Play Book Tag discussion

The Three-Body Problem - Liu Cixin

4 stars

The Three-Body Problem is a science fiction novel written by a Chinese author that was translated for publication in the United States. It won the Hugo in 2015. I don't want to give away most of the plot, but it follows two physicists - one who survived the Cultural Revolution in the sixties and one that is working in the book's present time. In the course of exploring their science, strange things begin to emerge and scientists around the world seem to be dying in strange circumstances or committing suicide.

I really enjoyed reading is book. I liked reading this type of book from the perspective of a different culture. I feel like I learned a lot about China and its Cultural Revolution, even though that is only a small part of the book. I liked how the translator used footnotes to explain some of the references that an American reader might not understand. My biggest struggle with the book was understanding the physics and mathematics that was explored. Most of it was beyond my understanding and I often felt myself zoning out or missing out on important points due to my own ignorance in these areas. I am intrigued by the problems presented in the story and look forward to seeing where the author takes it in the other books in the trilogy.

This book was on my Listopia List.

Sounds like a great transition book from January's 'science' to February's 'Asia'.

This book is already on my TBR so I'm curious about the prevalence of the physics and mathematics? Easy to skim over?

Denizen wrote: "This book is already on my TBR so I'm curious about the prevalence of the physics and mathematics? Easy to skim over?"

There was quite a bit of physics, but mostly theoretical physics. It almost read like philosophy. I know I zoned out during some of it. It is important to the plot, but as long as you get the point at the end, the details didn't matter. For example, I just accepted that a proton could be made into a computer and all the explanation of how it was done went way over my head, but that was OK to me. It reminded me of that quote about science that you don't understand is basically magic.