The Three-Body Problem (spoiler free review) by Liu Cixin
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- Опубликовано: 19 авг 2023
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Great review, I’m really glad to hear that you intend to continue with this series - Book 2 is incredible, and the characters in it are also much better!
Project Hail Mary is a really really great first contact story. I also would recommend the audiobook for that, as that truly brings the "communication with an alien species" aspect to life.
My personal favorite first contact story however is the Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton (consisting of Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained). In that series, humanity as spread over a couple of hundred star systems. One day, an astronomer notices that two distant stars suddenly vanish. So what happened to them? The only possible explanation seems to be, that they were enclosed by gigantic force fields that keep in all radiation. But by whom? And why? To keep some threat out? Or to keep something in?
So a ship is built to travel there and find out. The story that starts off from there is absolutely mindblowing - with some of the most unique and interesting aliens that I ever read of.
However, these a two very chunky books - and some people say that with all the side stories going on, it could have needed ab bit more editing and streamlining.
But I loved every page and in the end, everything comes together beautifully.
The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle is generally regarded as one of the best first contact Sci-Fi novels.
Blindsight.
It is highly philosophical and incredibly hard scifi. However, the story is really interesting and it poses some questions about consciousness and self-awareness that are quite interesting and refreshing. It starts out throwing a lot of scientific jargon, but after a few chapters things slow down more and you get to sit with each character, including a vampire. Yeah. A vampire in a hard scifi novel. It's amazing. The characters are quite interesting as well.
I would not call either the anti-matter beaming, nor the "vampire" design, nor the magical technology of the aliens in blind sight "hard scifi"....
Solaris, a fire upon the deep, blindsight, children of time,pushing ice, pandora's star...happy reading
Your review brings up my default response to sci-fi books "concept over story"
You definitely need to revisit The Expanse- I remember in one of your previous videos you'd mentioned enjoying the first couple, but not necessarily enough to complete the series, but if you want some pretty cool 'first contact' concepts the back half of that series will wow you! And they're pretty quick reads to boot.
Started this book today in preparation for the Netflix adaptation. THIS IS TRANSLATED BY THE SAME GUY WHO WROTE THE DANDELION DYNASTY? another one ive been meaning to read. Yours is the first luke-warm take I've seen but since I see the thumbnail for The Dark Forest (and I'm marathoning the series) I have high hopes :))
Book 2 is still my favorite. Great review. Agree with most of it. I think you would like Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Sci-fi that feels more character driven.
Other first contacts...
- A Fire Upon the Deep
- A Mote in God's Eye
- Childhoods End.
There are lots of other great ones. Some that you wouldn't want to know are First Contact until you actually read it.
Remembrance of Earths Past is definately about the situation over the characters. And many people love book 3 the most. I see 2 and 3 almost the same, but 3 got almost too confusing to me at one point. Ha.
Children of time is so good!!
I read the first three Book of the New Sun novels by Gene Wolfe right before reading Three Body Problem…that was definitely the most jarring shift in quality of prose I’ve ever encountered while reading 😂. But I suspect there was a lot lost in translation when it comes to the writing. I thought this book was great overall despite the wooden prose and characters. The history portions were a bit of a slog at times. Really curious to see what you think of the second book. I had a really difficult time getting through the first half, then the second half was great.
I've been learning mandarin and I was considering setting reading this book in Chinese as a goal for myself, but I've heard the writing is actually better in English (and the amount of technical terms would make it extremely difficult). I also read that the publishers in China moved the chapters on the Cultural Revolution to the middle of the book to try to aviod censorship. I haven't read it yet, but I'm curious what impact that has on the pacing of the story
If you're interested in a First Contact type of story you can read The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Best first contact I've ever read
I second this!
I agree with the characters for the most part, but you can't say that Ye Wenjie was anything like the other characters. She clearly was disillusioned with society in ways that the other main characters were not.
Just finished the book! Loved it. Ofcourse there were some lackluster parts but the intriguing story made up for it !
Here's how I would summerized the trilogy:
Book1 = The X-Files
Book2 = Arthur C Clarke
Book3 = Isaac Asimov
Having readed some of the big three's works, you can clearly tell Liu Cixin's writing style was highly influenced by them, this guy is a computer engineer and working inside a powerplant, he normally write during his free time or while slacking off during work.
