, obvious consequences, or random behavior,
which can have drastic consequences for the future of humanity, and have
different reasons and outcomes than expected.
The variety of events can make it difficult to understand how they
coalesce, and the variety of perspectives can be difficult to keep track of.
