The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin || Book review
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- Опубликовано: 5 окт 2024
- Hi guys, in this video I review the hard sci-fi novel, The Three Body Problem, by Liu Cixin.
Thanks for watching!
#thethreebodyproblem #sciencefiction #liucixin
Reddit AMA thread with Ken Liu - / three_im_ken_liu_trans...
Review criteria
***** - Blew my mind. Simple as.
**** - Great story, well written, entertained me all the way.
*** - Good story, well written, mostly entertaining.
** - Has good bones but failed in a number of ways.
- Failed in every way a book can.
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MY STUFF
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vvv MORE vvv
MY SCI-FI NOVELS
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DELPHINE DESCENDS
After her family is killed and her homeworld occupied, young Kathreen Martin is sent to the distant world of Furoris for re-education. She will live the rest of her life as a serf - to be bought and sold as a commodity of the Imperial Network.
When her only chance of escape is ruined, a chance mistaken identity offers her a new life as the orphaned daughter of a First-Citizen Senator and heiress to a vast fortune.
She vows to claw her way into power to sit among the worlds’ elite. Then, with her own hands, she will reap bloody vengeance on them all.
But to beat them, she must play their game. And she must play it better than them all.
BLACK MILK
Prometheus has the chance to bring his wife back from the dead, but doing so will mean the destruction of Earth.
Spanning time, planets and dimensions, Black Milk draws to a climactic point in a post-apocalyptic future, where humanity, stranded with no planet to call home, fights to survive against a post-human digital entity that pursues them through the depths of space.
Five lives separated by aeons are inextricably linked by Prometheus’s actions:
Ystil.3 is an AI unit sent back in time from the distant future to investigate Prometheus’s discovery...
The mysterious Lydia has devoted her life to finding a planet that the last remaining humans can call home…
Tom Jones (he’s a HUGE fan!) is an AI trapped inside a digital subspace, lost and desperate to find his way back to his beloved in real-time…
Dr Norma Stanwyck is a neuroscientist from 24th Century Earth whose personal choices ripple throughout time...
Prometheus must learn the necessity of death or the entire universe will be swallowed by his grief.
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GOODREADS
You can stalk me on Goodreads to see what I'm currently reading. bit.ly/3rrcByD
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IMAGE USE
The images in in my videos are mostly licensed stock photos. However, occasionally I will use images found online. I always seek to properly credit artists and offer a link back to their amazing work but sometimes it's hard to find the original source of the work. If I've used an image you own and I haven't credited you, please feel free to get in touch as I am always more than happy to do so.
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Just finished Death’s End (3rd book) and I don’t think I’ve ever come across something that has blown my mind in the way that book and this trilogy has. I’m now itching for something that could possibly come close to this.
I'm on the final pages, and couldn't agree with you more!
@@meh3247 likewise
Hey! You should give Baoshu's "The redemption of time" a read aswell, it's kind of the 4th book in the series. It's sort of fan fiction, where Baoshu has taken some theories on the book from internet forums and such, and written it into the story. It's really good aswell, and has also recieved Liu Cixin's blessing also, it's translated by Ken Liu. :)
I just finished the trilogy and am so amazed at the book that I'm on youtube to devour more content. I feel exactly as you- quite an amazing work of literature
When thinking about the 3rd book, three words come into my mind. Dual. Vector. Foil.
The trilogy is worth the effort, some mind bending concepts such as 10 dimensional space and an almost infinite speed of light. I think I may have understood some of it.
🤯🤯🤯
Speed of light is static. Is why the universe reacts the way it does. There can only be 10 dimensions. There are a few good youtube videos on it but many try to stick time in as a dimension which I think is a side effect and not a dimension since it only has 1 axis......but that's a fun debate to have. 😉
I found the concept of three dimensional time quite a challenge! All in all I found these three books to be an excellent read - and I'm extremely wary of _anyone_ who claims to understand everything therein! (Excepting Liu Cixin himself, of course!)
The third book specifically screws with your head a fair bit, and I like that in a story. So yeah, solid series.
Bordered on horror? Are you kidding me? This was cosmic horror, as far as I'm concerned, utterly terrifying. Great video, btw; you were clearly as fascinated as I was by the stunning proton concept. Man, I gasped when it clicked, then read it again and again...then, after moving two pages on, I was tittering at myself as I went back to read the whole page again from the begining. Only Stephen Baxter's Xeelee stuff has impressed me this much; the proton super computer is serious competition. Btw, I truly forgive hard sci-fi writers when they favour narrative over character; the STORY is the main character, because we're here for the concept, to be amazed by the science. Baxter is also criticised over his bland characters
Great review!