Fun fact, book 1&2 weren't really that popular when they're released in China back then, so for book 3 Liu Cixin decided to write something that not gonna sell well with public and only for his own entertainment, throwing in some of the craziest idea ever and ironically the 3rd book was the one kicked off his popularity.
Book 2 concept's are some of the best in SF. And while the character work is still a bit lacking it is a step up from the first.
I reccommend Blindsight by Peter Watts, a pretty original take on first contact.
Thank you!
I enjoyed "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars" by Christopher Paolini if you're looking for harder science first contact sci-fi, the Expanse is also kind of a no brainer in that category.
Can someone please tell me what that book on Matts bookshelf is that has a golden butterfly on it? I wanna say the mostly green background book, but it might be turquoise. Thanks!
Interesting Times, by Terry Pratchett. It's one of the new special edition copies.
Thanks Matt! :)@@MattsFantasyBookReviews
The second book is mind-blowing. For sure!
Have you read The Expanse series? Could be what you're looking for.
I started reading the book it’s better than what’s available to watch on tv.
Would love yo hear you review children of time by Adrian tchaikovsky
I hope you continue with the next two books. They were something, and for a freshman reading law at uni, Cixin Liu's books truly got me through the boring slumps.
Some first contact suggestions... Pandoras Star/ Judas Unchained, big first contact space opera. Hamilton is a top 5 SF writer for me.
Definitely had a similar experience with this one…..and then books 2 and 3 became two of my favorite reads of all time. Within a year I did a reread but just of books 2 and 3 and had a blast all over again.
Also I thought book 3 was my favorite and even stronger than bk 2, but they each have their great points so I can see why people would have book 2 as their fav. I cannot freakin wait for you to get into the sequel!!!
Wonderful to hear! Thanks Ben!
yeah... book 1 is somehow the worst of the 3 (IMO) by a country mile... but that is more symptom of just how amazing 2 & 3 is! The Dark Forest might be my favorite sci-fi book of all time
I haven't read it yet, but Steven Erickson actually wrote a first contact story.
I think, -based on observation and your own admissions, - that your taste leans towards the fantasy side of the SFF spectrum. With this in mind, I expected you might not like a hard science fiction book like this. I’m not surprised. As I get older I too am reading more fantasy than SF. Irregardless, this is one of my favorite trilogies ever written. I think “the three body problem” is a tour de force of SF literature.
Glad you gave hard SF a try. I havent read this one specifically, but hard SF tends to have pretty bland characters. As a rule, their focus is on a) the science itself (and to some extent the plausibility of the plot and b) how the world has been affected by whatever the premise of the scientific advancement / new thing ('Novum'), e.g. contact with an alien. They tend to be a bit character agnostic - its just not really the point of the story or what theyre exploring.
I have found in some of the better hard SF books those concepts and their shaping in the world can have a profound effect on my own world view, frankly to a greater degree than any character study in a fantasy book ever has. (But obviously ymmv!)
Blindsight by Peter Watts is worth a read for that. Theres a reason its conmonly assigned reading in philosophy modules.
*Edit* Blindsight is also a first contact book.
If you take Blindsight as your standard for hard scifi books, it is no wonder you think they are all bland.
I would recommend you start looking into older stuff. Ben Bova's Grand Tour novels are pretty cool for example.
@@Alexander_Kale i completely agree, but blindsight is not a standard it’s well elevated above that in my opinion. Although, despite its clear status as one of the best in the genre, the characters are relatively weak, which highlights the above point.
Agree with you on the older stuff. Bob Shaw is the pinnacle i think. His characters are sublime.
@@eggbert6900 I have a couple of his books in my "to read" pile. Anything in particular you would recommend?
@@Alexander_Kale other days, other eyes. Absolutely incredible
@@eggbert6900 thnx. will add that to front of the pile.
