The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1) in Beyond Reality

Jun 17, 2017 Matt rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Liu Cixin has wrote a beautiful intellectual book that is often lyrical even in translation. It's just too bad that the pay off isn't as good as the set up. Half-way in I was convinced I was going to give the book at least 4 stars on the basis of its fierce intelligence and evocative writing. Then, it all just fell apart.

I've heard it said that culturally Chinese humor differs from typical Western humor in that in the West, we laugh at the punch line. But in Chinese delivery, you don't laugh unt Liu Cixin has wrote a beautiful intellectual book that is often lyrical even in translation. It's just too bad that the pay off isn't as good as the set up. Half-way in I was convinced I was going to give the book at least 4 stars on the basis of its fierce intelligence and evocative writing. Then, it all just fell apart.

I've heard it said that culturally Chinese humor differs from typical Western humor in that in the West, we laugh at the punch line. But in Chinese delivery, you don't laugh until the joke teller explains the punch line to the audience, at which point everyone laughs together. To the Western audience though, explaining the joke is lame. Reading 'The Three-Body Problem', I felt a similar cultural gap acutely. After setting up his twist and story, Liu Cixin is not satisfied, but instead has to explain his story in great detail.

A similar cultural gap occurs for me with the meaning of the story, at least, what has been suggested so far. While the movie 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' is likewise a beautiful, lyrical, and very intellectual story, ultimately its underlying theme of the false promise and ultimate dangers of freedom rings hollow to my ears, especially coming from China. 'The Three-Body Problem' for me had much of the same problems. I admire the set up, but the payoff just isn't that great. It's like someone setting up a really great philosophical thought problem, and then answering their question in a way that seems not only makes the whole question seem trite and contrived, but fails to really seriously consider the implications of the questions.

The characters strike me as stock Chinese characters that would probably even be more stereotypical and archetypal to me if I was Chinese than they already seem. I suppose though that in a book about ideas this is forgivable. In Chinese culture, it may even be part of the attraction.

While the science is mostly good and hard, it gets really implausible in certain areas in ways that just seem corny compared to the rigor elsewhere. I won't go into great detail because it would constitute spoilers, but I do have to ask exactly what is the strata on to which you could inscribe the circuits? What could those circuits possibly be made of? It's cool and all to play with dimensionality, but fundamentally regardless of the size the object in question it is undifferentiable at any point on its surface.

Still, for all of that, I enjoyed it enough and am curious enough about where the story is going to want to see it further. ...more

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Jul 28, 2015 Wealhtheow rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: pocmaincharacters, sci-fi

In a tale that begins during the Cultural Revolution and continues into the future, various seemingly random scientists make disturbing discoveries. Eventually it becomes clear that this is all related to (view spoiler) In a tale that begins during the Cultural Revolution and continues into the future, various seemingly random scientists make disturbing discoveries. Eventually it becomes clear that this is all related to (view spoiler)

Some plot points that made no sense are eventually cleared up--(view spoiler). Some of the illogical decisions can be explained by human fallacy (view spoiler), but so many poorly thought out plot points add up. The overall plot of warring factions on each planet is just not well developed enough to bear up under these minor points, or the truly terrible writing. The pacing is a real problem--the first three hundred pages are a real slog, with little to no action, and then the last hundred pages is bloody action interspersed with chapters worth of infodumps and characters explaining their entire plans (which is needed, because the plans are generally at-odds with their expected outcomes). No character, save perhaps Ye, comes across as fully realized. The characters are just names that spout dialog (none of it even close to natural speech) and infodumps (often regardless of their ostensible skills or training). Dialog is generally blocks of paragraphs. The action scenes are an odd combination of gory (lots of things happen to organs in this book) and dispassionate and unhurried. The "twists" at the end are the sort that are necessary but also incredibly expected. Altogether, it's just so very clunky that I had a hard time not hating this book.

