Weekly “what are you reading” Thread #30

I finished the Three Body trilogy. I think Death's End weakened the series a lot, compared to the ending of The Dark Forest, but there was somewhat more thematic depth. Most people's first reaction is to dislike Cheng Xin for her weakness (which is tied closely and explicitly to her femininity), that dooms the vast majority of humanity on two separate occasions. The alternate perspective is basically a throwaway line (other people gave Cheng Xin her responsibilities, and her values are not bad).

After thinking about it further, there's a bit more depth to it. In most stories with this kind of theme, either A) the good guys compromise their values and they win, or B) the good guys refuse to compromise their values and they win. But that takes all the teeth out of the dilemma. If you are refusing to compromise your values, you must accept the possibility of defeat. Most stories don't seriously grapple with this.

The whole story has many examples of people cheating death, elongating their natural lifespans, etc. Perhaps humanity has a natural lifespan too? Would it really be worth it to abandon all values, as done in the Battle of Darkness, to stretch humanity's lifespan past its natural end? I'm not claiming that the text fully supports the "noble loser" side, but it's meant to be an actual question.