The second book "Dark Forest" is a masterpiece. It doesn't suffer from the weak characterisation of the 1rst book, and it contains the best space battle I've ever read! My ratings of the trilogy in order are 4.5/5/4.5!
Agreed! The final book explores some mind-bending concepts but the Dark Forest was the definite highlight!! The battle of doomsday and the ensuing silent death match between the surviving fleet was completely terrifying and shattered my view of humanity in one instant 😂
The struggle session as the opener of the book is what sold me. God bless this China bro
Based profile pic.
as a complete trilogy it is one of my all time favorites. and it will get “harder”!
I can’t wait!!!
Thanks for the review. I'm close to finishing this first book. As a lifelong scifi nerd who actually did start studying to become a physicist back in school, I will say this book is solidly hard science fiction, but it is still accessible in my opinion. It provides enough explanations so that even people with just a cursory understanding of things can grasp the concepts. The payoffs are *well* worth the effort and are worthy of deep literary analysis in some cases.
The one character that, so far, is a real standout to me is Da Shi. I'd read a book about this guy just slumming it in Beijing any time!
I am currently reading part 2 and that too is breathtaking. Thank you for your wonderful videos!
Is it me or this book series reads like an anthropological exploration of humanity and the cosmos? Yes, the story and characters take center stage, but the constant exploration of the physical/economic/social implications of the story makes me feel like we’re viewing the events through historical documents and event reports. I find this kind of writing very impactful, inviting to constantly evaluate and ask questions, and for me it explains why some people might find it dry or slowly paced. It also helps to contextualize the character actions and even their reactions. Maybe they’re meant to feel small in the midst of total darkness and an infinitely expanding awareness of their world. And many of the central characters come from highly technical positions and favor analytical observations and decision making, so their reactions to me are justified. Also, what they’re experiencing is terrifying! Tasked with saving the entire humanity, how else could they react? 😂 (they’re not the avengers, thank god) They feel very human to me, and at the same time acting as a microcosm of humanity as a whole.
Thank you for the review. Somehow I thought I had read this, and watched the review to get a reminder. But sure enough, it did not seem familiar and after checking my content list on Amazon, I do not own it. So thanks again, now I have a new series to look forward to.
It's genuinely one of the best modern SciFi books.
the spolier section of you video sold the book for me, thats the kind of hard scifi far our physcis i want in a book, thank you!
I'm a huge physics nerd and research it on my own just for fun (along with many other sciences). I'm happy for this because I was able to understand the science in the book and how well thought out it was.
Very nice review! I consider the last of the trilogy, ie. Death's End, to actually be the best (also within the realm of hard-scifi concepts). I consider the entire trilogy among the best scifi there is.
When an author badly steals ideas from the wiki pages of lovecraft, arthur c clarke, isaac asimov, orson scott card, and james s.a. corey books you might find this series amazing but there are soooo many better sci-fi books out there that actually deal with the horrible nature of humanity and the real science that is very scary to those that falsely believe god exists.
This author is jar jar abrams. He steals better ideas from others, crams it all together without understanding it, and then makes a movie/book that is a complete mess.
I loved this trilogy!!!
It was a bit sexist loll, and characters are not really interesting, but the rest was really awesome, so it was worth it! The weaknesses of the books are largely outweighed by their mind-blowing sci-fi concepts. And as a big fan of cosmic horror, I loved the disturbing existential crisis instilled by the Dark Forest Theory of the second and third books. There's no horror in the trilogy, but the dark forest theory is so profoundly disturbing and bleak that I felt a similar emotion I get from cosmic horror. If you don't mind poorly written characters and awkward sexism, love scientific speculation and want your brain to be blown in pieces while crying yourself at night for the rest of your life from deep depression and be crushed by a terrible sense of dread just by looking at the stars, you must read this! :)
Thoroughly enjoyed the book. It's original ideas, as you suggest, are gripping. And the better realism of what an alien "attack" could be like was refreshing. Yes, it takes a long time to travel through space from one solar system to another. What I'd appreciate is your take on the sequel Dark Forest. I've started it, but.... will leave it to you to explain your feelings about it.
By the time I finished the trilogy, I was trying to learn about certain types of the sciences brought up in this book. That's a good sign
You've only scratched the surface old boy! There's in excess of 19 million years (plus infinity), another 10 dimensions and several thousand light years to go!
These three books are an outstanding achievement, and well worth the time to read.
