>>7968I think people liked it because the 'high concept science fiction porn' is just amazing and the characters are very good.
The main theme in those books is the dark-forest solution to the Fermi paradox. (We can't see any signs of aliens because everybody in the universe is hiding). All the aliens think like ultra neocons, interstellar diplomacy doesn't exist and the way to be safe is to exterminate rival species or hide from extermination. That's a very myopic outlook, and could be considered reactionary.
Dark Forest is not realistic but it is how some people think.
In my humble opinion the cultural revolution was a mistake, the goals were honorable but the implementation was a total crap-shoot. The critique of the cultural revolution in these books is slightly anti-communist, yes, but it is not too bad, it will not spoil your enjoyment of it. It is not a main plot point, 90% of the books is just exploration of cool scifi ideas.
One of the political themes is how technologically less advanced humans try to cope with more advanced aliens that want to destroy humanity. It reflects how many people in the world felt about the military interventions of the United states. The aliens even say that humans are bugs, which mirrors US propaganda from the cold war that depicted Chinese people as an insect colony.
The author has a philosophy related to Daoism and Taoism that teaches indifference to the suffering of others. I did not like that but he is not forcing it on you, his writing style is the opposite of Ayn Rand's. (She is trying to force the reader to see the world her way in a very obnoxious way)
<what else can be saidThe science was very well researched for the time of release, but since then some of the predictions have been refuted.
The secondary theme in those books is the idea that civilizations are trial and error.
The ending of the third book is lame.
All the weapons are allegories for ideological biases, except for one that is just based on an egg slicer.
The only diplomat in this book is a frozen head.
It's not the best scifi story, but it is the most original one.