The Three-Body Problem

Written by Cixin Liu

Narrated by Bruno Roubicek

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilisation on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth.

Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them, or to fight against the invasion.

A W. F. Howes audio production.

• Language: English
• Publisher: W. F. Howes Audio
• Release date: Sep 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781510003972

Cixin Liu

CIXIN LIU is the most prolific and popular science fiction writer in the People’s Republic of China. Liu is a winner of the Hugo Award, an eight-time winner of the Galaxy Award (the Chinese Hugo) and a winner of the Chinese Nebula Award. Prior to becoming a writer, he worked as an engineer in a power plant. His novels include The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End.

Reviews for The Three-Body Problem

[travelster · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic story and solid hard fiction.

[xiaomarlo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's not the type of science fiction I normally read, and it's not perfect. The characters feel pretty stock, and the plot sometimes jumps forward too quickly, and it can be disorienting. But Liu has such an imagination when it comes to scientific possibilities, and when he juxtaposes that against the history of modern China, it becomes a captivating and unique piece of sci-fi, and I'm very happy it exists. Science fiction always benefits from new perspectives. I'll be reading the next one for sure.

[cindywho-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was excited to be able to read a science fiction novel set in China and this one was great. From the effects of the Cultural Revolution on scientists, to a Chinese SETI program, nanotechnology and virtual reality - it's a roller coaster ride. The characters may have been a little flat in contrast to the ideas but the ideas carried the story along just fine.

[florian_brennstoff · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Eine wirklich interessante Geschichte. Eine Reihe von Selbstmorden herausragender Wissenschaftler*innen mit ausführlichen Abschiedsbriefen schreckt die Welt auf, insbesondere auch China. Offenbar gibt es keine Physik mehr, die nach Regeln funktioniert, die erforschbar wären.Was ist passiert? Die Suche nach der Antwort führt die Lesenden zunächst in die dunklen, grausamen und extrem wissenschaftsfeindlichen Zeiten der Kulturrelvolution in China und dann wieder in das China der Gegenwart.Abgesehen davon, dass die Geschichte sehr spannend erzählt wird, befasst sie sich mit großer Ernsthaftigkeit mit den aktuellen, bedrohlichen Entwicklungen der Menschheit auf ihrer Erde. Die einfache Sprache und die Komplexität der physikalischen Phänomene bilden zusammen einen anregenden Kontrast. Besonders inspririerend finde ich den ganz anderen Blickwinkel, aus der die Geschichte erzählt wird: Die handelnden Personen treten als Individuen kaum in den Vordergrund, eben fast nur als Handelnde und Denkende. Leider weiß ich viel zu wenig über China, aber könnte das damit zu tun haben, dass die chinesische Kultur dem Individuum und seiner Entfaltung weniger Gewicht beimisst als die westliche?Auch die physikalischen Phänomene, die im Roman eine Rolle spielen, finde ich sehr anregend und wirklich gut auf eine verständliche Ebene heruntergebrochen (ohne dass ich beurteilen könnte, wie realistisch einige der beschriebenen Innovationen sind). Das Drei-Körper-Problem z.B., das einen zentralen Kern der Geschichte darstellt, wird dabei sehr anschaulich und begreiflich.Gut gelesen von Mark Bremer.

[tldegray-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I don't know what to say about this book; it's got me thinking. I've read Liu Cixin's works before and really enjoyed them. They're more hard SF than most other things I read, and they're quite approachable. (Especially with this particular translator--Ken Liu--who included scientific and cultural notes.)

[grandpahobo_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Brilliant book. Every time I got a sense of what the story was about, it changed. At the end I felt as if the author had been peeling the layers of an onion, but you never knew if you had reached the center (I'm still not sure).

The translation seemed masterful to me. I know nothing about the Chinese language, but it felt as if I were reading the original and had the ability to translate in my head.

Can't wait to read the next one.

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a science fiction work by Liu Cixin, Chinese author, translated by Ken Kiu, narrated by Luke Daniels. (good job of narrating). It is the first of the Remembrance of Earth's Past series. The story begins during the cultural revolution which was a very difficult time in China. I am quite surprised by the book considering it is from China and is quite frank about problems of the cultural revolution. The story is about the a contact made with an alien race that will likely destroy the human race that is made by a human who is dismayed by humanity on earth. The three body problem is a mathematical problem of calculating the trajectory of the bodies interacting with each other. There simply is a lot of math and science and ecology as well as history in this book. It won the Hugo award.

