The Three-Body Problem

I'd rate this one a 1 in character development, but a 5 in some of the later sci-fi themes discussed. Almost any discussion of this book could be a spoiler, but I would say that it unravels in interesting ways I hadn't ever seen before. This one was actually translated from the Chinese version and is the first in a trilogy. I'm looking forward to the others in the series coming out to figure out where they take the story next.

As someone who is only trying to get into sci-fi this year, I know my limitations well and I would never have picked up this critically acclaimed award winning book by my own volition. But one of my book clubs chose this as our May BOTM and I decided I should atleast give it a try. And after finishing it, I'm both blown away by it and also a bit sad, so let me try to articulate my thoughts.

It has not been easy to maintain focus for long periods of time on a book during this pandemic. Part of why I have been gravitating towards more short fiction these days, but when I committed to this book, I wanted to see it through. For someone who almost always finishes any sized book in just a few days, this one took me almost 20 days to read. While one part of the issue was the external circumstances, the other was the subject matter of the book itself. I found the idea of first contact with extra terrestrials very fascinating and there were some chapters which completely held my interest, but I couldn't sustain that for the whole book.

The translation of this book is excellent and it never had that choppy feeling that can sometimes occur in translations. And however it might have been in the original, the book never felt difficult to read (which was how I thought it would be for me). Even the story being told in two timelines felt very easy to follow. I especially found the chapters during the Cultural revolution very fascinating, because I'm not much aware of Chinese history and it felt like a very honest look at the struggles and lives of the people of the time, on both sides of the civil war. The book is also extremely science heavy, and while I could understand what was going on in the context of the story, I could not tell you a single thing about the physics that was discussed. There were paragraphs and chapters devoted to physics discussions, most of them going over my head.

What really impressed me and what I feel is the soul of the book is the philosophical questions it asks. We have a group of humans who are fed up of humanity because we are destroying nature and environment without a care; we have another group which still cherishes humanity and wants to do anything to survive. And the author discusses both their POVs without clearly judging any of them, because they all have their valid points to make. And then there is the important question of what will happen if we do make contact with extra terrestrials - should we expect them to be a higher evolved intelligence than us and hope to learn from them?? Is it even possible to coexist with an advanced civilization? And why do we humans who can't coexist with the people who live in other countries, who wage wars constantly and perpetuate mass killings of people, expect an outside civilization to be benevolent and grant us knowledge? These are some very interesting questions to ponder on and I know I'll be thinking about them for a while.

I was initially intimidated when I saw the cast of characters at the beginning, but I quickly understood who were the main influencers in the story and was able to follow along. However, being used to first person POVs, this third person narrative felt very distant and I couldn't connect to anyone. Even when I could objectively understand that something bad was gonna happen, I wasn't emotionally attached to any of them to care enough. Also, except one main protagonist, there are hardly any female characters around which I thought was a real miss; and among the ones who were present, I felt that none of them were shown in any good light.

In the end, this is a book that definitely deserves all the prestige bestowed on it because of the concepts and philosophies it discusses, in a mostly accessible manner. It is more of an introspective book than an action packed alien invasion adventure novel, so you should keep that in mind before deciding to pick it up. If you are someone who is new to sci-fi like me, I would suggest reading more science fiction novels before venturing into this series. But if you are a science/physics nerd, then this would probably feel like home. I still haven't decided if I want to continue with the series, but we shall see.

TL;DR

Average in my opinion, the last part of the book is definitely the star of the show, when you learn some pretty big things about the universe and if we are alone or not in it. Up until then it was very boring, I don't think that our main protagonist is very interesting to follow him for most of the story. The science is pretty heavy on this one, I'm not a smart guy but I do like to check out and research a bit on every new thing that I've never heard or understand and I was googling constantly in this book. Some people may not like it but I like when it makes sense and it's not some magic thing invented by the author.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: Boring until the second half of the book.

✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): Boring stuff with the cultural revolution, not interested in it at all. The part with the Trisolarians is interesing and their story and plan is amazing. The VR game part is trash, didn't like that at all.

X - Characters: The only good one is Da Shi and out of the 10 people we meet and interact with that's not good.

X - Setting/Ambiance: It's just normal day China, boring.

✓ - Ending: I liked it, was really enjoyable to read and I like where this is going.

Extensive Review

This has to be a cultural thing but I've read a few Asian authors so far and they all have a distinct way or writing dialogue that always seems off to me. I don't know how to explain it but if you give me a book without telling me anything about it I can tell if it was written by an Asian author. I don't like it at all. It has to be cultural becasue the same happens when I watch an Asian movie. The dialogue to me always seems like they're never genuine and they're always putting up a facade. It doesn't help that the characters are pretty bland to be honest.

So poor dialogue and a lot of infodumps, Cixin Lui is not very interested in showing you stuff, he's way more into telling you about it and in very exact detail stretch over whole pages to just talking about inconsequential stuff that isn't important.

The only good character is Da Shi, I liked every scene where he was involved in. Unfortunately he doens't show much in the story, towards the final part he gets more involved though.

There are some very cool scenes with some nanofiber our main protagonist invented that was amazing to read.

I enjoyed this quite a bit, but oftentimes I find myself struggling to place everything together and follow along, though there are certainly moments where specific things fall into place. I'm not sure if that's all by design, or if listening to it as an audiobook caused me to miss things, or if I just don't think good.

It's been awhile since I've read Foundation by Isaac Asimov, but the scale and subject of this story very much reminded me of it. I didn't really connect strongly to any characters, but there are so many fascination ideas and really cool showy moments that had me captivated.

I'm not too much of a series reader, so I'm not going to get to the sequels right away, but I'll definitely queue them up to see where things go from here.

Maybe Trisolarans should copy our technology and launch satellites, it would solve their issue. To write entire book without addressing such obvious solution is staggering.

The book itself was far from what I expected but it read well and dangled the carrot in front of me until the very end. But there are some holes or things that require explanation to a layman like me. (Folding dimensions was explained very well though.)

Ik lees niet graag vertaalde boeken. Als een vertaler niet heel, héél goed is, kan die zelfs een uitstekend boek kapotmaken.

Het is hoedanook al moeilijk om een goede vertaling te maken, maar een boek uit een volledig andere cultuur vertalen, brengt nog een resem andere problemen met zich mee. The Three-Body Problem (三體) is deel één in een trilogie van China's wellicht meest bekende sciencefictionschrijver, en we kunnen er korte metten mee maken: ik vind het alvast zeer goed vertaald.

Soms is er in de tekst zelf ingegrepen (met instemming van de auteur), en er zijn soms voetnoten nodig om de specifieke context uit te leggen, en de vertaling balanceert tussen vlot Engels en toch ergens de nodige vervreemding van een niet-Engels origineel. Zeer fijn.

Twee hoofdpersonages in het verhaal: Ye Wenjie, astrofysicus en dochter van een tijdens de Culturele Revoluytie geëxecuteerde wetenschapper, en Wang Miao, een onderzoeker in nanotechnologie.

Ye wordt eind de jaren 1960 verbannen naar een houtkapgebied. Ze raakt er gedegouteerd van de vernietiging van de natuur, leest The Silent Spring, dat haar vriend Bai Mulin naar het Engels aan het vertalen was, en ondersteunt hem als hij een vlammende brief naar Beijing stuurt over de ecologische gevolgen van de ontbossing.

De regering is niet zo opgezet met de brief, en Bai steekt het helemaal op Ye. Die normaal gezien in de gevangenis zou vliegen (of erger), maar met haar wetenschappelijke achtergrond krijgt ze de keuze: gevangenis, of de rest van haar leven in een supergeheime wetenschappelijke basis. Redelijk teleurgesteld in de mensheid, kiest ze redelijk vanzelfsprekend het tweede.

