[Zababa]

I agree with you, what I was opposing was more the reductivist view of things like "Half life is just ...". You could do the same with the Three Body Problem series and it would absolutely fail to explain what's great about the series. First book: detective story mixed with historical events. Second book: smart guy vs other smart guy. Third book: history through the eyes of one person that was here at pivotal events.

The comment I replied to mentionned:

> There were some cool extra details - the G Man, the marines entering as a third force, the diversions to do things like launch a missile into space - but all of those things were additional to that same, basic story.

I think it's wrong to separate a story between "a story" and "the details", all stories are the same if you boils them down enough.