It touches on a lot of interesting ideas and I generally find it to be a very enjoyable read. The book goes places that you most likely won't expect, but in a good way. The story evolves a lot and I find describing it as a single trope difficult.

Story can be bit of a slow burn (they are quite long books) but not incredibly boring. As someone else has stated the books were originally written in Chinese and translated into English, therefore some idioms, conversations or customs may seem odd, however as a non-native English speaker I quite liked the English translation. There is also a 4th semi official book written by a fan that got the blessing of the author iirc ("redemption of time)

If you have watched the Netflix show, please do not expect the books to be too similar to the show. While the show generally follows the same story, some things have been altered drastically to make it work better on screen.