From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)

Liu Cixin,

Ken Liu (Translator)

Start date: May 15, 2020

Finish date: June 1, 2020

Discussion: AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

Discussion leader: Gertie

Why we're reading this: Discussion will open on June 1st, read as soon as you would like!
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AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

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last updated Aug 15, 2025 08:35AM

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What Members Thought

Sep 02, 2015 Catherine rated it really liked it

Shelves: hugo-award-winners, sci-fi, audiobook, non-white-non-anglo-authors, hard-sf, litrpg, in-translation

I'm glad I finally finished this after a long hiatus (I don't commute as much as I used to and I listened to this audiobook while commuting). Cixin Liu is China's most famous and best-selling science fiction author.

The backdrop of this novel alternates between a 20-minutes-from-now near future China and China during the Cultural Revolution. In the past, astrophysicist and accidental political dissident Ye Wenjie finds herself exiled to Red Coast Base where the Chinese government is covertly usin ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 08, 2016 Cindywho rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy-sf

I was excited to be able to read a science fiction novel set in China and this one was great. From the effects of the Cultural Revolution on scientists, to a Chinese SETI program, nanotechnology and virtual reality - it's a roller coaster ride. The characters may have been a little flat in contrast to the ideas but the ideas carried the story along just fine. ...more

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Feb 23, 2018 Brook rated it it was amazing

Really close to 5 stars. I think if I could read it in the original Mandarin, it would be 5. This is a book for computer folks, engineers, mathematicians, physicists, astronomers, and hard science geeks in general. A lot of the enjoyment of the story is in the description of the mathematics and science itself. This is even farther to the hard-science end of things than The Martian. That said, it is accessible to any adult reader with a good mathematical or geometrical mind. The overarching conce ...more

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Dec 21, 2016 D rated it really liked it

I like going into books without reading much about them or reading reviews. I take a trusted friend's word or a list with others I've enjoyed and just jump in. This was one of them, and I was a little confused for the first chunk when all it dealt with was scenes from the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and I had had the impression it would be a sci-fi story with aliens and shit.

Well, I was just impatient, I guess. There's some good, basic science stuff that ramped up into some multi-dimensional t ...more

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Feb 18, 2016 Robert rated it it was amazing

Perfectly balanced the line between "hard" sci fi and mass appeal sci fi. Geeky, propulsive and with genuine characters. I have no way of really knowing, but the book is an excellent translation.
Story seems self-contained. I wonder how the sequels stack up... ...more

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Jan 23, 2019 Jess rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2024, read-2019

This was a DNF when I first attempted it in 2017, and a 5-star read when I picked it up again in 2019. There a whole host of reasons I just didn't gel with this as much in 2024 (primary among them probably being my listening to the audiobook - the dry, expositional writing style is so much more obvious when narrated at you). I almost regret re-reading this before getting on with the rest of the series, because my urge to has diminished a fair bit now (and I definitely won't be listening to the a ...more

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Feb 18, 2015 Dave Schumaker rated it it was amazing

I read this in 2015 and gave it only 3 stars. The upcoming Netflix release reminded me that I still wanted to continue reading the rest of the trilogy, as I've continued to hear great things about it.

However, it's been about 9 years and I completely forget everything that happened in this book. So, I decided to re-read it.

Uh, okay! I really missed something on my first read through because I enjoyed this immensely! ...more

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