Ken Liu

Liu Cixin

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project's signal is received by an alien civilization on the brink of destruction, which 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 Three-Body Problem

Tem Nugmanov

It was impossible to expect a moral awakening fromn humankind itself just like it was impossible to expect humans to lift off the earth by pulling up on their own hair. To achieve moral awakening required a force outside the human race.

Jasper

Over the western horizon, the sun that was slowly sinking into the sea of clouds seemed to melt. The ruddy sun dissolved into the clouds and spread over the sky, illuminating a large patch in magnificent, bloody red.

'My sunset,' Ye whispered. 'And sunset for humanity.'

In the spot where it once stood, the weight of the fallen tree being dragged left a deep channel in the layers of decomposing leaves that had accumulated over the years. Water quickly filled the ditch. The rotting leaves made the water appear crimson, like blood.

After a spate of apparent suicides among elite scientists, nanotech engineer Wang Miao is asked to infiltrate a secretive cabal. During his investigation, Wang is inducted into a mysterious online game that is the key to humanity's place in the cosmos and the key to the extinction-level threat it now faces.

Sven Schmidt

Civilization can only develop in the mild climate of Stable Eras. Most of the time, humankind must collectively dehydrate and be stored. When a long Stable Era arrives, they collectively revive through rehydration. Then they proceed to build and produce.

Read the award-winning, critically acclaimed, multi-million-copy-selling science-fiction phenomenon - soon to be a Netflix Original Series from the creators of Game of Thrones. 1967: Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China's Cultural Revolution. This singular event will shape not only the rest of her life but also the future of mankind.

Four decades later, Beijing police ask nanotech engineer Wang Miao to infiltrate a secretive cabal of scientists after a spate of inexplicable suicides. Wang's investigation will lead him to a mysterious online game and immerse him in a virtual world ruled by the intractable and unpredictable interaction of its three suns.

This is the Three-Body Problem and it is the key to everything: the key to the scientists' deaths, the key to a conspiracy that spans light-years and the key to the extinction-level threat humanity now faces.

Edward Steel

I agree, we actually have seen it with the Cosmological constant set by Einstein and some of Stephen Hawking's work.

Amira BEN

"Theory is the foundation of application. Isn't discovering fundamental laws the biggest contribution to our time ?"

Yang hesitated and finally revealed his real concern: "It's easy to make ideological mistakes in theory" 

It was impossible to expect a moral awakening from humankind itself, just like it was impossible to expect humans to lift off the earth by pulling up on their own hair. To achieve moral awakening required a force outside the human race

"Should philosophy guide experiments, or should experiments guide philosophy?

Vincent Weisz

"...We're bugs! Bugs that are about to go extinct! Haha ..."

"Wildly imaginative, really interesting." —President Barack Obama on The Three-Body Problem trilogy The 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 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 Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy The Three-Body Problem The Dark Forest Death's End Other Books Ball Lightning (forthcoming) At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Truman M Halladay

The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience this multiple 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 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.

Andrew John Kinney

I vacillated between a 2 and 3 star rating, and finally decided it's a 3, rounded up from 2.5, mainly because the book is a bit of a page-turner, at least sometimes. The characters are relatively wooden, the references to past scientists are superficial (I mean, even Breaking Bad gave a nod to Heisenberg), and the preachy-teachy science and computer science lessons were a bit boring if one knows much real science. I won't be reading any more from this series. The wonder of real science is far more interesting than the not very convincing world that has been constructed here. By the way, there were more than a few implausible aspects of the "science" in the novel, but since this is sci-fi, I guess I shouldn't quibble about those.

Rohit Arondekar

The author has done a wonderful job of mixing so many different elements that come together beautifully to create a whole that is exquisite. It has its flaws ― the middle is a little drawn out and then towards the end, the physics/science-y bits get hard to understand, but the ending is totally worth it!

