Soon to be a Netflix Original Series!“War of the Worlds for the 21st century.” – Wall Street JournalThe Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China’s most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to … a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.
The Three-Body Problem Series
The Three-Body Problem
The Dark Forest
Death’s End
Other Books
Ball Lightning
Supernova Era
To Hold Up The Sky (forthcoming)
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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In his notes at the end of The Three-Body Problem, translator Ken Liu writes that, “The best translations into English do not, in fact, read as if they were originally written in English. The English words are arranged in such a way that the reader sees a glimpse of another culture’s patterns of thinking, hears an echo of another language’s rhythms and cadences, and feels a tremor of another people’s gestures and movements.”
Liu’s translation does this well. Beyond the great world building, science, and suspense, The Three-Body Problem is a window with a view of contemporary China, which I enjoyed.
I started reading the 3 Body Problem as you would any book. That is, wait for the plot to sink in, characters that stands out. Etc. Then I got to Ch6: the Shooter and the farmer and realised I was doing it all wrong.
Cixin Liu is Chinese, from a culture where verbal expressions are not as in-depth as written ones. A Hanzi ‘word’ can literally have a thousand meanings. So to understand the plot, you must clear your head, dive in and allow every paragraph to lead you.
And this is way, things will start falling into place. You learn to understand Ye Wenjie, her trials and what eventually moulds her. Why be the judge of humans?
Then you get attached to Wang Miao who gets pulled in by reasons yet unknown. He is told to infiltrate a game that places people in a virtual world to solve the 3 body problem. A not so easy task, (even for a Nano-scientist) and I will let others think on this. Just look at it this way, how stable and liveable will a planet be if it has three suns?
[ The plot thickens and the easiest part is that such a planet does exist and logically, ours is more stable. But then again we are quite different, one communicates with thought, regardless of distance-thereby almost eliminating deceit. The other, well that’s us…
It does not end there; Trisolarans can de-hydrate and get stored as scrolls during chaos eras (bad suns) and re-hydrate during stable eras (good suns). Also, out of necessity, a technologically advanced society.
They set their sights on our solar system and just to be sure we don’t have the capacity to defend ourselves, they send multi-dimensional computers that block the advancement of physics. Bam!
Fantastic—full of big ideas and human truths, as I think all excellent science fiction should be!
Probably the most science heavy science-fiction book I’ve read. I recommend going into it without any preexisting knowledge and just be surprised.
Merging real history into near-future fiction, this book offers skull-fulls of ideas along with its great plot. No wonder so many people are reading it.
I still think about this book. Many twists and turns.
While well written and full of deeply fleshed out characters, I could not get into the flow of this story. I found myself having to think too much about each piece when I was looking for the story to suck me in and hold me. I understand how others may enjoy this book, but it just wasn’t for me.
I found this book fascinating, not only for the science but also for the glimpse into how Chinese & Mao affected people. Yes, I mean the affect, not only the effect.
It’s great to see a Chinese author thriving in the American market. It’s even greater to see the PRC government allowing the international publication of a book so openly critical of the Communist Party and the Cultural Revolution. A fascinating, highly original, thought-provoking read.
This is an excellent book and very informative on Chinese culture. The science behind the story is interesting as well.
Very confusing.
The three book series is a must read – especially book 2, The Dark Forest
If you haven’t jumped into this and other books in the genre of Chinese science fiction you have a gap to fill. I saw Wandering Earth a year or two ago in the movies, and that pushed me to eventually start reading that collection of short stories and this three part book series. Recommended by President Obama! Indeed it is original and kept my attention. The world created is fascinating as is the window into Chinese social thought and history
I honestly loved this book. It is one of my favorite science-fiction novels. The author is great at world-building and using science to spin a wild narrative that is highly imaginative and at the same time believable.
The dark forest theory is especially intriguing because it hinges on the notion that it’s best not to reveal yourself as a civilization because a more technologically advanced one will see you as a threat and destroy you pre-emptively .
Very fascinating read and quite different to Western Sci-fi.
I listened to the audio. The narrator was fantastic and I felt like it was easier to follow than reading, simply because it was translated from Chinese and there was a bit of math explained. I don’t do math. But the story was intriguing and really well put together. Despite the math and such, I felt like it was all well explained in a way that someone like me can understand it. I found the concepts interesting and the story fun.
I found the first 50 pages a bit slow, but after that it picks up. Great original story.
What an interesting story coming from China. The Three-Body Problem tells a story across several decades and through the eyes of many different characters, but mostly focuses on the scientists Wang Miao and Ye Wenjie. Wenjie is an astrophysicist who barely survived the cultural revolution and resents humanity because of it. Miao is a nanotech engineer becomes engaged with an online virtual-reality game known as Three Body. The book unravels a conspiracy of humans working with a hostile alien force to take over the planet, and replace all life on earth. the concept is fascinating, and the writing and translations are top notch. This is a fantastic story to check out.
A bit tedious. More philosophy than a story.
After numerous recommendations, I finally checked out this book. It took a long time for the story to capture my attention, but when it finally did I found the book to be quite fascinating.
Story- Not super exciting, but told intelligently. The history of China’s cultural revolution is both tragic and relevant. In this case it takes a while before it’s shown why that past is so important to the story. The chapters referring to the game were confusing, and I’m still not sure how it’s supposed to be played, or why any characters would find it enjoyable. It’s quite fortuitous that Ye Wenjie happens to run into a multi-billionaire that hates humanity, for the actual plot to occur. That entire sequence seemed a little rushed compared to the pace of the rest of the story.
Characters- More vessels to get the story across. Apart from Da Shi, everyone was just a scientist that discussed how important science was. You could easily forget that Wang even had a wife and child since he seems to have. Ye Wenjie at least seemed to have changed by the end of the story- appearing to have regretted her role
Writing- not bad, but not captivating. I understand that the book was translated from Chinese, so I’m sure a lot of the nuance may have been lost.
Science- A lot of hard science is dropped on us, but some time is devoted to making sure it is understood by the author. I’m not sure of the mechanics for the computer game, but I got a good Ender’s game vibe from it. All the proton manipulation at the end seemed rushed. The alien civilization was fascinating. Their society adapted to such extreme environments, and it was displayed very well. The fact that the first interactions between civilizations was between traitors undermining their species was an interesting idea.
Overall, I would recommend reading this book. It takes a while to sift through a lot of seemingly meaningless parts, but everything pays off in the end. I have heard many conflicting opinions about the sequels, but will likely still check them out.
This one of the weirdest Science Fiction I have read