Classic first contact: Childhood's End (not overrated! ;) )
Modern, technical read: Blindsight
Also, i havent read it yet, but The Mote in God's Eye is another highly praised first contact story
The controversy of the author is not because he is communist unless your thinking is "anything bad is communism and I don't like communism". The controversy is that his support of the CCP (which is not the definition of communism) includes supporting their treatment of Uighur Muslims including the Muslims "reeducation" in camps. It's more the authoritarian elements of the government in which he supports that is the issue.
All the upvotes. Make sure this comment is as visible as possible.
Oh boy, I do love when people write off politics as something you can just ignore. Being pro authoritarianism is not the same as supporting a different football team.
Communism is still intrinsically insane as it requires an authoritative body in order to function at any large scale. When private property (including one’s self) ceases to exist at the scale the size of a nation, it requires an arbtrar to take from one to give to another. Who gives who the right to do so, and why is that okay, still has yet to be explained by communists. Instead, the hundreds of millions dead by their hands is just excused as “not actually communism”. In reality, communism should be shunned at every chance possible.
Here we are once again, moralizing other cultures... Americans don't know how to keep to themselves. If they see Muslims as bad then that is their problem.
Try comparing American's solution to terrorism to China's, you can see which one is the much much better solution.
People in Xinjiang feel much safer walking on streets compere to 2017 ish, those reducation facilities have almost all been shut down since they have done their job.
The alternative solutions are either let it run wild which was what happened in the middle east in the first place and the result is the whole area falls under terrorism.
Or try to kill them all and taking many many innocents with them like what Americans did, which only creates more and more terrorist.
You can visit Xinjiang today as a tourist and see for yourself what's actually happening, instead of relying on western media which clearly benefits from trying to paint everyone in China as evil.
Man I just have to say I totally disagree with all the bad things Matt has to say and also the "reveal" was a lot more underwhelming to me (although still very cool in concept don't get me wrong). I guess I'm one of those people who just has opposite tastes with Matt (and I know I'm not the only one) but I still love this channel and watch almost all the vids. I love the way he communicates and delivers his thoughts. Always a joy to listen 😁
there are aliens in 3 body problem!?!?! What????? haha jkjk 😂
I think the book is AMAZING!!! It does have a long buildup, but after reading all 3 books, the buildup becomes better!!! The second book is the best Hard Science story i have ever read or watched. It is like Empire Strikes back good!! The 3rd book is really good and just as good as the second book until the last few chapters. It was similar to the way the Return of the King ended (Or did not End)... After finishing all 3 books the first book got BETTER and you will understand why the buildup was so important and one of the best parts of the entire story. Overall the story "To ME" is the best Hard Science Story! It is up there with LOTR, Dune, and Harry Potter! These books are becoming classics and my only concern about the Netflix series is that they Cut Too Much of the Build-Up, but I understand why they would.
Hard Scifi, sure. It has 11 dimensional supercomputers the size of an atom that can do anything short of magic, but let's call it hard scifi...
@@Alexander_Kale I was thinking the same thing, but i realized that size is relative, look at a black hole. The entire mass of thousands of sun can be in a point smaller than a atom... We can that science... But i get your point, i just look at from a different point of view.
@@johnjay6370 Yeah. You look at it from a magic point of view and call it "hard" science.
Me favorite book of this trilogy was the third one 😅💖
If you liked the ideas in this book, the next two in the trilogy will blow your mind, but it covers thousands of years, so characters change, save one, but it gets wild. I agree the authors views doesn't impact the enjoyment of art. People like J. K Rowling, Orson Scott Card, Cixin Liu, Terry Goodkind, and even H. P. Lovecraft are a representation of their time and opinions. Everyone lives in their own time, and are allowed their own opinions. These days social media can ruin an artists career because they don't completely agree with the masses. I say enjoy good art and love your fellow man (or woman) and don't sweat the little things. It makes for a miserable life. Thanks.
Totally agree with the criticisms of this book. For me, 1st book is 3.5 stars, 2nd book is 3 stars, and 3rd book is 5 stars. Seriously. Final book blew me away.
There is way better hard sci-fi out there. You need to read Andy Weir's best, like The Martian. Plenty of classic hard sci-fi too like 2001, Rendezvous with Rama, and Inherit the Stars.
The Trilogy is the best scifi ever for me. Not even close.
