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The Three-Body Problem Paperback – January 12, 2016
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The inspiration for the Netflix series 3 Body Problem!
WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL
Over 1 million copies sold in North America
“A mind-bending epic.”―The New York Times • “War of the Worlds for the 21st century.”―The Wall Street Journal • “Fascinating.”―TIME • “Extraordinary.”―The New Yorker • “Wildly imaginative.”―Barack Obama • “Provocative.”―Slate • “A breakthrough book.”―George R. R. Martin • “Impossible to put down.”―GQ • “Absolutely mind-unfolding.”―NPR • “You should be reading Liu Cixin.”―The Washington Post
The Three-Body Problem is the first novel in the groundbreaking, Hugo Award-winning series from China's most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu.
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 Three-Body Problem Series
The Three-Body Problem
The Dark Forest
Death's End
Other Books by Cixin Liu
Ball Lightning
Supernova Era
To Hold Up the Sky
The Wandering Earth
A View from the Stars
- Print length416 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateJanuary 12, 2016
- Dimensions6.05 x 1.05 x 9.15 inches
- ISBN-109780765382030
- ISBN-13978-0765382030
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Praise for the Three-Body Problem series:
"Wildly imaginative."―President Barack Obama
“A mind-bending epic.”―The New York Times
“Absolutely mind-unfolding. . . . a science-fiction epic of the most profound kind.”―NPR
“A breakthrough book . . . a unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, politics and history, conspiracy theory and cosmology.”―George R. R. Martin
"Liu Cixin's writing evokes the thrill of exploration and the beauty of scale. . . . Extraordinary."―The New Yorker
“[Liu turns] technically complex and existentially dreadful ideas into books that are impossible to put down.”―GQ
“A fascinating novel of ideas."–TIME
"The best kind of science fiction, familiar but strange all at the same time."―Kim Stanley Robinson
"Remarkable, revelatory, and not to be missed."―Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Fans of hard SF will revel in this intricate and imaginative novel."―Publishers Weekly, starred review
“War of the Worlds for the 21st century.”―Wall Street Journal
“Liu’s picture of humanity’s place in the cosmos is among the biggest, boldest and most disturbing we’ve seen.”―Los Angeles Times
“Provocative.”―Slate
“A gripping and haunting sci-fi mystery.”―Cosmopolitan
"A must-read in any language."―Booklist
About the Author
Ken Liu is an award-winning author of speculative fiction. His books include the Dandelion Dynasty series (The Grace of Kings), The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, and the Star Wars tie-in novel, The Legends of Luke Skywalker. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on topics like futurism, machine-augmented creativity, the mathematics of origami, and more. He lives near Boston with his family.
Product details
- ASIN : 0765382032
- Publisher : Tor Books; Reprint edition (January 12, 2016)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 416 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780765382030
- ISBN-13 : 978-0765382030
- Item Weight : 15.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.05 x 1.05 x 9.15 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #270 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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Three Body Problem Book- First Look REVIEW
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About the author
Liu Cixin, born in June 1963, is a representative of the new generation of Chinese science fiction authors and recognized as a leading voice in Chinese science fiction. He was awarded the China Galaxy Science Fiction Award for eight consecutive years, from 1999 to 2006 and again in 2010. His representative work The Three-body Problem is the BEST STORY of 2015 Hugo Awards, the 3rd of 2015 Campbell Award finalists, and nominee of 2015 Nebulas Award.
His works have received wide acclaim on account of their powerful atmosphere and brilliant imagination. Liu Cixin's stories successfully combine the exceedingly ephemeral with hard reality, all the while focussing on revealing the essence and aesthetics of science. He has endeavoured to create a distinctly Chinese style of science fiction. Liu Cixin is a member of the China Writers' Association and the Shanxi Writers' Association.
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The series begins with The Three-Body Problem, which opens during the Chinese Revolution, depicting the conflict between science and politics in stark, honest terms -a theme that the series will grapple with often, in wildly different ways. We flash forward, though, to a near future, where scientists are killing themselves for unclear reasons. What this has to do with the characters from that Revolution-era prologue, a government program attempting to reach out to the galaxy in search of alien intelligence, and a complex computer simulation of a civilization subject to bewildering rules of nature, Cixin takes his time to explain. But what becomes clear quickly is that The Three-Body Problem is, in a way, a novel about first contact, and how humanity will react to a race whose purposes for coming here may not be entirely benevolent.
If you're thinking that all of this sounds like a basic setup for an alien invasion novel, rest assured, that is definitely not what you're getting with The Three-Body Problem. Instead, Cixin explores the social implications of such an arrival, and deals head-on with the complex questions that it would cause. Would humanity band together in the face of this, or would our already existing divisions fracture even deeper? Would people be terrified of this advanced race, or would they be viewed as gods? And would people truly feel that humanity is worth saving, or would they welcome a race who could bring out peace, even through subjugation? These aren't simple ideas, but Cixin makes them the meat of the book, along with advanced discussions about the alien planet, which is governed by three suns, leaving their homeworld incapable of safe habitation (the source of the novel's title).
More than that, Cixin takes no shortcuts in his story, embracing hard science-fiction as a way of dealing with his scenario. Communication across multiple light-years, limited telescopic technology, the disconnect between human and alien intelligences, relativity, black holes - all of this is relevant to the book, and while Cixin makes it accessible, be aware, this book doesn't spoon feed you its physics. You're going to have to come with some willingness to think about the advanced concepts on display and ponder them, from gravitational forces to quantum computing. It's not pure technobabble, but it's a challenging read at times, and assumes its readers have the willingness to take on its science.
