Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Three-Body Problem

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Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

100 reviews

zombiezami's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

4.25

This is the first book that I’ve read by this author, and I can tell he’s super talented and knowledgeable. He weaves history, advanced science, and philosophy together in fascinating ways. It was hard to follow at times, though, because of the thoroughness of his descriptions. Not sure if I’ll read the other books in this series, but this one was pretty fascinating.

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ohyeah_karyn's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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kamela's review against another edition

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challenging informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

I hate to say it, but I largely found this book dull. I adore Ken Liu's stuff, so I was looking forward to a really luminous translation from him. It's nigh-impossible to judge the quality of a translation if you don't know the original language, but I'm guessing he did a really good job, and that the odd flatness of the prose is reflective of either the author's style, a translation difficulty with the Chinese, or both.

In the beginning, I almost put it down because of how brutal the opening scenes in the Cultural Revolution were. If it had gone on much longer, I wasn't going to be able to deal with it - I didn't want to spend all that time in a world where these intensely violent and head-twisting things were being depicted one after the other. But it did cause me to feel attached to Ye Wenjie, and I was quite disappointed when the rest of the book didn't focus on her. Her every appearance in the book added intrigue and pathos, but I truly wish Liu had made her the protagonist, to the extent this book has one.

Because honestly...it really doesn't. It mostly has a bunch of characters whose purpose it is to react to huge, physics-related happenings that are difficult to feel much about. There's an incredible underlying thread here, about the way systematic brutality and having your mind beaten down repeatedly

(and your father murdered in front of you in the public square)

can cause a person to become hardened toward the fate of the entire human race, and when given the opportunity, to

arrange with an alien civilization for their wholesale destruction and

bring about untold vengeance, however long it takes. To me, this journey of Ye Wenjie is the beating heart of the book, but unfortunately the author decided to put that heart in the book's big toe or something. I got through it, but it left me cold.

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roboandie's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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wrackspurtt's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced

4.0

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laurajeangrace's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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the_planetarywanderer's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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syinhui's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I really want to give this a 4-star rating at least and pretend I thoroughly enjoyed it. I even had high hopes that this would become one of my favorite sci-fi series ever but after some time of reflection, as I went over my notes that seems to me now more like a frustrated rant than a sensible critique, made me realize I do have a lot of issues with this book.

The premise is great, it’s ambitious and staged on a scale that goes beyond imagination. I also know everything here would be in a much bleaker perspective, an existential dread-inducing view of the world and humanity. I’ve been warned and was looking forward to reading it. I think most of my complaints lie in the poor writing and the philosophies and ideologies presented by the characters. The extremists in this book deem humanity as ‘terminally ill’ and ‘incapable of solving its own problems’, thus the need for a higher force ‘to intervene’. It tells that a lot of people harbor a deep hatred for their own kind but somehow does not show the condition of the present world they’re living in or provide any insight/development as to how people got to that point. (What could’ve possessed them to hold such extreme ideals? Putting China aside, what sort of horrible things happened to the rest of the world? Is the current Earth such a hopeless place??) The lack of present societal perspective from any of the characters makes the rebellion more like a joke – a misanthrope’s wildest fantasies suddenly coming true, well I guess that’s the idea.

My honest opinion on ETO is that they’re mad, naïve, and full of crap. Their slogan is basically, “F*** humanity, long live the aliens! Why? I don’t know but I know humans.” It’s not lost on me the irony that ETO is mostly composed of intellectuals, wealthy and powerful individuals – the same people who should know better and have much to lose. I could only blame the writing for this and not the translation. Then there’s this part where the narrative was copy-pasted from an earlier chapter. I know it’s supposed to mirror Ye’s experience but for it to be completely similar is just pure lazy writing. Most of the dialogues are dry and clunky, take for example Wei Cheng’s and Mike Evans’ lengthy monologues.

Liu’s main weakness is in his characterization, evidently, his MCs are flat and unlikeable. One is too timid and bland, the other a cold-blooded sociopath. The characters are difficult to connect with because they exist solely to advance the plot. The others are horrible for the sake of being horrible. The crusty, streetwise cop happens to be the only one who got brains.

On a more positive note, and despite my complaints, I think it’s fair to say that this is still a decent read. If you can suspend disbelief throughout the entire book, then you’d probably find it more enjoyable. The sci-fi is inspired by real science. There really are some mind-boggling concepts and authentic ideas here. The bizarre in-game scenarios although dull and dragging at times are also wonderfully poignant. The introduction to the Cultural Revolution is the most solid part of the book - a rather strong opening to a series of this scope. Disappointingly, the rest fell short on me afterward. It could’ve kept the momentum instead of swinging back and forth between the present and past and using abrupt resolutions to important plot lines within chunks of exposition. It simply broke the spell for me, making the reveals less impactful.

I am very hesitant and scared to start the next book. I’ve heard good and bad things about it. I might read it for the interesting concepts and wild sci-fi stuff but then I might not for the poor writing and bad representation of women, also whatever that cringey waifu thing going on there has a high potential of souring my reading experience. In that case, I might as well dehydrate for now and come back alive once the adaptation hits Netflix!

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gkgkgk's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

When I first picked up this book, I did so after being advised that the less I knew about its plot going in, the better the book would be. That is absolutely correct. This book is so unfathomable to me in concept (not that I didn't understand it, Liu ensures that the average reader will)- I cannot comprehend the intellect and creativity that is required to write this work. It was in every way a page-turner. Loved.

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meganpbell's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Ambitious, mysterious, challenging, and unsettling describe this landmark sci-fi soon to be adapted by Netflix. This unique take on first contact explores science & technology, the development of civilizations, and, most of all, what happens when people give up on humanity. Character is kind of sacrificed to the high concepts here, and I found myself thinking of Sophie’s World but with video games and physics instead of postcards and philosophy.

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