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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
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
alex_luck's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Im so biased, but i love this kind of sci fi
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol and Suicide
This book isnt really Horror, but it does have existential Horror themes, which can be unsettling for somealexutzu's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
This book took me ages to get through. Was it worth it? Honestly, there's no clear answer to this question. It's not that the book had no good parts, but the "meh" elements really outweighed the better ones. I enjoyed the mix of historical/political details with the science parts, but the fictional side of this was not really my thing. After finding out about the controversies surrounding the author and his perspectives, I struggled even more with thinking about the book on a positive note. I doubt that I will continue this series.
😍 The good:
The scientific descriptions were researched and complex, making me wonder if these things could really happen in daily life. There were a bunch of interesting quotes and ideas, specifically in the first and second part of the book. Due to its complexity, it is fun and easy to come up with many theories related to this. I personally also liked learning more about the history of China and this novel encouraged me to research and understand the related sociopolitical phenomena better.
😅 The not-so-good:
The characters were flat and not that interesting and I felt at times that the plot has some holes. The literary style was barely existent in my opinion, as the book was really heavy to process and packed with too many details that felt more like a thesis than a novel. Overall, the general idea related to cultish alien invasions was not my really cup of tea, so the last part of the book was really dragging for me and I had to speed-read it. I also felt that there were too many story lines and plot points to keep track of and some of them seemed redundant or absurd.
😍 The good:
The scientific descriptions were researched and complex, making me wonder if these things could really happen in daily life. There were a bunch of interesting quotes and ideas, specifically in the first and second part of the book. Due to its complexity, it is fun and easy to come up with many theories related to this. I personally also liked learning more about the history of China and this novel encouraged me to research and understand the related sociopolitical phenomena better.
😅 The not-so-good:
The characters were flat and not that interesting and I felt at times that the plot has some holes. The literary style was barely existent in my opinion, as the book was really heavy to process and packed with too many details that felt more like a thesis than a novel. Overall, the general idea related to cultish alien invasions was not my really cup of tea, so the last part of the book was really dragging for me and I had to speed-read it. I also felt that there were too many story lines and plot points to keep track of and some of them seemed redundant or absurd.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Suicide and Colonisation
Minor: Alcohol and Pregnancy
icarusandthesun's review
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
this book fried my brain.
i'm a little ashamed to admit that i didn't understand like half of it. maybe it was the english terminology—all the jargon—, or maybe it was the fact i'm not too knowledgeable about neither the Chinese Cultural Revolution nor, well, astrophysics.
maybe my reading was also lacking a bit of personal initiative, because i'm sure a couple more google searches (that i didn't make) would've greatly helped my understanding.
but alas. perhaps i will re-read this book someday and then hopefully understand it a bit better, because the story and ideas weren't at all bad! i still really enjoyed it.
i'm a little ashamed to admit that i didn't understand like half of it. maybe it was the english terminology—all the jargon—, or maybe it was the fact i'm not too knowledgeable about neither the Chinese Cultural Revolution nor, well, astrophysics.
maybe my reading was also lacking a bit of personal initiative, because i'm sure a couple more google searches (that i didn't make) would've greatly helped my understanding.
but alas. perhaps i will re-read this book someday and then hopefully understand it a bit better, because the story and ideas weren't at all bad! i still really enjoyed it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Minor: Alcohol and Pregnancy
maddie_can_read's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
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? It's complicated
4.75
I usually prefer faster pace books but I really enjoyed this one.
I really enjoyed
I really enjoyed
- writing style
- the tension and mystery
And learning more about
- China's cultural revolution
- Science concepts - a lot were explained well enough that I could understand without a science background
I never felt bored listening to this but some of the science parts went completely over my head and I didn't want to look them up out of fear of spoilers so I felt a bit lost during some of the super science heavy parts.
Spoilers:
Fyi it ends on a cliffhanger.
I love books that make me say wtf lol dried out people rolls?? What the fuck! Cutting a boat in half with a nano string?? Destroying microcosm societies??love it, absolutely loved the part at the end with the bug metaphor- The Bugs have never truly been defeated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Alcohol, Murder, Violence, Torture, Colonisation, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Xenophobia, Death, Gore, Genocide, Blood, and War
lvl52_grant's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
This book has been sitting around my bookshelf for a long time, and I'm so happy I finally got to it. It's so different from most other sci fi I've read, which is part of the reason I said the book is a mix up above. Coming from a different cultural context, some things felt a little odd, came across emotionally flat. However, that did only detracted a little bit from the desolation and isolation the book describes. I personally had a hard time following all the science that took place, but the author and translator do a good job at describing the implications so that they are digestible. I thought it jumped around a lot, and didn't make a lot of sense, but once you get to the end, it all clicks, and you'll almost wish they hadn't.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Gun violence, and Suicide
bettysbookishworld's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Death, and War
Moderate: Murder and Police brutality
Minor: Pregnancy and Alcohol
brynalexa's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Fast paced, then slow paced, then fast paced again. The middle was very difficult to follow (on purpose, I believe). My favorite aspect was the science/philosophy/history fusion. I think I would have had a more enjoyable time reading a physical copy. I very much love the varying perspectives, especially at the end. The game element was very unique as well. Unfortunately, this book confirms my practice of not reading books by men. There were few non-men characters and they were often just described by their breasts.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Alcohol, Stalking, Body horror, and War
ohyeah_karyn's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Pregnancy, Suicide, Alcohol, Death of parent, Grief, War, Death, and Blood