It was written in just three weeks as a fan fiction to continue the events of the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy by Liu Cixin following the publication of its last installment Death's End in November 2010.
After the expansion of the death lines and the fall of system DX3906 into a black domain with a reduced speed of light, Yun Tianming and 艾 AA are left alone on planet blue.
Yun Tianming admits to have given away the best chance, which was saving Cheng Xin from being murdered by Thomas Wade by ordering the Trisolarans to change his vision with the sophons.
Cheng Xin and Guan Yifan leave pocket universe 647 and are greeted by Yun Tianming and a new clone of 艾 AA with all her memories.
Red Coast Base was terminated without result, Shi Qiang dies in the Vietnam War and Cheng Xin is a boy being adopted by Zhang Yuanchao.
"[3] Kirkus Reviews made a few comparisons to other novels and writers, claiming the "entities at odds since the beginning of time bring to mind the creation story in J.R.R.
Tolkien's The Silmarillion", that the "universe-engulfing struggle recalls John C. Wright's astonishing multibook Eschaton saga" and that the "whole has a transcendental quality that might earn a nod from William Blake".
"[2] World Literature Today criticized that "vast portions of this book consist of characters telling one another about events—some quite spectacular and important to the story—that happen offstage" and hence "much is told; little is shown."