I liked how events in the book seem fantastic and fictional, but turn out to be true. This is the case mostly with the political/social upheaval related events but also extends to the science. This is what I enjoyed most about the book! It's hard to tell, at least for a layman like me, where the science ends and science fiction begins and this adds a realism to the book which drew me in. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Mitch Stewart

Do you want to read a science fiction with well developed interesting characters? Then this isn't the book for you. The characters in this book only serve and exist to move forward the plot, they are completely forgettable. 1/5

Do you want to read a hard scifi book with fascinating and enthralling ideas that will leave you thinking about them long after you finish the book? Do you want to see how the enviorment affects the culture of a civilization? Then this book is the bees knees. 5/5

I normally can't stand hard scifi without good characters but despite the sometimes clunky writing, the ideas and world this book created leave me wanting more and I'm going to immediately start the next in the series.

rumbledethumps

Interesting ideas, but badly executed in a work of fiction. So much of the hard SF element was exposition of one character explaining a concept to another, that it just became tedious. There were chances to make it interesting, by focusing on one or two supporting characters, but instead the main character was just a doofus who was being acted upon rather than acting. Overall just a slog to get through, and trying to separate the wheat from the chaff was more effort than it was probably worth.

Bo Jeanes

Despite the many many recommendations by friends for this book, I can't say that I really enjoyed it. 

Quite possibly, my difficulties with it are due to either cultural differences or translation, but i simply could not get immersed in this universe due to fundamentally unbelievable dialogue.

Jason

I'm very conflicted with this book. I so wanted to enjoy it but it was extremely hit and miss for me. I loved some of the character interaction immensely, but at other times found it extremely wooden. 
Go into this understanding that it is hard sci-fi. And for me there was too much science and not enough fiction. 
There would be times where I found myself finally connecting with the characters only to then have them ripped away from me by 2 chapters of scientific exposition. By the time I slogged through that I had lost the connection I had just made with the characters.
I enjoy reading the science that drives a story, but I just found that there was far too much here and it broke up the flow of the book for me. 
Ironically, the final few pages had some of my favourite character work, but at that point I was too exhausted to care much.

That said, I'm glad I read this, and I'm left with a dilemma because if the areas of strong character work that I loved are carried through to the second book more consistently, and the exposition is toned down, I would love to read it.
However I'm not sure I'm willing to take the risk.

This was pretty good! I don't consider it to be entirely masterful, but it is much better than most sci-fi thrillers. This book amplified my base-level existential anxiety, which isn't a good feeling but it is a sign of a well-crafted piece of literature. I also don't know who I would side with in this case, which is also a sign of well-balanced story development. I'm excited to read the next installment! 

Ashlyn

Tuago

One of the most original books I’ve read, full of scientific detail and clever ideas. It’s about the humanity’s first encounter with aliens and the consequences in society that would happen after that. 

I’ll definitely move on to read the whole trilogy.

Luke Daniels

Like a hard sci fi meets eco fascist meets like dystopian worst case scenario for first contact and somehow both pro and anti math/science/stem, and a classist propagandist indoctrination black-pill video game to tie it all together… 

I think I will like it more after I have had a few days to let it digest/marinate. I just kept saying to myself “these people aren’t interesting they are Derrick Jensen with a radio telescope” so take that or leave it. But maybe once I forget how much just 

 was crammed in between the plot, I will settle into better feelings about it. I suspect that will be the outcome. Book two, let’s go.

Apiecalypse Jen

Like a hard sci fi meets eco fascist meets like dystopian worst case scenario for first contact and somehow both pro and anti math/science/stem, and a classist propagandist indoctrination black-pill video game to tie it all together… 

I think I will like it more after I have had a few days to let it digest/marinate. I just kept saying to myself “these people aren’t interesting they are Derrick Jensen with a radio telescope” so take that or leave it. But maybe once I forget how much just stuff was crammed in between the plot, I will settle into better feelings about it. I suspect that will be the outcome. Book two, let’s go.

Anyaconda

I just can't. DNF at 75 pages.
I wanted to love this and I bought the paperback full price.
There's nothing I liked about it. Flat characters, weird pacing and I know this is translated fiction, but the writing is awful and stiff.
I'll be putting this book back into circulation, hoping that it'll find someone who'll love it.
If you want to read great sci-fi, pick up the Expanse series.

