SoLongThx4TheFish

I think the oxygen is down to less than a day now, starting from a best case scenario of 96h when contact was lost.

The third book was so bad. I loved the first and actually enjoyed the second (it was the first time i heard about "the dark forest" theory), but the third just annoyed me.

From the moment the MC failed her task because of her motherly instincts or some bs like that to the last 100+ pages that were just the author masturbating over his ideas of how ultra high-tech-civilizations could develop, there was nothing that made sense or was really compelling about it.

You missed nothing stopping midway through book 3.

For the second concern i like the two Hainish Circle books i have read, "The dispossessed" and "The left hand of darkness". They mention that something like earth exists, but it's not even a plot point, it's just another planet. But then again these books are social commentar / thought experiment first and foremost, they just happen to be in a Sci-Fi setting.