The Three-Body Problem

Remembrance of Earth's Past, #1

by Cixin Liu

Paperback, 434 pages

English language

Published Sept. 12, 2016 by Head of Zeus.

ISBN:: 978-1-78497-157-1

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(264 reviews)

1967: Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China's Cultural Revolution. This singular event will shape not only the rest of her life but also the future of mankind.

Four decades later, Beijing police ask nanotech engineer Wang Miao to infiltrate a secretive cabal of scientists after a spate of inexplicable suicides. Wang's investigation will lead him to a mysterious online game and immerse him in a virtual world ruled by the intractable and unpredictable interaction of its three suns.

This is the Three-Body Problem and it is the key to everything: the key to the scientists' deaths, the key to a conspiracy that spans light-years and the key to the extinction-level threat humanity now faces.

28 editions

beautiful soup reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Problem Series, #1)

Humanity: to squish, or not to squish.

4 stars

I am very surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I knew the central premise of the trilogy (thanks to people talking about the Netflix series), but that did not ruin the book for me in any way shape or form, because I absolutely did not expect HOW the book would get to where I knew it was going.

The imagery in this book is so interesting and so unusual, and if I ever watch the Netflix adaptation, I hope it matches what I see in my head. The video game, the pyramid, the pendulum! (Some of the video game sections really reminded me of the absurdism of Stanisław Lem's The Cyberiad.) The human computer! The photographs! The slicing of the ship! Pan-Species Communism!

It didn't get too far into the technical weeds either. I mean when we got to all the stuff with proton-folding and sophons I was …

It didn't get too far into the technical weeds either. I mean when we got to all the stuff with proton-folding and sophons I was just smiling and nodding. I like reading about particle physics, but I do not understand it, and that's ok. It did not drag the book down for me. In fact I think it was incredibly compellingly written, I did not want to put it down. It also made me realize (to my shame) that I know almost absolutely nothing about China. I should fix that.

We have all had our moments when we think that if humanity were a bug underneath our foot, we would squish it without hesitation. Just end all of this nonsense once and for all. I understand why Ye did what she did, and I might have even done the same. At the same time, it absolutely filled me with dread. And a room full of elites planning the deliberate downfall of humanity feels so uncomfortably relevant to all of our lives right now.

I'm definitely going to finish this trilogy, I want to know how this plays out. But if I were going to place bets on Trisolaris vs Earth, I would place my bet on the bugs.

imadnyc reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Problem Series, #1)

Award winner for a reason

5 stars

The book is incredibly captivating from the moment you open it -- I instantly was done with Part 1 even though I had something to do and couldn't spend that much time reading. The dialogue and some of the analogies are strange to English readers, but is on purpose -- being translated from Chinese, too much of the meaning and flow would have been lost if it were more "Americanized". The way its paced also makes you feel like you're going through the same thing the main character is. Overall, an excellent book, and am super excited to watch the show.

Ernesto Miquel reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Problem Series, #1)

Ciencia ficción de la buena.

5 stars

Increíble la historia y como la enmarca en su contexto social e histórico. También como fue narrada. Y con una buena dosis de ciencia ficción, con énfasis en la ciencia. No sabía qué esperar cuando comencé a leerlo, y me llevé una muy grata sorpresa. Con ansias de continuar la historia.

zemoko reviewed Le problème à trois corps by Cixin Liu

J‘ai trouvé ma lecture passionnante, et palpitante, mais j‘ai quand même quelques réserves

4 stars

« Le problème à trois corps » est trilogie de SF chinoise, voire de hard-SF. En 2021, le roman avait déjà une belle renommée car il avait obtenu le prix Hugo (en 2015) et que Barack Obama en avait fait l‘éloge public. Comme j‘écris ma chronique avec 3 ans de retard, je peux ajouter qu‘elle a encore gagnée en visibilité cette année, puisqu‘elle a été adaptée en série par Netflix !

En Chine, la Révolution culturelle bat son plein. Ye Wenjie est une jeune astrophysicienne dont le père, également éminent scientifique, a été accusé d’être contre-révolutionnaire, et exécuté sous ses yeux. Elle refuse de le condamner et est envoyée en camps de rééducation… bref, révolution culturelle et fort passif pour Ye Wenjie, vous voyez le truc. Puis, ses compétences étant reconnues, elle sera finalement affecté à la base secrète de Côte-Rouge pour participer à un mystérieux projet…

40 ans plus …

En Chine, la Révolution culturelle bat son plein. Ye Wenjie est une jeune astrophysicienne dont le père, également éminent scientifique, a été accusé d’être contre-révolutionnaire, et exécuté sous ses yeux. Elle refuse de le condamner et est envoyée en camps de rééducation… bref, révolution culturelle et fort passif pour Ye Wenjie, vous voyez le truc. Puis, ses compétences étant reconnues, elle sera finalement affecté à la base secrète de Côte-Rouge pour participer à un mystérieux projet…

40 ans plus tard, alors qu’une étrange vague de suicides frappe la communauté scientifique internationale. Wang Miao, un scientifique expert en nano-technologies, se voit confronté à d’étranges phénomènes qu’il va rapidement relier à un nouveau, et mystérieux, jeu de réalité virtuelle.

J‘ai trouvé ma lecture passionnante, et palpitante, mais j‘ai quand même quelques réserves. Le livre est complexe, ce qui est assez naturel pour un roman de hard-science, mais je l’ai aussi parfois trouvé confus. Si les aspects scientifiques sont (vraiment) bien traités, les personnages, eux, ne sont pas assez développés. À l’exception notable de Ye Wentje, et peut-être de Shi Qiang, les personnages sont à peine ébauchés et cela m‘a gêné pour apprécier réellement ma lecture.

