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A review by one_womanarmy
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
challenging
dark
informative
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? Yes
4.25
The Three Body Problem is one of the most enjoyable and successful hard science fictional books ever written. Cixin Liu - China’s most popular sci-fi author - immerses the reader in a quintessentially Chinese story; not only is Three Body set in a different part of the world from most sci-fi you’ll encounter, but it also feels remarkably different in writing style and plot development.
Hard science fiction paradise ensues alongside a complex timeline, historical fiction, and the development of cults, scientific progress, and intergenerational trauma. Liu injects the plot with heavy doses of realistic quantum entanglement, information theory, nanotechnology, and particle physics. New, fantastical ideas abound, such as a lengthy but plot stabilizing description of Trisolaris - the epiponimous planetary name of our interstellar neighbors - creating a single proton subatomic particle called a “sophon,” which changes dimensionality as a way of storing information.
This is brilliantly combined with questions of human morality the division or uniting of a species, and what should be considered "advancement" by intelligent society (fascinatingly contrasted by one scene towards the end of the book where those stensibly trying to save humanity also reaorrt to cutting hundreds of innocent people into tiny chunks with nanowire). The ramifications of broad changes in sociological conditions as having bearing on these ropics, especially in relation to the Chinese Cultural Revolution, is interwoven alongside science to bring history, philosophy, sociology, and its impact on human science and the development of morals and mores.
The story itself is told from multiple points of view across several decades. Such drastic shifts in perspective and time frame could be disorienting in less capable hands, but Cixin Liu adeptly handles these transitions, using them as an effective way to build the greater narrative.
On to limitations. I’m not the first reader to note this, but the lead characters are flat. Very, very flat. Instead of driving the plot, the central character Wang reacts to it. I never felt that the decisions he makes in the novel were guided by his belief system. He’s kind of like the cart on an on-rail amusement park ride. The ride sure is thrilling, but you’re unlikely to remember much about the cart.
Overall, ven a single one of the ideas in here would have sufficed for a book of its own, but to put them all together into a single cohesive epic tale is absolutely jaw-dropping. Liu reaches for the stars - figuratively and stylistically - and finds tremulous, imperfect brilliance among them.
Hard science fiction paradise ensues alongside a complex timeline, historical fiction, and the development of cults, scientific progress, and intergenerational trauma. Liu injects the plot with heavy doses of realistic quantum entanglement, information theory, nanotechnology, and particle physics. New, fantastical ideas abound, such as a lengthy but plot stabilizing description of Trisolaris - the epiponimous planetary name of our interstellar neighbors - creating a single proton subatomic particle called a “sophon,” which changes dimensionality as a way of storing information.
This is brilliantly combined with questions of human morality the division or uniting of a species, and what should be considered "advancement" by intelligent society (fascinatingly contrasted by one scene towards the end of the book where those stensibly trying to save humanity also reaorrt to cutting hundreds of innocent people into tiny chunks with nanowire). The ramifications of broad changes in sociological conditions as having bearing on these ropics, especially in relation to the Chinese Cultural Revolution, is interwoven alongside science to bring history, philosophy, sociology, and its impact on human science and the development of morals and mores.
The story itself is told from multiple points of view across several decades. Such drastic shifts in perspective and time frame could be disorienting in less capable hands, but Cixin Liu adeptly handles these transitions, using them as an effective way to build the greater narrative.
On to limitations. I’m not the first reader to note this, but the lead characters are flat. Very, very flat. Instead of driving the plot, the central character Wang reacts to it. I never felt that the decisions he makes in the novel were guided by his belief system. He’s kind of like the cart on an on-rail amusement park ride. The ride sure is thrilling, but you’re unlikely to remember much about the cart.
Overall, ven a single one of the ideas in here would have sufficed for a book of its own, but to put them all together into a single cohesive epic tale is absolutely jaw-dropping. Liu reaches for the stars - figuratively and stylistically - and finds tremulous, imperfect brilliance among them.