This trilogy follows a broad cast of characters through the centuries as earth enters a crisis following the Chinese cultural Revolution and the scientific experiments at the high security Red Coast Base. The short memory of humanity and the nature of the universe are explored in depth, revealing the true extent to which reality has been moulded by it's inhabitants.
The methodical nature in which Cixin Liu reveals the sci-fi concepts in each book makes the ideas on display accessible to all readers.
Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen did an excellent job translating this trilogy to English and their translators notes gave useful cultural and scientific context when necessary.
This trilogy follows a broad cast of characters through the centuries as earth enters a crisis following the Chinese cultural Revolution and the scientific experiments at the high security Red Coast Base. The short memory of humanity and the nature of the universe are explored in depth, revealing the true extent to which reality has been moulded by it's inhabitants.
The methodical nature in which Cixin Liu reveals the sci-fi concepts in each book makes the ideas on display accessible to all readers.
Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen did an excellent job translating this trilogy to English and their translators notes gave useful cultural and scientific context when necessary.
Review of 'Three-Body Problem Series' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This was an interesting and at times jarring read. The universe Liu creates is interesting, but elements range from scientifically plausible and thrilling to almost shark-jumping levels of supposition. Some pieces seem to work within the world he creates, and others left me scratching my head. The historical/science thriller here is great. The sci-fi seems more fiction than science.
I have no idea why this kitchy and infantile story is so critically-acclaimed. Except for the description of life in China during the cultural revolution, I found nothing interesting here.
Review of 'Three-Body Problem Series' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Not since Iain M Banks have I been so taken with an author. In fact I'm annoyed that writing this review is delaying me starting the second novel. That's how good it is.
Not since Iain M Banks have I been so taken with an author. In fact I'm annoyed that writing this review is delaying me starting the second novel. That's how good it is.
Review of 'Three-Body Problem Series' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
It was interesting, but I expected better after all the warm recommendations.
What I liked: - Depiction of politics, particularly the Cultural Revolution era. Wow, I had no idea! I spent a day on Wikipedia to learn more. - Flashbacks and perspective switches. I liked the non-linear way that the story was told. - Getting a taste of Chinese fiction writing style. I am sure this one book is not enough to form any overall opinion of Chinese writing, but it is a start.
What I did not like: - Characters are not characterized. There are just two characters that are not completely faceless: Ye (old lady) and Shi (arrogant cop). This makes the drama of the main character weak. He is freaking out, but not in a relatable way. - Sci-fi stuff. The book is near-future, so there is not a lot of sci-fi elements. But what there is, …
It was interesting, but I expected better after all the warm recommendations.
What I liked: - Depiction of politics, particularly the Cultural Revolution era. Wow, I had no idea! I spent a day on Wikipedia to learn more. - Flashbacks and perspective switches. I liked the non-linear way that the story was told. - Getting a taste of Chinese fiction writing style. I am sure this one book is not enough to form any overall opinion of Chinese writing, but it is a start.
What I did not like: - Characters are not characterized. There are just two characters that are not completely faceless: Ye (old lady) and Shi (arrogant cop). This makes the drama of the main character weak. He is freaking out, but not in a relatable way. - Sci-fi stuff. The book is near-future, so there is not a lot of sci-fi elements. But what there is, seemed randomly plucked from a hat. Full-body VR, glasses that shift microwave to visible light, nano-wire that cuts steel, levitating baseball-sized nukes. I mean you could fit them in a sci-fi book easily, but here they just pop up randomly and seem out of place among the otherwise current-day tech. No science-y attempt was made to explain their presence. - Pace. Without good drama, characterization, or interesting science, it is a boring read for 90% of the book. All those visits to the Trisolaris VR game seem very unrelated to the story. Even looking back they seem like an interesting, but ultimately unsuccessful storytelling device.
In the end I am not a fan. But I would love to discuss the book with others! My intuition about a 3-star system would be that one of the stars would get ejected pretty quickly. Not that it moves around randomly but sorta evenly. And does that VR game look correct to you? It seems to conflate days (rotation) with years (orbiting). The rotation would not get randomized from a random orbit.
And that proton folding thing at the end! Interesting idea of course, but the consequences seem totally random. When I saw the numbers appearing on Wang's photos, was I supposed to figure out that a supercomputer built into a proton was "borrowing" energy from the universe to do it? Seems like an unfair puzzle with a moronic solution.
On the other hand if you managed to figure out the solution on your own, I can understand why you would love this book to death :).
Review of 'Three-Body Problem Series' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I really really agree with Akiva here. This book is a mysteriously compelling mess of really astonishingly cool ideas, weirdly inconsistent plot pacing, and characters I found myself really liking even though they don't make a ton of sense.
At its best moments it reminded me of the more existentially-disturbing Greg Egan stories, e.g. Dark Integers. In some ways it's basically a three-star book: it's overly-expository and doesn't completely live up to its promise; but I'm giving it a star back for the sheer scale and ambition of its ideas. Really hard to put down because you can't stop thinking about what the next twist will be.
I really really agree with Akiva here. This book is a mysteriously compelling mess of really astonishingly cool ideas, weirdly inconsistent plot pacing, and characters I found myself really liking even though they don't make a ton of sense.
At its best moments it reminded me of the more existentially-disturbing Greg Egan stories, e.g. Dark Integers. In some ways it's basically a three-star book: it's overly-expository and doesn't completely live up to its promise; but I'm giving it a star back for the sheer scale and ambition of its ideas. Really hard to put down because you can't stop thinking about what the next twist will be.
I liked this a lot, but it had some problems too. First 40 or so pages were hard to get through, and yes, they set up one of the characters, but I think it could have been two or three paragraphs of exposition and been just as effective. (For my tastes anyway.)
There is one video game featured prominently in the book, and it's interesting, but a tad unrealistically portrayed. Both in tech as well as just naive game design. Didn't have to have been though, which is maybe the sad part. It's supposed to be near future, so maybe the tech realism part is forgivable.
Don't want to spoil, so I'll stop here. I felt like a lot of what I read about the book involved there being left-field twists at multiple points in the novel, and yeah, I'll grant that there was at least one big one. I'll …
I liked this a lot, but it had some problems too. First 40 or so pages were hard to get through, and yes, they set up one of the characters, but I think it could have been two or three paragraphs of exposition and been just as effective. (For my tastes anyway.)
There is one video game featured prominently in the book, and it's interesting, but a tad unrealistically portrayed. Both in tech as well as just naive game design. Didn't have to have been though, which is maybe the sad part. It's supposed to be near future, so maybe the tech realism part is forgivable.
Don't want to spoil, so I'll stop here. I felt like a lot of what I read about the book involved there being left-field twists at multiple points in the novel, and yeah, I'll grant that there was at least one big one. I'll also grant that I was "in the dark" about some major stuff for most of the novel, but I didn't feel like the reveals were particularly surprising, to be honest.
I'm kinda torn about starting the next novel in the series right away.
Review of 'Three-Body Problem Series' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This is a truly impressive SciFi book. At first, the threat of an alien invasion might seem like the same old story, this is a unique take from page one. Exploring the idea of a civilization in a chaotic three-sun system, it also ties in with exploration of Chinese society. And towards the end, it brings in some very impressive (imagined) physics idea. The big ideas, the Chinese perspective, and the even narration that moves just at the right speed and is itself full of ideas, are all making this very special.