If you want something short and amazing:
Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang. It is the novella that the movie Arrival was adapted from. Loved the movie and loved the novella. The last sentence left me sobbing.
So simply put: "soft sci-fi" is stuff like Star Trek. There's fantastical technology that isn't explained and the story just goes from there. "Hard sci-fi" is plausible from what the author knows at the time of writing. Stuff like "we're in a moon base and have space suits and are looking for rare ores." There's a little bit of extrapolation but nothing too outrageous.
This review reminded me of how I feel about David Brin's Uplift series. The first book, Sundiver, is good, not great, but it introduces a lot of concepts and a unique universe. It largely reads as a long prologue. The second book, Startide Rising, is superb, a 5/5 star book, winner of multiple awards, etc. That's where the series really takes off. The third book, Uplift War, is good, better than the first, but not as great as the second. The series has some "first contact" type of situations although strictly isn't that.
Other first contact novels:
Mote in God's Eye.
Black Star Rising.
Footfall.
Pushing Ice.
Legacy of Heorot. (Sort of, more of man vs. monster novel. In the second book, Beowulf's Children, a first contact situation occurs... kinda.)
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is a really fun and easy to read alien/science book!
Awesome, I'm reading that soon!
can´t wait for your review, bet you´ll love it!@@MattsFantasyBookReviews
🤦♂️ spoiler alert. Dang. That gives away the best aspect. Try to have people go in blind to that.
SAGA OF THE SEVEN SUNS!
Earth. Aliens. More mysterious aliens. Mysterious robots. Elementals. Weird. Wonderful. Beautiful. Maybe im the outlier here but man this series was awesome!
3:04 my two cent is that the first book was so under the radar that local government doesnt give a flying fk about its censorship (or they are too stupid to comprehend its criticism of hisitory). By the time this serie became international renowed, the government realized its presence but can no longer proceed to censor the book since it would make them look ever worse.
But I get you. I was also confused about what is allowed and what is not allowed. A couple month back, they even censored the national anthem just become some of its phrases were used in a protest!!!
Asian authors are on another level
Sad to hear the english translations isn´t great, was planning on doing my re-read in english :( The spanish one is top notch, perfectly structured and to be fair, it was quite beautiful and poetical.
Keep in mind, he hasn't said that the english translation is not great. He has observed that the book, as it is translated into english, is booring, a slow jog and has bad characters, and then he offers the translator up as a possible scapegoat for all of the above without having checked the original chinese..
Read Project Hail Mary. That’s all.
I agree that the character work is not very good, but I still liked this quite a lot. Characters become a little bit better in the sequals (not much but a little bit). If I remember correctly, I gave this book five stars in GoodReads, and I recommend reading the sequals.
No spoilers here, but I was a little bit disappointed with one small thing in the end of the third book. There was one choice the author could have very well done differently, and the ending would have still be essentially the same but a bit better.
Yeah I don't have an expectation of the character work suddenly getting great. I am just really excited at the direction the plot is taking.
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
Im glad you were able to seperate the art from the artist. Its tiring seeing people moralizing and politicizing every single thing.
The ever present collectivism in this series is what annoys me the most. But Dark Forest is much better than this book and Death's End is outright masterpiece.
If you want to read first contact how about Steven Erikson's Rejoice - A Knife to the Heart? Childhood's End is imo overrated.
Tchaikovsky's Children of Time is good and Children of Ruin is even better (unpopular opinion).
Rendezvous with Rama is my favorite though due to its nature it probably can't be put under first contact subgenre. Nevertheless I never experienced such sense of exploratory awe in a book. Ringworld came closest.
Honestly, I haven't even started reading it but I hate how cheap it feels just the naming convention. It's like naming a sci-fi book series third law of Thermodynamics, magnetic flux, third book
Book 2 is so much better. It's a plot driven story. Don't expect to get any good characters 😅
I can forgive weaker characters when the ideas are great, but the writing and specifically the dialogue are terrible. People have told me that's true even in the original Chinese. It's bad with the different translator as well in book 2.
I thought this was one of those overhyped booktube darlings. Hard sci-fi I guess isn’t my jam. I hated this book as much as I hated The Martian.