I did like that this is kinda a reverse mashup of Invitation to the Game and Childhood's End. ...more

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Sep 18, 2014 Sarah added it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

I loved the opening, the game chapters, the fantastic imagery in the proton chapter toward the end. Found the characters a little flat. I think my hard-SF reading tools need a little sharpening. Enjoyed this a lot as an Idea Book.

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May 15, 2020 Tani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi, male-author, 2020-novels, sff-2020, sff-explorer-2020, sff-awards-2020

I wasn't sure what to expect from this one, but I'm very glad that I read it. Hard scifi is always hit or miss for me, but this one was definitely a hit. I think that's because although this focuses on some science that is higher level, it also has a distinct philosophical bent, it explains the science in a way that is possible for a layperson to understand, and it has the added advantage of being set in a culture that is very different from the traditional Western scifi. All of these elements c I wasn't sure what to expect from this one, but I'm very glad that I read it. Hard scifi is always hit or miss for me, but this one was definitely a hit. I think that's because although this focuses on some science that is higher level, it also has a distinct philosophical bent, it explains the science in a way that is possible for a layperson to understand, and it has the added advantage of being set in a culture that is very different from the traditional Western scifi. All of these elements combined made this a very interesting and absorbing read.

My first impression of The Three-Body Problem was one of confused interest. For probably the first half of the book, I really had no idea what was going on. Events were happening, but within the broader framework of the world, I didn't know why or what significance they could possibly have. Still, I found myself reading almost compulsively, just to try and figure out how everything was going to come together. This could have been a very frustrating experience, but instead it was very rewarding when I did find out what was going on.

I also was very intrigued by the cultural aspects. Chinese fiction is not something that I generally read, so the information that this book provided about the Cultural Revolution and China in general was really interesting. It's always so refreshing to get a perspective on a different culture than your own. I think that this experience was only enhanced by the translation from Ken Liu. He does a wonderful job of inserting footnotes to help Western readers, and I really appreciated the context that he was able to provide to comments that would have otherwise been completely oblique to me.

The one area of weakness that was apparent in this book was definitely character. There's definitely a feeling of distance from all of the characters, even when they're relating deeply personal events. I never really grew attached to any of them, and they definitely felt like vehicles for the plot more than anything else. This certainly wasn't a dealbreaker, but it's something that could have elevated my enjoyment of the book even further.

Overall, I was very impressed with this, and had a great time reading it. I hope that I get a chance to read the sequels soon! ...more

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Jun 21, 2016 John rated it liked it · review of another edition

I don't read a lot of hard sci fi these days, but my library's summer reading program asks us to read something translated into English, and I'd heard about Liu Cixin's award-winning The Three-Body Problem enough that it was on my reading radar when I saw I could get the ebook through my library. So there we are.

The book is, in no small part, a mystery, so I won't say too much about the plot. One of our central characters, Ye Wenjie, we follow from her childhood when she sees her father beaten I don't read a lot of hard sci fi these days, but my library's summer reading program asks us to read something translated into English, and I'd heard about Liu Cixin's award-winning The Three-Body Problem enough that it was on my reading radar when I saw I could get the ebook through my library. So there we are.

The book is, in no small part, a mystery, so I won't say too much about the plot. One of our central characters, Ye Wenjie, we follow from her childhood when she sees her father beaten to death during one of the Chinese Cultural Revolution's show trials, killed for teaching and practicing Western "reactionary" science, in particular Einstein. She herself ends up on the wrong side of the government, but her scientific abilities get her assigned to a secretive installation high on a mountain, working with radio waves.

Decades later, our central character becomes Wang Miao, a scientist working on nanotech, who is drawn into trying to unravel the mysterious deaths of prominent scientists around the world, which is tied somehow to a virtual reality game in which physics seems to work differently than in our own world: where the predictability of Earth's days and years and weather patterns are replaced with a sun that may or may not rise, that may suddenly leave the world in freezing death or in heat that literally scorches the planet's surface. The point of the game seems to be to figure out the rules under which the world operates, but in reality there is much more to it.