Ed Kay

Did not get this at all. Was constantly waiting to get drawn into it in some way, but it never happened. I realise that the translator aimed deliberately to convey the voice of the author even if it did not render in a traditional American style (grammatically and narratively) so no doubt there was some difficulty introduced on that front. However, I found it lurching and simplistic and plodding, and I can't put any of that down to cultural differences, just bad writing. Some positive reviews have dismissed criticism saying that this is just "Hard SciFi" as if naysayers just can't handle the fact that the book contains swathes of discussion about physics and mathematics. That didn't bother me - in fact, they were probably the most compelling parts. At least I was learning something! Ditto the historical sections that provided information about the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

Everything else was just too straightforward, there was no nuance. Characters were one-dimensional, plot devices were introduced and dismissed without any depth, and the science itself just didn't hold together. There were so many bad explanations and contradictions that I got more and more frustrated:
(view spoiler)[
* Communication with the aliens seemed suspiciously easy - the difficulties of language and translation were dismissed with a sentence claiming that the message contained a 'self-deciphering' system
* The Trisolarian pacifist who responds to the first Earth message complains: "I am tired of Trisolaris... We have no art, no literature..." - so how is it that he knows what these things are?
* When explaining about the three-dimensional proton unfolding resulting in shapes that looked like eyes, the author pops in a note explaining that of course we don't know what they look like... And then goes on to describe them having an iris, a pupil, and being an eyeball that loses the shape of the eye to become a circle. So, it sounds like we do know what the Trisolarian eye looks like, and it sounds very much like a human one.
 (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[Not to mention that the whole three-body 'game' involved almost zero interaction. Where was the gameplay? It was more like an interactive movie. (Although that may well be what video games are like these days.) And how do you fall in love with an alien species you know nothing about, other than the fact that they live in a planetary system with three stars? And how is it that a civilisation that spends a long proportion of its time dessicated and inert can somehow become more technologically advanced than Earth, which has a temperate climate? (hide spoiler)]

Other reviewers have pointed out that the third book in the series is clearly the best, and is brilliant, and whatever. I'm intrigued to see what that might look like, but not so much that I want to wade through a second terrible jumbled turgid mess before I get there. This was a one-book problem for me, and thankfully my game is over.

Emily Perkovich

I really loved the idea of this. Story line was intriguing, and I always enjoy reading about what shit human intelligence is. We are not good or empathetic, and nowhere near enough people understand or admit to this. However. Large portions of this felt like reading an encyclopedia. It made it very hard for me to retain some of the plot points.

For the first two-thirds of this book I was absolutely hooked, delighted by the weirdness and busily cooking up a lot of theories in between reading sessions - always a sign of a fantastic book. I also really enjoyed the style - very different from Western writing and refreshing to read. Some fascinating world building too. Sadly the author could not land the ending. The last third of the book spiralled off into dull physics lectures (a depressing contrast with the fascinating physics at the beginning), a strange detour into an operation to destroy a military target, and an abrupt ending that left me wondering why I’d bothered starting reading this, if the book was basically only the first quarter of the story. I don’t mind sequels, but a book needs to tell a complete story on its own. The motivations of some of the characters were also very hard to believe, and there was some strange pacing. And yet I’m about to pick up the second book in the series, because come on, you can’t leave me hanging like that. I’m hoping the author leans into the weirdness and leaves the lectures behind, in the sequel.

Naomi J.

Gavin

Dense, clever, and it conveys a pleasant worldview; but also rushed and clumsy. In fact the prose is awful - full of flat descriptions of people's reactions, people's full names inserted into the dialogue - and the characters are completely interchangeable ciphers (apart from the one who is a stock renegade cop, and the one who is the Ultimate Eco-Terrorist). 

  Can the fundamental nature of matter really be lawlessness? Can the stability and order of the world be but a temporary dynamic equilibrium achieved in a corner of the universe, a short-lived eddy in a chaotic current?


There's almost no 'showing' in the entire book.
For most people, perhaps time would have gradually healed these wounds. After all, during the Cultural Revolution, many people suffered fates similar to hers, and compared to many of them, Ye was relatively fortunate. But Ye had the mental habits of a scientist, and she refused to forget. Rather, she looked with a rational gaze on the madness and hatred that had harmed her. Ye’s rational consideration of humanity’s evil side began the day she read Silent Spring.

Have you heard of the Monte Carlo method? Ah, it’s a computer algorithm often used for calculating the area of irregular shapes. Specifically, the software puts the figure of interest in a figure of known area, such as a circle, and randomly strikes it with many tiny balls, never targeting the same spot twice. After a large number of balls, the proportion of balls that fall within the irregular shape compared to the total number of balls used to hit the circle will yield the area of the shape.