I just finished reading the novel a few minutes ago. Then came here to get your review. Your thoughts really helped me to clarify my own reactions. Thx, Darrel.
It was an immensely intriguing read and from a voice that seemed so different than what I've been reading. The cultural revolution was framed in incredible detail & really paints a vivid image of that period. I was scared more than any horror book I've ever read, it felt like madness or massive group hysteria, truly scary.
Immediately started the second book.
I would argue the 3 Body Problem is semi-hard science fiction. Everything is human side is hard. Some of the alien tech is out there.
I didn't like it because I am a critical reader and on a critical level it has some major problems with the themes and characters.
What was say about the characters in this review is just one point combine that with the other it can be boiled down to: intellectuals bad, state authorities good.
I am not sure if it was a criticism of the cultural revolution. I do know that event both cause the main conflict of the book and also proved the points of the cultural revolution right in many ways.
This book keeps showing up on my radar... I think your take on it is enough for me to pick it up.
I'm currently on the final pages of book three "Deaths End" and cannot recommend the series highly enough. I did find that re-reading some passages helped enormously - there are some mind bending concepts in there...
A great first book, and I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts regarding the next two in the trilogy.
I finished the series about a month ago, and it seems like the ideas in those books are definitely going to stay with me for a long, long time.
Hopefully you do the rest of the series. The Dark Forest (2nd book in the series) is my favorite sci-fi book ever written.
Hey, I have been stalking your goodreads and I'm so excited you finally put up your review on this. I think alot of the critiques about the flatness of characters and matter-of-fact nature of this book could be chalked up both to different cultures between what chinese readers want vs americans as well as the translation. I also want to point out that many of our critically acclaimed authors such as Issac Asimov himself did things very similar to this book with flat characters that serve as a means to deliver the idea or concept rather than as a relatable humanistic story. I have heard the second book, Dark forest is better - and wonder if this book also suffers from the unreliable narrator as a part of the frustration.
Thanks for your thoughts. Always love your videos, they are such good quality. Looking forward to more reviews.
Thank you 🙏
Glad you enjoyed it, would love to hear your thoughts on the next book in the trilogy! The mind-blowing concepts don't stop here
I just finished the book. It had some nice parts, but overall it was below expectations. It was kinda slow. Aliens are explicitly mentioned relatively late in the book. Their existence is almost a spoiler. Also, the part where it goes into some details about them, at the end of the book, is good... but not that good. It didn't work for me as it should have. Switching from present to past also didn't really work for me after a while. I also felt that the author was showing somewhat uninteresting parts and telling some interesting ones.
It should be mentioned that humans don't split into factions. This is a misleading as it suggests that humanity splits into factions and few people know about the aliens.
I enjoyed the online game parts, the unraveling of the mystery in the game and outside it. Also, the violent scenes were of note.
I have the rest of the trilogy, but I am not sure about going into it anytime soon. I would however enjoy an adaptation of the book.
I will say this. You are not reading too much into that. The parallels between different cultures and their factions are fascinating and one of the most interesting aspects of the story. You can even notice the parallels with that when compared to the math behind the three body problem. Everything is related. It's what sets apart brilliant authors from the rest and it's awesome.
What a coincidence. I am reading this now. 😀
Thank you for this review. I've read/heard several reviews about The Three Body Problem. The reviews mostly are split between negative and positive about the book. The thing I'm currently think of is that I better read it and develop my own ideas/thoughts about it. But, thanks for your ideas on the book.
Both Contact and Three Body problem feature women as the first human who contacts alien intelligence. But the way Ellen Arroway approaches first contact is totally different from Ye Wenjie, mainly because of their personal experiences during.
I recommend Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio. It’s space opera with a dash of scifi.
The three body problem is only a prologue. Keep going. It’s getting much heavier in 2nd and 3rd books
I’ve had this on my list for a while, think i’ll read it when i finish the expanse series
The concepts of tech explosion and chains of fear...that was like a bell going off..It is somewhat reassuring that the worlds observatories don't see stars blowing up when they shouldn't. Dark Forest theory is wild.
One of the finest sci-fi books I've ever read with some truly original and mind-bending concepts. The other books in the series build on this and are if anything even better. Your review is spot on, and I feel that if only the characterisation and dialogue were a little better it would have scored that elusive 5/5!
omg i started it today!
it's already giving me anxiety (7 chapters in)
That's the good anxiety. We love that one.
That's the good anxiety. We love that one.
@@askani21 yes of course 😂😂
Existential crises await in books 2 & 3! (In a good way?)