[jbd1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This took me a while to get into, but once I got hooked, I was in, and now I'm definitely looking forward to the next two in the series. A bit technical, sure, but it's a very good plot that works well once it hits its stride.

[vladmihaisima · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Conspiracy theory book interlinked with China history in the last 50 years. Fresh style/topic when compared with Anglo-Saxon science-fiction writers. Some of the characters seem more generic/modern (scientist, policeman that gets job done but might have bad connections), while others have a stronger Chinese specific (person prosecuted by the cultural revolution). Plot unravels at uneven paces, which is very good managed up to the final chapters of the book where it feels a bit rushes/unclear. Main plot is related to various humans becoming so disillusioned by human race that they end up in a plot that helps a planned alien invasion. The alien civilization inhabits a three star system which makes it very hard to survive so they need another system. Most of the actions are in the planning/development stage with few decisive actions. The book does not finish with a clear ending, seeming that the aliens managed to reach their objective, but humans obtaining minor victories as well

[lwobbe_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mind-bending exploration of a future world and its global anxiety and destruction at the hands or minds of aliens. Made even more so by the Chinese cultural norms and possibly also the language hiccups due to the translation. The aliens inhabit a planet with 3 suns and alternate between unpredictable periods of normalcy and destruction when the planet moves to close to one of the sons. Apparently 3 body systems are not possible to predict. They communicate through video games, religious cults, mental manipulation. Physicists must be destroyed, because they might figure out how to stop them from coming to earth to occupy our planet, after they get rid of us. Worth it, but scary and weird to follow part due to the bizarre pacing.

[tiffanyak_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I almost feel mean rating and reviewing this, so feel that I should start by saying that I'm NOT really much of a sci-fi reader. I love sci-fi movies and shows and such, but don't read it often. But, I'd heard about this one and wanted to give it a try. Personally, I loved it in some ways, such as the very different cultural dynamic at play and such, but, at the same time, couldn't really get into it. That said, there are a LOT of fascinating world-building elements here, and as such I will be giving the sequel a try, because I feel like this is going in fascinating directions in the near future and I actually suspect I might get more into it as it develops more.

[liscarey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Best Novel category is going to be a tough decision this year.

I loved The Goblin Emperor I'm currently enjoying the Ancillary Sword audiobook. And now I've just finished this amazing novel by Cixin Liu.

The story opens in China during the Cultural Revolution, with the brutal deaths, first, of a teenage radical in a conflict between different factions of the People's Liberation Army, and next, of "counterrevolutionary" university professor, while his older daughter watches, and his wife is forced to testify against him.

The daughter, Ye Wenjie, survives the Cultural Revolution, not unscathed, but she lands a somewhat precarious position on a secret project where her work as an astrophysicist is valuable. It's not an easy time for her, but she's doing useful work. We don't find out till later just how secret the work of the Red Coast Base is.

Another thread in this story follows Wang Miao, who avoided theoretical physics in favor of the less ideologically risky applied physics, and in the early 2000s has made major breakthroughs in nanomaterials.

The thread that has gotten the most discussion is that concerning the online game that Wang Miao and others are drawn into, Three Body, a game that involves a planet subjected to unpredictable extremes of heat, cold, and length of days due to the fact that it exists in a three-star system. The game isn't just a game or a distraction for our characters; it turns out to be a vital thread in what's going on, part of a problem created by the secret project at Red Coast Base and bad decisions made by damaged survivors of the Cultural Revolution.

I've seen comments about characterization being thin and the game taking up too much space in the story. I understand them, but don't agree. As in other hard sf novels, Liu is building an alien society for us, at least for the western reader, and I think it's well done. The reader may have to work a bit harder at getting the characters, but only because the cultural background and references--ghe world building--are also requiring some mental work. The game itself turns out to contain vital information, and I think the balance among the different elements is overall good.

I'm looking forward to the next volume of the trilogy.

Recommended.

[wassilissa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ein wirklich interessanter Science-Fiction Roman!Man merkt, das er von einem Naturwissenschaftler geschrieben wurde, er wirkt korrekt. Die Idee, die im letzten Drittel dann deutlich wird (ich will jetzt nicht spoilern), ist wirklich interessant und auch, was der Autor im Nachwort schreibt, finde ich bedenkenswert.

[p1g5purt · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Disappointing. Some interesting ideas but poorly written ( or perhaps something is lost in translation? ) Some cheesy dialogue and overly reliant on "data dumps"

[ssimon2000-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wow, this was deep. Astro-physics, impossible scientific scenarios with no solutions, deep-space probes the size of photons, and science fiction set in and around China's Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s through the modern era.

