I’m not reading Nobodys Girl but I had a similar experience.

I read Lolita in my 20s and found it a beautifully written text. I reread it in my 30s and couldn’t get through it because of the subject matter. I guess I developed empathy.

I don’t think you’re dishonoring the author by giving up if its a bit too much

Any ideology that proposes deliberately making peoples lives worse is not worth discussing.

If I’m playing devils avocado I guess rapid technological and economic growth gives us more value to appropriate in the name of the proletariat?

Whenever I’ve used an LLM to edit anything it goes right ahead and removes my voice from the text, even more advanced models and even when I repeatedly clarify that that’s not what I want. I don’t think it’s up to the task.

I read the first book and I think it is the first time in decades that I have encountered actual sci-fi concepts that weren’t a reworking of ideas that have been around for decades.

It’s not a character driven novel but the characters are fine, mostly they’re not that likeable - which in my opinion is not a reason to dislike a story - and I think they probably lose something in translation. When I was a teenager I devoured Asimov, Phillip K Dick, Heinlein etc for the concepts, compared to them the characters in 3 Body are masterfully written.

I haven’t yet read the second book as I found the first few chapters a bit of a slog but I plan to pick it up again once I’ve finished rereading some Ursula K LeGuin