If you do, though, what you'll get is a complex, fascinating book about first contact, one that's not quite like anything else I've read in how it handles the questions that such a contact would bring about. And while it's the first book in a trilogy, none of that keeps the book from standing on its own, leaving room for further exploration but existing as a single piece of work that's already remarkable on its own.
To explain this series is a difficult challenge, to put it mildly. This is a series that spans a huge amount of time, deals with advanced scientific concepts in complex terms, grapples with rich philosophical and political ideas, debates questions without easy answers, and gives you a scope that can be daunting. It's a story of alien invasions, yes, but one in which the action sequences we're so used to are replaced with existential dread, a rethinking of our own lives, and a fear of the unknown that's hard to quantify. It's also the story of people caught up in these times, trying to give themselves a good life while never forgetting the larger questions of their era, and juggling their own fears with fears for humanity. In other words, it's what hard science-fiction is great at - thoughtful questions, big ideas, and speculation, all of which change the way you think about the world.
This series is a truly incredible achievement, one that honestly left me a bit staggered and reeling as I attempt to think about it all, but one that I love all the more for what it accomplishes. If you're a hard science-fiction fan, or simply someone who loves dealing with the complex ramifications of common ideas, this is a must read series. I've never read anything like it in my life, and I'm a richer person for the ideas it's inspired me to think about.
After finishing the book, I have revised this review from 5 to 4 stars:
Something Ken Liu said in his translator's note at the very end: "The best translations into English do not in fact read as if they were originally written an English. The words are arranged in such a way that the reader sees a glimpse of another culture's pattern of thinking…. rhythms,.. cadence… ” This book gets 4 solid stars from me because 90% of it was awesome. The other 10% I think was designed for a non-American audience, and I am willing to accept it as part of the story because the rest was so good.
The book had me absolutely riveted by page 20 or so. The metaphor of the game Three Body was incredibly well-done. I had the feeling that this part of the book was written first, and the rest of the story sprang from that idea. It was creative and interesting and well written, and it permeated the whole novel. The end of the book with the “real” Three Body and the introduction of new characters was not interesting. It was pretty silly, honestly, and I think most American audience members will see these last couple chapters as worn-out and hackneyed. I suspect it was part of the original, but should not have made it into the translation in the same form. It should have been a catalog of transmissions or conversations on the ship Judgement Day or an appendix or…anything besides what it was. I found it uninteresting and silly.
90% off the book, 5 stars easily.
The Translation
Before I start talking about the book, I need to point out that the translator, Ken Liu, did beautifully. The prose is quite good, and Ken Liu did a marvelous job of retaining the differences in style and sentence construction between Chinese and American writing. I always appreciate metaphors, similes, analogies, etc. that are written by someone from another part of the world. We Americans have our preferred methods of explaining ideas, but reading these new voice from across the Pacific Ocean was quite refreshing.
The Novel
The basic plot of The Three-Body Problem is relatively simple and is set against the backdrop of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. (Talk about a moment in history that gets glossed over here in ‘Murica. I knew nothing about this period in Chinese history. It's totally fascinating.) The action centers around several scientists who gaze at both the very large and the very small. Through a series of discoveries, deaths and mysteries, the problem of the three-body system presents itself as a big dumb object plot ...well, kinda - but it works very well. It’s unfortunate that the dust-jacket blrubs all spoil the fact that aliens are involved - it’s a rather neat moment when it happens, and it would have been even niftier if I hadn’t known it was going to happen. Stupid publishers. (But not so stupid that we want you to stop publishing! Just clarifying…)
The science behind the titular three-body problem is also totally cool and mind-bendy (if you just run to Wikipedia and search for “three-body problem” it’ll kick back a basic overview of the concept), and one that I have never read about before. But Cixin Liu uses a sleek virtual reality video game to show slowly explain to the reader the erratic effects of a three-body solar system and how such a system would affect an orbiting planet, and the result is simple to understand and quite brilliant.
To be fair, the plot does move very quickly, and the pacing occasionally feels uneven. Certainly most Western readers would balk at this, but I wonder if the novel's pacing is just part of the cultural differences between us and the Chinese. In addition, some reviewers have commented on the fact that Cixin Liu does a lot of telling rather than showing, and I agree, however, again I wonder how much of this is a difference between Western and Eastern expectations.
If you’re looking for an American comparison, I would compare the novel’s pace and scope and the author’s writing style to Robert Charles Wilson, Greg Bear, or a long-winded Arthur C. Clarke, all of whom write about huge physics ideas using engaging plots, but no one would ever claim that their plots are “super exciting.”
Overall, this is a fantastic novel, and a fantastic beginning to an already successful trilogy. The Three-Body Problem deserves a place on the bookshelf of Science Fiction Awesome alongside other classics such as Eon, Spin, and A Fire Upon the Deep. If this novel is indicative of the SciFi hiding in the East, then publishers, start hiring more translators and bringing these gems to the States. China’s first imported SciFi novel is a jewel indeed.
P.S.
Dear publisher,
The dust jacket blurb claims that The Three-Body Problem contains the “scope of Dune and the rousing action of Independence Day.” So...you're saying it’s like...Star Wars? Yeah, no - not even close. The trilogy might reach the scope of Dune eventually, but it barely leaves Earth in the the first novel. And as far as the “rousing action” of ID4, not by a long shot. This is a very slowly paced novel that focuses not on rousing action scenes, but on the aftermaths of action scenes, and conversations, and explanations. Will Smith it is not. Every once in a while a bullet will fly, but not very often at all. Surely you can come up with better ways to call this novel a classic and hook people rather than comparing it to Dune or ID4. Just sayin.’
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