Scan barcode
A review by kabelon97
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
challenging
mysterious
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? Yes
2.5
Didn’t really enjoy this book. It was very exhausting to get through as the middle of the book dragged and the characters were incredibly boring.
Wang was a very forgettable character and we follow him for most of the book. I also didn’t like how boring the dialogue was and how the writing style in this book mostly consisted of info dumping. This is probably one of my least favourite books I’ve read since high school, I had to fight every fibre of my being to not DNF. I would give it a lower rating but the world in this book is so incredibly cool, and the authors imagination is incredible. It’s just the writing and the characters that sucked. Also so much telling and no showing, like we would be told characters are in love with each other, and we would never actually see it, so when something happened to these people I didn’t really care. I genuinely think this is the first time I finished a book not caring about a single character, maybe Da Shi and that’s it.
It might be because the last Sci-Fi book I read was Dune which had such incredible dialogue and cool characters, and coming to this book felt like a genuine downgrade. I was also reading the manga Vinland Saga which has such an interesting main character that reading about Wang felt like actual pain. Or Project Hail Mary which isn’t hard Sci Fi but is so fun to read, this was not fun to read for me at all.
Overall, if you don’t really care about interesting or compelling characters (except Ye), great dialogue or you don’t mind info dumping but want an incredibly interesting world, then I would recommend this book to you. If you care about any of these things I mentioned, I would caution against reading this book, it was really rough to get through at times.
Wang was a very forgettable character and we follow him for most of the book. I also didn’t like how boring the dialogue was and how the writing style in this book mostly consisted of info dumping. This is probably one of my least favourite books I’ve read since high school, I had to fight every fibre of my being to not DNF. I would give it a lower rating but the world in this book is so incredibly cool, and the authors imagination is incredible. It’s just the writing and the characters that sucked. Also so much telling and no showing, like we would be told characters are in love with each other, and we would never actually see it, so when something happened to these people I didn’t really care. I genuinely think this is the first time I finished a book not caring about a single character, maybe Da Shi and that’s it.
It might be because the last Sci-Fi book I read was Dune which had such incredible dialogue and cool characters, and coming to this book felt like a genuine downgrade. I was also reading the manga Vinland Saga which has such an interesting main character that reading about Wang felt like actual pain. Or Project Hail Mary which isn’t hard Sci Fi but is so fun to read, this was not fun to read for me at all.
Overall, if you don’t really care about interesting or compelling characters (except Ye), great dialogue or you don’t mind info dumping but want an incredibly interesting world, then I would recommend this book to you. If you care about any of these things I mentioned, I would caution against reading this book, it was really rough to get through at times.