In de nabije toekomst plegen een hele reeks vooraanstaande wetenschappers en onderzoekers zelfmoord. Wang Miao raakt in het onderzoek betrokken: blijkt dat een game een belangrijke rol speelt. The Three-Body Problem, een soort simulatie van een beschaving op een planeet die nu eens gewone dagen en seizoenen kent, en dan weer chaotische periodes van onvoorspelbare zonsopgang en -ondergang, met soms volledige verbranding of bevriezing van de planeet tot gevolg.

Terwijl Wang het spel speelt en alsmaar verder raakt – uiteindelijk komt hij er achter dat het om een planeet in een systeem met drie sterren gaat – blijkt dat er iets mis is met een aantal natuurwetten op Aarde. En ziet Wang plots een countdown op foto's die hij neemt. En iets later, ziet hij diezelfde countdown in zijn gezichtsveld. En wordt hem gevraagd om te stoppen met zijn onderzoek in nanotechnologie; door wie precies: niet duidelijk.

Een fijn boek van klassieke harde sciencefiction. Het was al heel lang geleden dat ik er nog zo eentje gelezen had.

Wachten op de vertaling van deel twee en drie, verdorie. Met aliens en al!

Aunque en las primeras páginas no le cogía mucho el sentido, a medida que avanzaba me iba interesando más, con un continuo “DAME MÁS, NECESITO MÁS INFORMACIÓN”. En general me ha encantado, y me ha gustado poder ver conceptos de ciencia especializada y entenderlos. Se nota que está escrito por alguien que sabe del tema. No es la primera vez que leo historias de ciencia ficción con invasiones alienígenas, pero desde luego es la que más me ha enganchado.
Altamente recomendable si te gusta la ciencia ficción, pero también las historias que invitan a profundas reflexiones, como el tratamiento de la ciencia, la ecología y la propia raza humana y su rumbo en este caso.

I think I am going to continue to have problems with the prose in translations from Chinese. I have read a few now and I find all of them to be somewhat stilted and lacking the flow that I am used to. The concepts and ideas here are certainly vast, if tied up in an overly nationalistic propaganda. Tying together ideas of first contact with complex mathematical problems (the titular three body problem as an example) presented through a strange video game medium this is certainly unlike any other hard sci-fi I have read. I just wish I could have been engaged a bit better - I just found it all quite distant and hard to relate to.

I can see where the praise for this has come from and can respect the vastness of its scope. I will continue to read the series to try and get the fullest of pictures, but it is tonally a bit flat for me so far.

This is science fiction with huge emphasis on SCIENCE. To truly enjoy this, you should take a prerequisite course in astrophysics. Thematically & philosophically, it's quite interesting, and the first half of the book has great pacing. But towards the end it devolves into “action” scenes involving some ridiculous science that I had to read twice and still couldn't really understand. The pacing gets super wacky with a ton of rapid-fire crazy events and awkwardly forced plot descriptions (lots of telling, less showing). The dialogue is a bit wooden and generally there's a lack of beautiful writing in favor of a very practical style, but that could be more the translator than the author.

Basically, I understand why a lot of people (science fiction nerds, mind you) love and recommend this book, but I thought it was on the worse side of just okay.

My first “hard science” read, but had me immediately inspired to learn more about physics.

I really enjoyed this book - and I loved the science it discussed. It got me watching youtube videos on physics and asking questions about how things work and made me want to learn more.

The story itself spanned a full lifetime, starting around the 1960s (in fact earlier) and follows through to (what I presume) is modern day. The book is full of historical references (and my Chinese knowledge is practically nil, so this was great) and chock full of amazing, believable physics questions that had me pondering over between reading sessions.

Great stuff.

Summary (w/ spoilers):

Our past protagonist experiences the worst that humanity has to offer and reacts realistically. She is not a stubbornly positive main character with superior morals - she is a hurt character who loses faith in humanity, and operates in a state of shock and single-mindedness. There is scant accountability or even repentance for humanity's self-serving destruction, so when she is presented with a chance to change humanity's existence, she takes it.