Demon in white video when
Mid-October
Hated this book, 1 star. Everybody said it gets better so i gave book two a try. If anything it gets worse, DNF. I suspect the horrible translation is partly to blame. Story itself should be at least a 3 star but the horrible writing and flat characters dragged it down for me.
Your comments on not caring about an authors, political beliefs makes me respect you more than I previously did as an aspiring author. These are great words to hear that there is still hope lol.
"Spoiler free" and then just drops that there are aliens 2/3 into the book?! Sick one.
I mean, aliens are mentioned in the first sentence on the blurb of the book.
@MattsFantasyBookReviews not my copy but I guess if it is on other prints I can't complain. Just love those moments in science fiction when thresholds are crossed and you slowly untangle all the implications of a new discovery on the framework of the story.
Yeah, the character work and prose is quite weak. But the ideas explored in this whole trilogy is more than enough to make up for it. It really change my perspectives regarding first contact with aliens.
There is no hard science. It tries really hard, and gets so close, and then misses by a mile. I'm thinking of not finishing because the 'science' is just so awful. Just don't explain it and everything would be fine. To write science fiction, one must first understand science fact.
Author is very pro communist
Sells book on capitalist Amazon.
Couldn't make a more ironic situation if you wanted.
About separating art from artist: I like H.P. Lovecraft’s stories although some are offensive. The guy was a virulent racist scumbag, but one can’t deny how his stuff has impacted literature.
Easily one of the worst Sci Fi noevls I've ever read. Characters exist only as vehicles for plot and are essentially emotionless. The "game" was a pointless plot device and the final third of the book is just an info dump. Don't even get me started on Evans. His whole character is an info dump. This book reads like a Sci Fi tech manual written by an AI that just discovered nilihism.
Dude condoned putting people in camps because of their religion. Maybe spend 3 seconds googling something before brushing it under the rug as 'politics'.
I don't buy or not buy books based on the beliefs of authors. I don't need to Google when that is my stance.
@@MattsFantasyBookReviews what I'm saying is maybe you should? Beliefs aren't some vague unimportant thing like a person's favourite icecream flavour. Do you honestly think that believing it's okay to put people in camps doesn't affect the content of someone's work?
FYI I'm not even saying don't read his stuff. I've read his books despite knowing all this. My only point is that this IS valid context and dismissing it (and politics as a whole) the way you do comes across the worst kind of wilful ignorance from a man whose job is to review books and discuss their content.
@@thekingofmars8858 - but my job isn't to review books. This is a hobby, and for my hobby I like to read good books without a care about what the author personally believes.
@@MattsFantasyBookReviews I get it. You don't care. But you brought up the issue only to brush it off as unimportant. It comes across as saying 'don't come at me because I can't be bothered to think about this.'
You don't care. I think you should.
It's SUPER overrated, in every form. Books, film, streaming., Everything so far. I really don't get the hype that the internet had for these books.
It's irritating that your final critique is that the language and characters weren't fun for westerners. Get over yourself! The character development went over your head. I really need critics to humble themselves and ask themselves if they couldnd9 half of what they critique. There's a way to make your points and be gracious. Your whole tone is naive and consumer based as if literature is synonymous with entertainment. Do justice to the work of authors and address the actual content. What a ceap video
Hated this book. Just remember them randomly showing up to someone's house to talk to him about the game they're playing. like 0 build up or introduction. They're just in his house randomly.
And then the wire ship cutting lmao.
Communism is bad, but Matt being unbiased is good!
Dioxin Việt Nam War
It sounds to me that you think the characters are all flat....because you truly think the world is black and white. Their is no black and white son. Its a fantasy made by your mind. You want an evil person to hate. Guess what, their are no true villains. They all have points and they all have friends. So pick....a....side....
Its kinda hard no?
No, most of my favorite books have characters that are all shades of grey.
I think the characters are flat because they all act very similarly and don't show much life.
@@MattsFantasyBookReviews the books? Or the Netflix show?
Did you take the time to read? Or are you a single minded simpleton?
@@chasemcdaniel3620 Considering I made this video 7 months ago, I'll let you figure out whether I read the book or watched the show that came out yesterday.