Je suis néanmoins content de l’avoir lu… mais je n‘était manifestement pas pressé ni d‘écrire à son sujet, ni de lire la suite 😉

Edd62 reviewed El problema de los tres cuerpos (Trilogía de los Tres Cuerpos, #1) by Cixin Liu

El problema de los tres cuerpos, reseña

4 stars

ciencia ficcion, puray dura, profunda investigacion fisica, matematica, social, geopolitica, para crear a partir de un problema de modelo matematico, ( los tres cuerpos) una novela innovadora, un salto cuantico en la ciencia ficción

Tereza reviewed Problém tří těles by Cixin Liu (Vzpomínka na zemi, #1)

Review of 'Problém tří těles' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Tak jo, toto mě bavilo. Nečekaně vystavěný příběh, všechno do sebe nakonec zapadá (jen pár věcí zůstalo na konci prvního dílu s otazníkem, tak doufám, že vysvětlení přijde v dalších dílech). Bylo to místy hodně náročné čtení, už jen proto, že nejsem fyzik, ale když se člověk smíří s tím, že to všechno do hloubky prostě nepochopí a prostě tomu jenom „věří“, tak to vlastně zas tak náročné nebylo. Nejvíc mě bavila civilizace s lidským počítačem!

marionline reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Problem Series, #1)

Interesting Book

4 stars

Content warning And I loved violin playing Albert

It was an interesting read. Somewhat hard to get into the story, but then it was making me turn pages and I could barely put it down. I loved some of the sci-fi ideas presented there.

carbonjustice reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Problem Series, #1)

review of three body problem

5 stars

great book, highly recommended

Einar reviewed Trekropparsproblemet by Cixin Liu

Trekropparsproblemet.

No rating

Jag köpte den då jag hört talas om den tidigare, och tänkte att det var fint att läsa den innan jag eventuellt tittar på serieadaptionen på Netflix (jag har också förstått att det finns en kinesisk version som ligger på Youtube som möjligtvis är mer trogen boken, men också vansinnigt lång). Det är också väldigt roligt med science fiction som översätts till svenska.

Jeg ble litt forvirret av boken når jeg begynte å lese den, selv om jeg har hørt ett sammendrag i en podd tidligere. Det føltes litt som att bakgrunden med kulturrevolutionen var ett sidospår och det var svårt att förstå varför det var med i historien. Det grundar dock berättelsen i kinesisk historia och ger också en bakgrund till varför några av karaktärena blev dem de blev.

Det jag hade svårast att greppa var nog detta datorspelet. Jag tyckte att det kändes lite krystat och jag hade …

Det jag hade svårast att greppa var nog detta datorspelet. Jag tyckte att det kändes lite krystat och jag hade svårt att engagera mig i det. Det är svårt att beskriva ett spel som skall vara alltuppslukande i bokform, i ett helt annat medium. Att spel kan vara uppslukande vet jag, jag har ju spelat Dwarf fortress, men det skulle vara svårt att vidareförmedla den känslan. Jag funderar ändå om spelets funktion i berättelsen kunde förmedlats på ett annat sätt. Det känns fortfarande lite som att det inte passar in, en lite för lätt lösning.

Jag tycker i grunden att boken lyfter en rad olika intressanta ämnen som frihet, autonomi, livets och universums mening, om vårt eventuella ansvar för andra arter och världen vi bor på, och om andra arters eventuella ansvar för oss. Det är ämnen som bara är öppnade i denna boken och man lär nog behöva läsa de två andra också om man utforska dem vidare. Om de gör det på ett bra sätt lär vi få se. Just som denna volymen slutar är saker bara så vitt börjat rulla. Kommer nog läsa de andra volymen också, men väntar nog till de andra två är färdigt översatta.

Vullunfestuc reviewed El problema dels tres cossos by Cixin Liu

Una explosió

No rating

És un llibre enrevessat amb un punt psicodèlic interessantíssim i utilitzant la cultura xinesa com a base que això, des del nostre occident mediterrani, el fa suggerent. T'obliga a repensar els límits del nostre propi pensament i, fins i tot, algunes creences. Un d'aquells llibres de ciència-ficció que són complets, que ho aborden tot. A vegades em recorda a la Fundació, a la Fi de la Infància o fins i tot a Encontres amb Rama.

cwality reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Problem Series, #1)

A unique view of aliens and the future

4 stars

Great world building, and interesting views on both future physics and how other civilisations would interact with ours. Didn’t really care about the characters though.

Mirthfather reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Problem Series, #1)

My review of "Three Body Problem"

4 stars

A very nice book of interpersonal relationship, political science, and high-concept extreme scale physics. Really interesting read.

Thomas Dempsey reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Problem Series, #1)

Don't Take the Canal

5 stars

Dense technical and historical sci-fi that pulls you in through sheer scale of its intrigue.

Michael Vilain reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Problem Series, #1)

Michael Vilain

3 stars

An interesting view into what it was like to live and work in PRC during Mao's reign of terror. Switching back and forth between the two cultures (alien and earth) was interesting. I didn't have as much of a problem with the "gimmick" used by the alien culture to communicate with earth but boy did my friends who were physicists. They categorically reject the book. I liked it enough but not enough to watch the series being made of it or read the the rest of the books in the series. YMMV.