To me, this is what can happen when horrible acts are turned a blind eye - history is doomed to repeat itself. The stifling of progress and science in 1966 China scars her, and in turn, she enables a power that can stifle modern scientific progress that will last generations after her, sending humanity to extinction.

Overall review:

This book had me thinking about it days after I reading because of the existential questions and in-depth concepts introduced. I really enjoyed unravelling the story’s mysteries alongside the protagonists, but blundered through the hard science parts. It’s hard to know if my amazement is just being overwhelmed from lack of understanding coupled with the fact this won a Hugo, but I can’t deny I felt engaged after finishing this story.

Thoughts on other people's reviews:

I AGREE characters seem to exist only to serve the plot. The scale the book is going for is huge so it makes sense personal development is nothing in comparison and could be a waste of time - however the lack of nuance is too drastic for me. For example, women in this story have single-minded goals that they coldly pursue, and save for appearing motherly, show no emotional sensitivity, which is odd given women are typically socialized to do so.

I DISAGREE that colluding with aliens for human intervention is unrealistic. Imagine being a 20-something year old losing your dad in a murder your mother enabled to save herself, being forced to partake in deforestation and experiencing the apathy for it firsthand, and seeing systems of power moving on from the pain that they inflicted on you. After being betrayed over and over from an individual to global scale, how could you still have faith in humanity?

DNF

I stopped when reading chapter 9 and I have no idea what happened. Even though I have no doubts this is an amazing book (hence the *** star rating) I just couldn't get through it. The hard science was too... sciency. I was buddy reading this with a friend and she was able to interpret the texts I was struggling to understand, even after reading them for about nine times. Due to the struggle to understand everything, I was unable to build a relationship with the characters and the built environment.

I got a hard sci-fi book recommendation from Goodreads and another web online. One of my colleagues also recommended this book. At first, I found it difficult to follow. Not about the science, but the unfamiliar background that is introduced in the first few chapters (Chinese Cultural Revolution). But I am glad I continued the book. It will be relevant to one character's background in later chapters.

I love the concept of the story! It is not an action story about a character saving the world, it is really about humans realizing how f*cked up they are. The building up of the problem really intriguing, slowly but sure, the reader will piece together what is actually happening.

The physics described is logical physics (need some background to understand them), not just some purely fantasized technology as the usual “sci-fi” story described. The last few chapters are too far-fetched though, but it is still an area of the unknown for present knowledge.

Very enjoyable! Would love to continue to the next book.

Take the Cultural Revolution - one of the most unprecedented phases in Chinese history, the actions of which could be easily labelled as an Orwellian.

Now add micro-dimensions (postulated dimensions existing beyond the normal four dimensions of space and time), first contact (debating on how humans will establish contact with aliens, and its consequences), and the three body problem (a famous classical mechanics problem which states that in a system of three bodies, it is impossible to predict any future configuration) to the already volatile mix.

Add in dry character development, and what looks like a clichéd plot at first glance. The result should have been an implosion - but thankfully, it is not. It is, instead, one of the greatest sci-fi novels ever produced. It is fine, distilled art in a hitherto unforeseen form.

There is no point in putting my words in this review - because it is impossible to write down the emotions evoked. Tranquility and anger to sheer, unbridled awe - this novel makes you feel them all, and more.

TL;DR - if you're a fan of hard sci-fi (tinged with a significant dose of reality, so not recommended for the casual reader) novels, or are thinking of getting into them, give this a chance. You'll never be the same again.

I'd rate this one a 1 in character development, but a 5 in some of the later sci-fi themes discussed. Almost any discussion of this book could be a spoiler, but I would say that it unravels in interesting ways I hadn't ever seen before. This one was actually translated from the Chinese version and is the first in a trilogy. I'm looking forward to the others in the series coming out to figure out where they take the story next.