This is deep-thought science fiction, and probably not for everybody. I listened to this one, and I'm glad I did; I don't think I would have finished this in print/ebook format.

The plot is sometimes slow-going, with the physics-related explanations often slowing down the narrative dramatically, with whole chapters dedicated to explaining various happenings in the real world, in virtual space, and on another planet. The world-building is simply fantastic, though, and it was actually quite fun (and challenging) to try to picture a planet with three suns in chaos with each other.

I'll be listening to the next one soon, but I need to give my mind a break!

[dbsovereign · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a surprisingly personal first contact story that also serves to remind us of things that happened in China during the Cultural Revolution...[in progress]

[hatpin · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Didn't finish this book. Interesting but overlong.

[judtheobscure · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Brilliant and suspenseful sci fi that totally deserved the Hugo. Set in 2008 and the cultural revolution, it traces the story of Chinese scientists in a first encounter tale with an alien race. Informed by such texts as Rachel Carsons silent spring, it is thoughtful and inventive and un putdownable. I read it in English first and then Chinese. Note that the English translation shuffles the text around quite a lot, opening with the cultural revolution scenes while the Chinese began in 2008, which I suspect was for marketing reasons in the English language market (CR settings sell in English language markets) but it didn't detract too much from the story.

[br77rino · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The best science fiction book I've read since Ender's Game, which was the best science fiction book I read since Foundation. Wonderful use of principles and ideas from the world of physics, specifically celestial mechanics. Plus, as a bonus, an inside view on the Cultural Revolution in China. Absolutely top-notch.

[befuddledpanda · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Definitely a very interesting premise. I love the historical background and the pacing of the book. The author definitely gets a little deep with some of the physics but I really enjoyed those parts. Physics was a character within the story, and it worked really well. I have the second book ready to continue on with the trilogy.

[bookczuk · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a tough one for me... I kept losing the narrative. It may have had to do with the book being an e-book, because when I switched to a hardback things went more smoothly. Also, when I read when I was tired, the page would show a character's name as "Sha", but my brain autocorrected to "She", and I kept wondering who "she" was and when a female entered the scene. Thank you Tor, for the ebook, and javaczuk (via Harriet) for the hard copy.

[shrike58 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While I try to read all the Hugo-winning novels eventually my basic response to this book is that if the efforts to sabotage the normal course of Hugo voting in 2015 hadn't occurred this book wouldn't have won, as while it has its virtues there were better books that would have been on the final ballot; particularly Robert Bennett's "City of Stairs" (never mind Jeff VanderMeer's Nebula-winning "Annihilation"). The irony is that while the "Sad/Rabid Puppy" bloc had an issue with novels that were overtly polemical (unless they were of their preferred polemical stripe), whatever else you want to say about this novel is that it's quite polemical, Liu, as much as anything else, having written a rebuttal to Carl Sagan's "Contact" (Liu being much more skeptical of the likely turn of events in the case of first contact for Humanity). On the other hand, Liu also seems to have an issue with a certain East Asian mentality where much is excused on the basis of "sincerity," as his traumatized female protagonist undertakes dubious actions out of the sincere belief that the book's aliens have to be superior to humans. The more I think about it the more this work reminds me of something that might have been written by Kurt Vonnegut. As for myself I found the best writing in this book to be the initial section depicting a Red Guards' "reeducation" session turned ugly; nothing else I read quite measured up to it.

[lorannen-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This left me anxious to pick up the next book in the series. Definitely one of the best I've read this year, period, and one of the best my book club has selected, ever. Sadly, I'll miss discussion for it, but I think it raises issues that would generate good discussion.

[bruce_mcnair_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An engineer is asked by police to infiltrate a secret group involved in a mysterious game called Three Body as a result of a number of apparent suicides by some players. The game simulates life on a planet with three suns. Civilisation is disrupted on the planet many times as a result of the unpredictable motion of the suns. The players try to predict the motion of the suns without success. The game is an analogue for life on a real planet with three suns. One minor point, given that there are 3 suns and a planet, this is actually a case of a 4 body problem. But the problem is no less intractable. Numerical analysis is used to solve similar problems in astrophysics. The story develops into a struggle between different factions of those following the aliens. The police and military are also trying to unravel the deaths and the motives of those playing the game. The ending is a bit of a let-down as it sets the story up for the sequels. I give this story 3.5 stars out of 5.Hints at the end of Part 2 suggest that the Trisolaran system is actually the Alpha Centauri system. In 2016, an Earth-sized exoplanet was discovered in the habitable zone around Alpha Centauri C, also known as Proxima Centauri.