It feels like a spoiler, but pretty much every review I've seen mentions it pretty casually, so I'll add that one of the central concerns of the novel is first contact with an alien species, and this was one of the most interesting aspects to me: how do humans respond to finding out that they are not alone in the universe. How, for that matter, do the aliens?

This is the sort of hard sci fi where the focus is on the science and the issues raised by it, not on the characters and their interactions. It's not quite Arthur C. Clarke bad in this regard, but there's a certain flatness here, for sure. Still, I found it an enjoyable read as we dig into the puzzles and mysteries. ...more

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Sep 10, 2016 Steve rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

The Three Body Problem takes a familiar premise - aliens need to leave their world and want ours - and works it through in a compelling, near future narrative. It's heavy on the science, with no reason for the reader to judge one way or the other. And it has a surprising number of twists and turns played out in detail - much like in Neal Stephenson's earlier novels. Liu Cixin packs in so many well thought out concepts, I just wonder how he has managed to publish so many books!

Liu Cixin is repor ...more

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Mar 23, 2017 Tom Britz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This novel won the 2015 Hugo, the first novel written in Chinese and then translated into English to have this honor. It, for all of its minor blemishes, is well worth it. The story is reminiscent of some "Golden Age" science fiction, but the science is modern and as far as I can tell fairly accurate. The minor problems with the story that I see are probably due to the difficulties of translating, not only the words and meanings, but also a very different cultural mind-set.

The story begins duri This novel won the 2015 Hugo, the first novel written in Chinese and then translated into English to have this honor. It, for all of its minor blemishes, is well worth it. The story is reminiscent of some "Golden Age" science fiction, but the science is modern and as far as I can tell fairly accurate. The minor problems with the story that I see are probably due to the difficulties of translating, not only the words and meanings, but also a very different cultural mind-set.

The story begins during China's cultural revolution of the mid 1960's and 1970's, where a certain scientist was murdered in front of his small daughter, Ye Wenjie, over his beliefs in science over political dogma. The man's wife was turned against him and the daughter saw this as well. The scene moves to the daughter now fully grown and a scientist in her own right, however due to her "past" associations she was not considered a full member of the party, so Ye Wenjie is exiled to a scientific research station that listened for signals of a possible outer civilization.

This other civilization is a mathematical nightmare come to life. Imagine living on a planet with three suns, and not a stable orbit. Each sun takes its turn "capturing" the planet. The civilization has adopted to the extremes of heat and cold, I do mean extremes, by being able to completely dehydrate their bodys and storing the husk, to be hydrated at a safe time when the orbit stabilizes. This is where a "red flag" came up for me, such as how does that happen? If they are all dehydrated, who gets the signal that all is well? But the story does capture your attention and you are able to gloss over some of these.

It does turn out that when we do get this signal from the Other, that Ye Wenjie is the one that notices it and even after she is warned by this other civilization's own martyr and traitor, to not answer, because that would lead to an invasion from them, her own bitterness against humanity is strong enough that she does answer, hoping that any civilization able to successfully travel the distances of interstellar space, would be benevolent. Which is proven to be NOT the case.

This is volume one of a trilogy, the second is out here in the States and the third is due in September. I have the second coming in the mail and will order the third when it does appear. If the next two are as good as this, it should be an experience well worth your time! ...more

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Feb 19, 2015 Gavin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sciencefiction, adult-fiction, 2015, 2020

Hard science fiction which sometimes held my interest but I found myself skimming through entire sections.

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Feb 01, 2015 Christine rated it liked it · review of another edition

I am intrigued by the storyline, but half of this book is excessive (to me), detailed hard science, much of which I skimmed over. It definitely dampened my enthusiasm for the book and I will not be reading the sequels

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Dec 29, 2014 Michelle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Fiction about an unsolvable math problem and multi-dimensional particles made for a very interesting story, to my surprise - so often mathematics makes for rather dry fiction when it is the basis of the tension in a story... But that was not the case here. Plus a lot of Chinese history that I was only marginally familiar with to round it out. The translation was beautiful, too. This review is of the audio book version.

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