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dawntin's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This is science fiction that goes really hard on the science. The explanations were long-winded and a slog to read through. I thought the majority of the characters were flat, with Ye Wenjie being the most interesting one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, and Violence
nerdkitten's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-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: Violence, Confinement, Murder, Blood, Death, Grief, Gore, and Death of parent
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Alcohol, and Gun violence
Minor: Animal death, Classism, Sexism, War, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Police brutality, and Pregnancy
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
petiteqamar's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Death
Minor: Suicide
diazona's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
When I first started considering this review, I thought how ironic it'd be if the book wound up getting three stars, in light of the obvious pun. Fortunately it turned out to be better than that... but actually not by that much. While I definitely liked the book, it fell far short of the expectations I'd built up based on how often it had been recommended to me and how much recognition it's gotten.
First things first though: the plot of The Three-Body Problem is legitimately really interesting. It takes a while to develop, but when it does, the book's take on first contact with an alien society, and humanity's reaction to it, is pretty unique among stories I've read. Kind of bleak in a way, but the uniqueness makes it fascinating regardless. (If I read another book that handles first contact the same way I will be much less into it.) And I like the way the Three-Body game was originally introduced in the story as a mysterious element that eventually ties in to the alien contact plot line in a way that you can kind of see coming but is still a powerful experience when it finally gets revealed.
On the other hand, the way that this fantastic story is presented leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion. For instance, there's a whole introductory section that I really don't understand the purpose of. I guess it provides some interesting background information about the characters, and maybe tying the story back to the Chinese cultural revolution is more meaningful for readers whose cultural background focuses on those events, but it doesn't really do anything for me. A lot of it could have been skipped over without taking anything important away from the story. Plus, large parts of the book read like dry technical reports - and I'm not even talking about the parts that are dry technical reports, I mean there are long stretches of dialogue that feel like the characters are just reciting an amateurish script to convey information to the reader.
Even when the characters are acting like characters, they're not always particularly distinguishable or memorable. This is something I've noticed across a bunch of the books I've been reading recently: the best ones seem to have characters whose speech patterns and behavior are distinctive and blatantly obvious. It's as if the characters' personalities jump off the page and embed themselves in your brain. In this story, they do not. I kept losing track of who was talking, except for Da Shi because he's rude and swears a lot, which is distinctive enough I guess but not exactly the most interesting character profile.
And last but not least: the science. We have to talk about the science. It was clear that Liu Cixin has experience in this area (or, I guess, could have been working extremely closely with someone who does): the book reflects knowledge of physics down to a pretty deep level of technical detail, as well as of the process of academic research. But many of the passages that reference science felt kind of... insincere, maybe even mocking. It's as if - not that I think this is what really happened, but this is how it felt - as if I was reading text written by someone who had studied science in great depth without actually believing in it, someone who could never quite shake the belief that science is a bunch of complex arbitrary rituals, and you could wake up tomorrow to find that those rituals are different and that would just be that, no big deal, enjoy your new reality from this point forward. As someone who appreciates realism in the science of a story, this just felt a bit too outlandish.
All of this adds up to a story that I liked, but not as much as I was hoping to. It was a bit of a struggle, honestly. I'll still probably read the sequels, though, since I'm kind of interested to see what happens to the people of this alternate-universe Earth, but I expect to have to build up my mental energy before I keep going down that path.
First things first though: the plot of The Three-Body Problem is legitimately really interesting. It takes a while to develop, but when it does, the book's take on first contact with an alien society, and humanity's reaction to it, is pretty unique among stories I've read. Kind of bleak in a way, but the uniqueness makes it fascinating regardless. (If I read another book that handles first contact the same way I will be much less into it.) And I like the way the Three-Body game was originally introduced in the story as a mysterious element that eventually ties in to the alien contact plot line in a way that you can kind of see coming but is still a powerful experience when it finally gets revealed.
On the other hand, the way that this fantastic story is presented leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion. For instance, there's a whole introductory section that I really don't understand the purpose of. I guess it provides some interesting background information about the characters, and maybe tying the story back to the Chinese cultural revolution is more meaningful for readers whose cultural background focuses on those events, but it doesn't really do anything for me. A lot of it could have been skipped over without taking anything important away from the story. Plus, large parts of the book read like dry technical reports - and I'm not even talking about the parts that are dry technical reports, I mean there are long stretches of dialogue that feel like the characters are just reciting an amateurish script to convey information to the reader.
Even when the characters are acting like characters, they're not always particularly distinguishable or memorable. This is something I've noticed across a bunch of the books I've been reading recently: the best ones seem to have characters whose speech patterns and behavior are distinctive and blatantly obvious. It's as if the characters' personalities jump off the page and embed themselves in your brain. In this story, they do not. I kept losing track of who was talking, except for Da Shi because he's rude and swears a lot, which is distinctive enough I guess but not exactly the most interesting character profile.
And last but not least: the science. We have to talk about the science. It was clear that Liu Cixin has experience in this area (or, I guess, could have been working extremely closely with someone who does): the book reflects knowledge of physics down to a pretty deep level of technical detail, as well as of the process of academic research. But many of the passages that reference science felt kind of... insincere, maybe even mocking. It's as if - not that I think this is what really happened, but this is how it felt - as if I was reading text written by someone who had studied science in great depth without actually believing in it, someone who could never quite shake the belief that science is a bunch of complex arbitrary rituals, and you could wake up tomorrow to find that those rituals are different and that would just be that, no big deal, enjoy your new reality from this point forward. As someone who appreciates realism in the science of a story, this just felt a bit too outlandish.
All of this adds up to a story that I liked, but not as much as I was hoping to. It was a bit of a struggle, honestly. I'll still probably read the sequels, though, since I'm kind of interested to see what happens to the people of this alternate-universe Earth, but I expect to have to build up my mental energy before I keep going down that path.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Alcohol
Minor: War, Cancer, Xenophobia, Death, Murder, Death of parent, Drug use, and Gun violence
whimsical_dragon's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Violence, Murder, Torture, and Grief
Moderate: War
gemloukay's review against another edition
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
Despite being critically acclaimed, I was ready for this book to end from about 1/4 of the way in. The characters are all one dimensional, the descriptions of the science are long-winded and unnecessary. I have a degree in science and felt like I was back in a lecture theatre listening to a boring professor over-explain a concept that wasn’t even needed to understand the plot at times! The basic premise of the world being under threat from alien invasion (which doesn’t occur in this first book in the trilogy) is a good one as was the idea of entering the three-body game to problem solve. The rest though felt like I was being dragged through a physics lecture by someone who had just learned what a proton was and felt the need to describe it with all the enthusiasm of a 4 year old discovering chocolate. Also, I listened to the audiobook and some of the accents are horrendously distracting. Not for me!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Violence, and War
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.
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
cweeks_ng's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
As a newer fan of sci-fi, I enjoyed parts of this book a lot. I’d say the larger ideas of the author were excellent, but the execution in the plot and characters was a let down for me. Not interested enough to continue the series.
Content Warnings
Moderate: War, Suicide, Death of parent, and Murder