The Three Body Problem (trilogy)

tizl

Captain
Hey has anyone else read this? I hadn't heard about it until last summer, and people were calling Cixin Liu the Chinese Arthur C Clarke. So I read the trilogy, and was fascinated by it! It's three books: The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End.

It's translated from Chinese, so at times the prose is awkward, and he isn't the best at characterization. In addition there are sections, especially in the first book, that are fairly slow.

The real star(s) of the novels are the concepts of science and the discovery of extra-terrestrial intelligence. I don't want to spoil anything, but the ideas regarding the latter concept are something I've never considered or heard/read about anywhere else, and they blew my mind and terrified me at the same time. Each novel (there are three) ramps up the amount and detail of scientific concepts, and I often stopped and tracked back several pages simply out of awe and joy from what I was reading. Maybe that will reveal me as not very knowledgeable compared to some of you, I'm the definition of a layman :smiley:

I would definitely recommend this trilogy to anyone who loves their science as hard as a diamond, and don't mind some shortcomings in the storytelling/characterization department to get it that way.
 
Hey has anyone else read this? I hadn't heard about it until last summer, and people were calling Cixin Liu the Chinese Arthur C Clarke. So I read the trilogy, and was fascinated by it! It's three books: The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End.

It's translated from Chinese, so at times the prose is awkward, and he isn't the best at characterization. In addition there are sections, especially in the first book, that are fairly slow.

The real star(s) of the novels are the concepts of science and the discovery of extra-terrestrial intelligence. I don't want to spoil anything, but the ideas regarding the latter concept are something I've never considered or heard/read about anywhere else, and they blew my mind and terrified me at the same time. Each novel (there are three) ramps up the amount and detail of scientific concepts, and I often stopped and tracked back several pages simply out of awe and joy from what I was reading. Maybe that will reveal me as not very knowledgeable compared to some of you, I'm the definition of a layman :smiley:

I would definitely recommend this trilogy to anyone who loves their science as hard as a diamond, and don't mind some shortcomings in the storytelling/characterization department to get it that way.
I just started it, the first part. I do agree that even from the very beginning there is something regarding language which seems too artificial. Like there are patches of language which seem weird. As for the rest, it is too early to tell. However, the book is captivating and difficult to put down.
 
Awesome! I'm really curious to know your thoughts on it as you read it. I recommended it to a few friends of mine, and only one started it, but for some reason he had a tough time getting into it, though he couldn't really express why.

Another series I loved, that I couldn't get any of my friends/family to read, was the Malazan series by Steven Erickson. Yes, it's a bit difficult to follow all the storylines and characters, because it most definitely does not hold your hand. It drops you in the middle of the story and refers to events and characters at times that are not fully explained until later, in some cases a few books later. However, the story, characters, and world building are all top notch IMO. The second book is especially great, and it really hooked me into the rest of the series. Has anyone else read this?
 
Malazan? I'll keep an eye for it. Currently I am reading The Mistra Chronicles by James Heneage and I am not sure whether I would like to add another trilogy (or whatnot) to the current set of two. But we will see...
 
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