Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

13 reviews

puifaii's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, War, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Physical abuse, Confinement, Death, Pregnancy, and Police brutality

Minor: Medical trauma

quarkie's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This book had me on the edge of my seat - I finished almost all of it in one sitting, it was that gripping. The ramp up to the big reveal was incredible, but then I thought the reveal itself didn't quite match the intensity of the first part of the book.

As a scientist, this book actually gets much of the science right, which helped with my suspension of disbelief. Things go just a bit beyond the walls of plausible reality at the end, but overall it's all sufficiently plausible as to not be too distracting.

This book is a translation, and it's obvious, but not in a bad way. In the translator's afterward, he talks about how hard he tried to balance translating the text in a way that would be more familiar to Western readers and translating it in a way that stayed true to the lyricism and tone of the original Chinese. In this, I think he succeeded. There are passages where things are phrased in ways that make it obvious it was written by a non-native English speaker, but I think that helps the reader place the characters and their motivations in cultural context. He also preserves some beautiful, thought-provoking passages that left existential questions lingering my mind long after I put the book down.

The book starts with descriptions of warring factions in the Cultural Revolution - of groups fighting each other even within the same organization. I think that theme is reflected in a fascinating way later in the book through the ETO, between the Adventists and the Redemptionists. This conflicts also underscores the deeply complex motivations for each member of humanity in everything they do. As Da Shi says, "There's someone behind everything." I think, similarly, "Everyone wants something."

This book explores a wide variety of other themes including:
- Whether the fundamental nature of humanity is good or bad, and how people react when they come to a conclusion in either way
- How your level of education can shape how you perceive the world and humanity, and how sometimes the 'wise' (meaning educated) can be so ignorant but the 'ignorant' (here meaning less educated) can be so perceptive
- The fine line between order and chaos
- How lonely the act of searching for nothing can be when your end goal is your sole motivation (which resonated strongly with me as someone who works on dark matter research)
- The role of environmentalism (with hints of anti-nuclear sentiments that I couldn't quite pin down)
- The role of colonialism and cultural influence, which again works as a fascinating juxtaposition of the Cultural Revolution 
- How different world powers would react to First Contact, but also how societies very different from our would react to First Contact

One of my favorite scenes was where 30 million beings were used as a living computer. I felt it was so creative, and really helps readers understand how far humanity has come with technology.

Overall, this was a thought-provoking, fascinating, and gripping read. I already put 3 more books by Cixin Liu on hold at the library.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Torture, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: War, Blood, Colonisation, Classism, and Death of parent

margot14's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death of parent, Murder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Confinement, Physical abuse, War, Blood, Police brutality, and Violence

atalea's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.0

At the beginning it was a five star read for me, but at the end it became a little too science heavy for me which deflated my interest a bit. I do love how the author explains difficult scientific concepts, it made it easier to follow. Very interested to see how things continue!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Death of parent

Minor: Mental illness, Pregnancy, and War

wrackspurtt's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Physical abuse

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, War, Alcohol, Classism, Abandonment, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Blood

Minor: Colonisation, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, and Suicide

cloud_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Death, Murder, Kidnapping, and Physical abuse

Minor: Suicide, War, and Violence

adapostrophe's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Genocide

mlewis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Murder, Death of parent, Death, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide and Grief

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Alcohol

ekcd_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

1.5

It’s all spoilers this whole thing. 

Where to start?

The characters are utterly forgettable and there is not a single redeemable or meaningful relationship between any of the characters or any facet of the story. They only existed so they could talk to each other as a way to move the plot along. Without the characters the whole book could be reduced to one, drunken rant about “like what if aliens lived on an unstable planet?” He put characters in so it wouldn’t just be a really bizarre lecture 

This book reads as 350 pages of history and philosophical waxing and then 50 pages of shitty alien fan fiction that is really just the author patting himself on the back for creating analogies that are complicated enough for readers to think him smart but are ultimately meaningless. 

By rooting a story in the present and then layering in completely absurd scientific magic over it really removed me from the story. The physics and math were really inaccessible and honesty glossed over that whole chapter. 

Nothing in this story or it’s writing made me care about any of the individuals, civilizations, communities or social movements that were used. 

I am gobsmacked that so many people praise this book so highly. I love science fiction and read it almost exclusively. The only thing keeping me from rage quitting half way through was rage reading so I could review this book without people saying  “you didn’t finish it so you can’t comment on it” 

It gets a 1.5 because I was able to finish it quickly (thank god)

Well screw you, fans of this book, I read it and I disliked it! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Xenophobia, Violence, Suicide, Police brutality, Hate crime, Gun violence, Genocide, Death, Confinement, Colonisation, Classism, and Blood

Minor: Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Classism, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Infertility, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, War, and Xenophobia

I don’t regret reading this because at least it gives me something concrete to point my unhinged anger at. Going to drink some tea and read something that I know is good and pure