This is no impediment to good hard scifi, it just means that the reference author is Asimov, not Banks or LeGuin. Liu's ideas are well worth the trip - firing at a nuke as a last-resort for disarming it (since the small ones rely on a sealed pressurised container) is about the least ambitious thought in it:

  Twenty minutes later, Three Body’s Von Neumann architecture human-formation computer had begun full operations under the Qin 1.0 operating system. “Run solar orbit computation software ‘Three Body 1.0’!” Newton screamed at the top of his lungs. “Start the master computing module! Load the differential calculus module! Load the finite element analysis module! Load the spectral method module! Enter initial condition parameters … and begin calculation!” The motherboard sparkled as the display formation flashed with indicators in every color. The human computer began the long computation.
  

  

  In the long history of scientific progress, how many protons have been smashed apart in accelerators by physicists? How many neutrons and electrons? Probably no fewer than a hundred million. Every collision was probably the end of the civilizations and intelligences in a microcosmos.
  

  

  Comrades! Revolutionary youths! Revolutionary faculty and staff! We must clearly understand the reactionary nature of Einstein’s theory of relativity. This is most apparent in general relativity: Its static model of the universe negates the dynamic nature of matter. It is anti-dialectical! It treats the universe as limited, which is absolutely a form of reactionary idealism…
  



I don't understand why this won the Hugo - except, that, being foreign, it didn't trigger canned political backlash on either side of the sad affair we have made the Hugos. Tom Clancy for real nerds.

2/5 in this translation, anyway.

Bouke van der Bijl

** spoiler alert **
           This book has some quite unique and interesting ideas, and I found the prose to be quite poetic at times, which is great for a translation. I found the different perspectives the book shows for humans and the Trisolarans to be quite insightful. Anyways if aliens are actually found we are definitely screwed.

Matthew Royal

The best unexpected part of this book is all the perspective shifts. The presentation of miracles, and their explanations were satisfying, and the historical descriptions of the Chinese Cultural Revolution were tantalizing peeks into what the original Chinese language version of the story was like in structure. 

It's a pessimistic view of what encountering extraterrestrial life would be like, without applying the same fear and dread to the emergence of strong AI, so while it's food for thought, it's not a perspective I feel I will ever share.

The only way you could ever say this was character driven is if you were saying every character is driving themself straight to hell. Weirdly, it works. Like a slow motion car wreck on a galactic scale. I can’t believe I enjoyed this book. It was a masterpiece. 

Rachel Wingler

Gillian Rose

A really solid sci-fi tale. I loved having it set in China and learning more about their culture in regard to science. Extremely well-done and I can't wait to see where the story goes.

Shiveen Pandita

I read this 4 years ago so I guess this review is delayed. I reread it again now and had the same feeling of wonder that I did last time. Also, probably one of the best foreign language translations in any of the books I have read.

Lynette Pedersen

I can see the complaints from others about the wooden characters, but I'm not sure if that's an artifact of the translation or not. Also, I'm not sure we're supposed to connect with the characters but with what's going on. The Chinese Cultural Revolution was terrifying, no bones about it. You can see those same ideologies reflected in the Trisolarians, and I think that's a pretty interesting narrative. The rest of it is pretty deep and definitely makes you think, though the most thinking is really done in the last few chapters. I think if I were more excited by hard sci-fi I would have enjoyed it even more, but the philosophical elements are definitely there in between all the math and physics.

Üç Cisim Problemi

Too complicated sci-fi Novel, but like it.

Oktay Orhan

Obada Mu

„Sometimes I thought life was precious, and everything was so important; but other times I thought humans were insignificant, and nothing was worthwhile. Anyway, my life passed day after day accompanied by this strange feeling, and before I knew it, I was old.…“

Nick Gracilla

Highly recommended by a work colleague, this is science fiction at its best, with vast timelines, world upending changes to fundamental physics, and surprising storyline twists. Set from China’s cultural revolution to modern days, it’s a study, too, of propaganda and its impact on science and thinking. Recommended.

Jay Harris

I've read this twice now and enjoyed it both times. 

I love Cixin Liu's short stories, especially his collection To Hold Up The Sky, which has some of my favorites like "The Time Migration". 

For me, The Three Body Problem sometimes feels more like a short story collection than a novel: the characters and plot mostly seem like an excuse to explore a series of big sci-fi ideas like (view spoiler)[nanotech, VR games, first-contact-as-symbol, conspiracy theories and higher-dimension computers (hide spoiler)]. The journey between those big ideas might sometimes feel contrived, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the ride.

The Three-Body Problem

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