A review by ninjapants
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

2.0

Really wanted to like this one. Opening sections during the cultural revolution through Ye Wenjie’s arrival at Red Coast Base were promising but after that very little worked. The science seemed silly instead of thought provoking. The characters lead me to believe that Liu Cixin may have never previously interacted with fellow humans. The mass reaction to inexplicable experiment failure being “physics doesn’t work, the universe has no rules” seems like a massive overreaction and out of step with the entire history of human discovery. The most relatable character was the few minutes spent with the Trisolaran transmitter. The video game portions were interminable and entirely irrelevant to the plot.