[ashles_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting but rather outlandish concepts. The characters had the depth of cardboard cutouts, except for the main character, who had all the depth of a particle folded into one dimension.

[bernadette877 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting approach to the first contact novel.

[meditationesmartini · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This had at least two magnificent, profusely inventive parts--the "Three-Body Problem" video game where the main dude is introduced to a civilization defined by its unpredictable orbit in relation to three suns (referencing the physics problem in the title, where it's impossible to calculate the gravitational effects on each other of more than two bodies because of how they change), that is destroyed and painstakingly builds itself up again and again, and the part where said civilization turns out to be a real alien civilization coming to Earth to get us, and the crazy way they do it (it involves folding eleven-dimensional protons down into three dimensions after teaching them to feed our science false results). If that was all it had it wouldn't warrant four stars but the plateaux in between are decent too--you get a Chinese widescreen fiction writer's sense of what the man-of-science-in-a-land-of-miracles and insolent-maverick-cop and damaged-but-sympathetic-but-ultimately-monstrous-zealot (in this case, damaged by the Cultural Revolution, and I appreciated what a sense I got of how the CR must have shaped the outlooks of people in today's China, paving the way for Deng and what came after with opening because no more firebrands!) are like, and everyone has that really sincere way of speaking--like what we do with irony they do with insults somehow, I don't know, like not to be orientalist here but a face thing? "Ha ha ha! You are a fool!" and then the other guy seethes but can't do anything about it because he is not the man of the hour and the guy calling him a fool is. I can't quite get my finger on it but I enjoyed it.

[iira_24 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a difficult and arduous read for me. I'm not yet sure if I understood any of it, but there was a lot of detailed technical stuff I could have done without. The characters were rather flat and there was at the same time not that much and too much going on. I had super high expectations but this book did not live up to them. I don't know what to think. I'll probably read the next one (although it won't be too soon) and be even more baffled.

[arubabookwoman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This science fiction novel from China treats the theme of first contact with an alien species through the lens of the Cultural Revolution and subsequent Chinese history. The science fiction I read is usually a little lighter on the heavy science than The Three Body Problem, but I still really enjoyed this novel. I wouldn't recommend it to someone who is not already a science fiction fan though.The aliens in question (who have the "three body problem") are the Trisolarians who reside on a planet light years away from Earth. Their planet orbits three suns, and the resultant unpredictable gravitational pull and climate changes wreak havoc on their civilization. At times they experience stable periods during which their civilization flourishes; at unpredictable times there is chaos with weather patterns, they may broil or freeze, there are violent storms and earthquakes etc., and their civilization is destroyed.During the Cultural Revolution a dissident scientist sends an unauthorized message to the universe describing earth and its location. Years later, the message having reached Trisolaris, a dissident there sends back a message warning Earth to beware of the Trisolarians. It turns out that the Trisolarians are seeking a stable planet, and are launching an expedition to Earth to conquer and destroy human civilization. The expedition will arrive in 400 years. In the meantime, the Trisolarians have sent special bodies called "sophons" which will ensure that Earth science will progress no further during the ensuing 400 years until the arrival of the Trisolarian fleet.The Three Body Problem is the first of a trilogy relating to Earth's preparation for an alien invasion. This particular book concerns the initial reactions on Earth, the discovery that science can progress no further, issues about how a life will be lived under a death sentence, albeit one not to be executed until 400 years in the future. I found it impossible to read this book and not continue on with the second volume of the trilogy, The Dark Forest, to see what happens. If you are a science fiction fan, this is a great addition to the genre. (I think it won the Hugo--I will check),3 1/2 stars

[algybama · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

No characters to speak of, and no real plot either, but there's still a lot here to enjoy. I used to think VR was played out and pretty much dead, but now I'm not so sure. The 3-Body virtual world turned the whole device on its head and made it fresh, humorous, creepy, and mysterious - a massive departure from other depictions of VR.The SF treatment of the Cultural Revolution was the other mind-blowing aspect of the book. The ideological implications of physics theories, the taboo of aiming a laser at the sun - these sorts of details really enlivened the book and gave it that unsettling Philip K. Dick feeling of revisionist history and secrets hidden in quotidian life.There are scenes of such imaginative excitement that I sometimes felt like I was reading the best SF of all time. But unfortunately the author is inconsistent and mishandled a few critical aspects of the story. The most egregious mistake is the moralizing bullshit, in particular the environmentalist angle that's so sloppily tacked it's almost unbelievable. The author's afterward also contains some high-horse nonsense that similarly off-putting.