The Three-Body Problem

eBook, 445 pages

English language

Published Sept. 12, 2014 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom.

ISBN:
978-1-4668-5344-7
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Goodreads:
20944690

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4 stars (64 reviews)

The Three-Body Problem (Chinese: 三体; lit. 'Three-Body'; pinyin: sān tǐ) is a science fiction novel by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin. The title refers to the three-body problem in orbital mechanics. It is the first novel of the Remembrance of Earth's Past (Chinese: 地球往事) trilogy, but Chinese readers generally call the whole series The Three-Body Problem. The trilogy's second and third novels are The Dark Forest and Death's End. The Three-Body Problem was serialized in Science Fiction World in 2006 and published as a book in 2008. It became one of the most popular science fiction novels in China. It received the Chinese Science Fiction Yinhe ("Galaxy") Award in 2006. A Chinese film adaptation of the same name was in production by 2015, but halted soon after. The English translation by Ken Liu was published by Tor Books in 2014. Thereafter, it became the first Asian novel ever to win …

30 editions

Review of 'Three-Body Problem' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Content warning Discusses elements of the plot

Science Fiction

5 stars

Spannend aufgebaut mit verschiedenen Handlungssträngen, die sich irgendwann zusammenfügen. Technische / physikalische Grundprinzipien auch für mich als Laien verständlich dargestellt. Und die Frage nach dem "First Contact" mit all ihren Implikationen wurde toll beackert. Zusätzlich erfährt von noch etwas über die jüngere chinesische Geschichte.

Good, but watch out - sets up trilogy

5 stars

The first few chapters had me darting to and from Wikipedia to help add some context to a story that is deeply set in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It',s a triviality to call the story complex, a mystery than unfolds through the book. Be warned this is the first in a trilogy and a very much sets itself up this way, which was a little frustrating in the last few chapters.

Very interesting premise, but payoff was lackluster

3 stars

I wanted to enjoy this book, and as other reviews stated it did start very strong with an engaging mystery hook; however, the reveal of the mystery was simultaneously disappointing and depressing.

Additionally, I often found that character dialogue seemed stilted and technical concepts were over-explained; however, this might be an artifact of the language difference in translation.

Perhaps due to this issue, I felt that characters interacted with each other in a surreal and unbelievable manner, without much compassion or empathy, and this was compounded by the overwhelming cartoonish menace of the main antagonist.

These factors contributed to an overall feeling of gloom and hopelessness in the story; while I understand this is a cornerstone of the cosmic horror genre, I personally have no interest in continuing the series.

Review of 'The Three-Body Problem' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The sentiment on the internet has always been that this is one of the best science fiction books to read, with its fresh take on what can often times be a stale genre. The perspective is unique and has moments of revelation that feel surprisingly different from the traditional "investigation of self" that I typically get from science fiction, identifying moments of hope despite the fractures in civilization. Despite the intense shift towards the end, it leaves a lot to feel good about which I don't commonly leave hard sci-fi with.

Review of 'The Three-Body Problem' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

The three body problem is all about the physics problem of how 3 bodies movies in respect to each other. If you check out the WikiPedia page on it, you'll notice that there is currently no known general solution.

So is this a Physics book? Not really, as the story progresses, you'll certainly get some deeper insights into the problem, but there is most definitely a lot more going on.

If you like [a:Andy Weir|6540057|Andy Weir|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1382592903p2/6540057.jpg]'s books, but you always thought, this needs a bit more Chinese culture and more science, you are in for a threat. Regarding the Chinese culture and history, the translator helpfully added footnotes to explain some of the names and word plays that were used in the book. It was very interesting to learn a bit about some of the Chinese history I knew nothing about.

On top of that, the chapters are written in …

Review of 'The Three-Body Problem' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I'm not thoroughly familiar with science fiction as a genre, but I'd imagine this is pretty quintessential hard science fiction. That means that quite a lot of text throughout the novel is devoted to explaining the scientific realities behind the events of the narrative. For example, entire chapters are devoted more or less to detailing the physical minutiae of how messages might be transmitted between Earth and alien civilizations.

In the case of this novel, hard science fiction also means substantially less attention is given to the development of characters and the drama between them. Indeed, I found the book somewhat reminiscent of my experience with Isaac Asimov, where all the important characters are STEM academics and the only interesting thing they could imagine talking about is science in one form or another. So don't expect a very compelling drama from this novel or particularly deep or complex characters. With …

Sci-Fi from a different persepective

4 stars

I was surprised to read a Chinese sci-fi novel, but it's an interesting perspective on it. At first I thought this is going to be all about China, being for or against the CCP regime and a bit of sci-fi sprinkled on it, but it was the opposite!

The parts that were leaning on it being in China were great, it's a different view on how to write sci-fi, which is usually VERY centered on the US. I hope for more non-US authors in the sci-fi world, there's a lot to explore here.

The ending surprised me, because I read through it much faster than I thought. This should be a good thing, but I only noticed how far in I was, because I couldn't believe that this is how it's gonna end. It was a bit disappointing, but it's a trilogy, so and it felt very much written in …

Review of 'Le problème à trois corps' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Intéressant début dans cette trilogie.
La préface de l'éditeur français divulgache violemment une bonne partie du bouquin, mais je connaissais déjà le thème du livre.
Le rythme est saccadé. L'exposition avec retour dans le passé un peu forcé. La fin un peu trop rapide.
On verra ce que donne la suite.

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Subjects

  • Fiction, science fiction, general