The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)

by Cixin Liu

400 pages

Published Sept. 13, 2014

(16 reviews)

The Three-Body Problem (Chinese: 三体; lit. 'Three-Body'; pinyin: sān tǐ) is a science fiction novel by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin. The title refers to the three-body problem in orbital mechanics. It is the first novel of the Remembrance of Earth's Past (Chinese: 地球往事) trilogy, but Chinese readers generally call the whole series The Three-Body Problem. The trilogy's second and third novels are The Dark Forest and Death's End. The Three-Body Problem was serialized in Science Fiction World in 2006 and published as a book in 2008. It became one of the most popular science fiction novels in China. It received the Chinese Science Fiction Yinhe ("Galaxy") Award in 2006. A Chinese film adaptation of the same name was in production by 2015, but halted soon after. The English translation by Ken Liu was published by Tor Books in 2014. Thereafter, it became the first Asian novel ever to win a Hugo Award for Best Novel, and was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel.The series portrays a future where, in the first book, the Earth is awaiting an invasion from the closest star system, which in this universe consists of three solar-type stars orbiting each other in an unstable three-body system, with a single Earth-like planet unhappily being passed among them and suffering extremes of heat and cold, as well as the repeated destruction of its intelligent civilizations.

12 editions

zemoko reviewed Le problème à trois corps by Cixin Liu

J‘ai trouvé ma lecture passionnante, et palpitante, mais j‘ai quand même quelques réserves

4 stars

« Le problème à trois corps » est trilogie de SF chinoise, voire de hard-SF. En 2021, le roman avait déjà une belle renommée car il avait obtenu le prix Hugo (en 2015) et que Barack Obama en avait fait l‘éloge public. Comme j‘écris ma chronique avec 3 ans de retard, je peux ajouter qu‘elle a encore gagnée en visibilité cette année, puisqu‘elle a été adaptée en série par Netflix !

En Chine, la Révolution culturelle bat son plein. Ye Wenjie est une jeune astrophysicienne dont le père, également éminent scientifique, a été accusé d’être contre-révolutionnaire, et exécuté sous ses yeux. Elle refuse de le condamner et est envoyée en camps de rééducation… bref, révolution culturelle et fort passif pour Ye Wenjie, vous voyez le truc. Puis, ses compétences étant reconnues, elle sera finalement affecté à la base secrète de Côte-Rouge pour participer à un mystérieux projet…

40 ans plus …

En Chine, la Révolution culturelle bat son plein. Ye Wenjie est une jeune astrophysicienne dont le père, également éminent scientifique, a été accusé d’être contre-révolutionnaire, et exécuté sous ses yeux. Elle refuse de le condamner et est envoyée en camps de rééducation… bref, révolution culturelle et fort passif pour Ye Wenjie, vous voyez le truc. Puis, ses compétences étant reconnues, elle sera finalement affecté à la base secrète de Côte-Rouge pour participer à un mystérieux projet…

40 ans plus tard, alors qu’une étrange vague de suicides frappe la communauté scientifique internationale. Wang Miao, un scientifique expert en nano-technologies, se voit confronté à d’étranges phénomènes qu’il va rapidement relier à un nouveau, et mystérieux, jeu de réalité virtuelle.

J‘ai trouvé ma lecture passionnante, et palpitante, mais j‘ai quand même quelques réserves. Le livre est complexe, ce qui est assez naturel pour un roman de hard-science, mais je l’ai aussi parfois trouvé confus. Si les aspects scientifiques sont (vraiment) bien traités, les personnages, eux, ne sont pas assez développés. À l’exception notable de Ye Wentje, et peut-être de Shi Qiang, les personnages sont à peine ébauchés et cela m‘a gêné pour apprécier réellement ma lecture.

Je suis néanmoins content de l’avoir lu… mais je n‘était manifestement pas pressé ni d‘écrire à son sujet, ni de lire la suite 😉

Edd62@bookwyrm.social reviewed El problema de los tres cuerpos (Trilogía de los Tres Cuerpos, #1) by Cixin Liu

El problema de los tres cuerpos, reseña

4 stars

ciencia ficcion, puray dura, profunda investigacion fisica, matematica, social, geopolitica, para crear a partir de un problema de modelo matematico, ( los tres cuerpos) una novela innovadora, un salto cuantico en la ciencia ficción

marionline reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Trilogy, #1)

Interesting Book

4 stars

Content warning And I loved violin playing Albert

It was an interesting read. Somewhat hard to get into the story, but then it was making me turn pages and I could barely put it down. I loved some of the sci-fi ideas presented there.

Vullunfestuc reviewed El problema dels tres cossos by Cixin Liu

Una explosió

No rating

És un llibre enrevessat amb un punt psicodèlic interessantíssim i utilitzant la cultura xinesa com a base que això, des del nostre occident mediterrani, el fa suggerent. T'obliga a repensar els límits del nostre propi pensament i, fins i tot, algunes creences. Un d'aquells llibres de ciència-ficció que són complets, que ho aborden tot. A vegades em recorda a la Fundació, a la Fi de la Infància o fins i tot a Encontres amb Rama.

Raspijedi@bookwyrm.social reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Trilogy, #1)

Very thought provoking

4 stars

I read this book a few years ago now, and found it very thought provoking, It certainly gave me pause for thought about the world and universe we live in.

I would hightly recommend this book.

Raspijedi@bookwyrm.social reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Trilogy, #1)

Very thought provoking

4 stars

I read the bok a few years ago now, and it was very thought provoking, first in a trilogy and certainly gave me pause for thought about the world and universe we live in.

I would highly recommend this book.

tinebeest reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Trilogy, #1)

Yes but…

3 stars

Interesting premise but could get a bit wordy at times and once i read all three I couldn’t help but think back to the implied/embedded nationalism and misogyny. Or how being a historian of China ruins everything 😅

Frances Buontempo reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Trilogy, #1)

Lots of ideas

3 stars

Set my imagination off, but felt like a stream of ideas.

Daniel reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Trilogy, #1)

How to hack a proton

3 stars

This was a little too weird for me and I can’t say I really bought the premise of the story fully…

Jonathan Hartley reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Trilogy, #1)

Not just bizarrely nihilistic and cynical, but also pro-authoritarian propaganda

1 star

Content warning This book is intensely political.

Everyone loves this, but I can't understand why nobody seems to be put off, or at least puzzled, but the way that every human individual or organization in the book is just relentlessly awful, ranging from suicidal to genocidal, and everything in-between, without respite.

Most of them, given any chance at all, are trying hard to selfishly save their own skins, with not a moment's regard for the fact that their plans will immediately doom the rest of the human race. Those not intent on self preservation at any cost are instead committed to bitter nihilism, such as the ultimate eco-terrorists, who feel that to save the Earth's biosphere they must collaborate with alien forces to bring about humanity's defeat, and likely annihilation.

These characters and groups are not depicted as outliers. They represent the human race in its entirety. The only thing that holds back this tide of destructive behavior is the government, who keeps everyone in line.

I can't tell how much of this bizarrely one-sided depiction of humanity is a deliberate choice by the author, versus simply being an unplanned exposure of their worldview, shaped as it is by their native Chinese immersion in authoritarianism. Does that form a subconscious backdrop to everything they wrote here, or are they consciously making a deliberate point that strong government is absolutely necessary?

The author Liu Cixin has since gone on record in support of the Chinese government's internment of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang. There, people have been rounded up, because of their ethnicity, into over 400 internment camps. The camps administer cultural and religious re-education, forced labor, involuntary sterilization and abortion. This is something Liu Cixin is openly in favor of.

It makes my skin crawl to read that, and then carry on blithely with this story book of theirs, which seems to be an unapologetic justification for an authoritarian government's impositions on its populate. I did finish it, but have no desire to read the sequels - and not just because I don't agree with the politics. I genuinely found the behavior of all the characters to be intrusively bewildering, demented and incessantly frustrating.

Beta Block : Bookwyrm reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Trilogy, #1)

Science Fiction

5 stars

Spannend aufgebaut mit verschiedenen Handlungssträngen, die sich irgendwann zusammenfügen. Technische / physikalische Grundprinzipien auch für mich als Laien verständlich dargestellt. Und die Frage nach dem "First Contact" mit all ihren Implikationen wurde toll beackert. Zusätzlich erfährt von noch etwas über die jüngere chinesische Geschichte.

Kian Ryan reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Trilogy, #1)

Good, but watch out - sets up trilogy

5 stars

The first few chapters had me darting to and from Wikipedia to help add some context to a story that is deeply set in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It',s a triviality to call the story complex, a mystery than unfolds through the book. Be warned this is the first in a trilogy and a very much sets itself up this way, which was a little frustrating in the last few chapters.

Luis reviewed El problema de los tres cuerpos (Trilogía de los Tres Cuerpos, #1) by Cixin Liu

Está bien.

No rating

Es el primero de una trilogía. Me ha gustado, aunque hay algunas cosas "científicas" que me han parecido muy simplonas. De cualquier forma, estoy leyendo el segundo, y creo que también leeré el tercero. Lo recomiendo.

doc-halo@bookwyrm.social reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Trilogy, #1)

Review of "The Three Body Problem"

4 stars

A good hard fiction novel that explores the question of making first contact. It's a quick read that has decent character development, a smooth flowing plot, and asks deep philosophical science questions.

comrad reviewed The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Three-Body Trilogy, #1)

Guter Auftakt der Trilogie

4 stars

Ich hab innerhalb von zwei Tagen "Die Drei Sonnen" von Cixin Liu gelesen. Das hatte ich schon sehr lange auf meiner Liste und erfreulicherweise waren alle drei Bände der Trilogie in der Stadtbücherei vorrätig.

Die knapp 550 Seiten haben sich schnell und angenehm gelesen. Das Meisterwerkgefühl bliebt bei mir jedoch leider aus.

Die Geschichte ist nett, aber jetzt nichts neues, vieles wirkt eher konstruiert und anstatt Entdeckung wird eher präsentiert.

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rated it

Feb. 10, 2019

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