I guess I am not as thrilled with it as everyone else. The characters were bland, the VR game part was odd and maybe it was supposed to introduce us to the trisolarians but it just seemed over done. He could have spent less time there and developed different aspects of the story. And I don't see how the trisolarians could have ever evolved on their planet to begin with, to unstable to allow for long term evolution. Anyway it was ok so far.
That was a great review of the 3 Body Problem.
Will you be watching the Netflix version of the 3 Body Problem series? I suspect that Benioff & Weiss will fix the underwhelming character development of some of the characters, you pointed out in the book. Those guys have a great track record of resolving that problem. Such as :
1) Robb Stark (they fleshed out Robb's character to the point that he was a beloved character in the HBO series. Not so much, in the books. Robb Stark became a household name after the Red Wedding episode)
I would love to hear your thoughts.
It would have been interesting to hear your take on the rest of the trilogy, but I agree with your assessment that this is an instant classic. I'm more an occasional than a regular sci-fi reader but this was the darkest, most mind-bendingly original sci-fi book I have read in a very long time. How much is it an insight into China itself? Hard to say, yet it surely gives us a take on how that culture thinks. I notice that it has been turned into China's first real block-buster sci-fi movie, but as far as I could tell, the movie's only relation to the book is the title.
Great review. I guessed correctly that the sophon creation would be the mind-blowing part. Favourite character is actually Da Shi, even though he has a less prominent role. Just finished Dark Forest…I wasn’t ready😱
I just read this book and I can't understand the hype around the book. The first half was interesting, if amateurishly written, but still presented fascinating ideas and an exciting mystery. But, in the end it all turned out to be 50's pulp sci-fi, huge plot holes and pseudoscientific nonsense. Seriously, I really felt cheated after reading it.
One of my friends really love the three books and we've talked about them extensively, because of our mutual love of science fiction literature.
I only had access to the book through a PDF, in English, and I really liked the concepts presented.
Only recently I had the possibility to buy a physical copy in my native language, and I devoured the book in two days. And I've already ordered the second and third book.
For context, the last four books I've read in the last few months have been Solaris by Stanisław Lem, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, Ulysses by James Joyce and Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami.
Of those, one is hard sci-fi and the others are complicated, metaphor-filled, and quite surrealist books.
So I'm unable to understand the criticism about The Three-Body Problem being a complicated and drawn-out book, second many.
Or all the complains about the characters being abysmal with a lack of personality.
For me the reading was quite enjoyable and even refreshing, with two characters in particular being quite interesting in their own right.
I think that for people used to reading hard sci-fi or more complicated classics won't have any problems with reading. A basic knowledge in physics definitely eliminates any problems understanding some of the more difficult parts of the narrative.
Overall, I would say that the book is very good, and it's no wonder that it has already become a classic among hard sci-fi.
It's not a palatable book for everyone, but it's a great book for lovers of the genre.
I love hard sci-fi, but this trilogy didn’t quite do it for me.
Thank you for your brilliant reviews and your effort.
What book did? Curios!
I enjoyed the mystery of it, but was let down by the revelation that Sophons are little more than "a wizard did it"
This! The book promised hard sci-fi at first, but in the end it offered "James Bond villain"-style aliens and magic protons...
@@x-wing8785 yeah, it was weirder than Star Trek
@@AmaranthOriginal Definitely, the end of the book was frustratingly naive. All the intriguing elements were just to mislead the reader and the books big revelation was simply banal.
I had to do some legitimate mental struggling to realize that the dark forest theory is not based in reality and most likely not the true nature of cosmic sociology.
It legitimately troubled me, I had to rationalize it away.
Thank you. I so agreed with your review and couldn't put ithe book down. Several times I found myself having to get up and walk around for few minutes to gather my bearings and ground, especially with the second book. I was a big fan of SciFi but haven't read any in years. It felt like time to "re-hydrate".......lololol, so I ordered a bunch of books. This was the first to arrive at my door. OMG....it felt like coming home to a space that had been magically "upgraded"......like the protagonist Luo Ji, coming out of hibernation after 185 years. I will be starting "Death's End" this afternoon. I understand it is an even wilder ride. It is unfortunate that good science fiction is not introduced and discussed in high school.....is that an accurate statement? It was not in my experience. I cannot imagine anything better than it, as "food for expanded thought and creativity"......and dare I say, hearts too.
What I enjoyed most about the book was the combination of the "hard" SF elements (yes, I have read Greg Egan), with thought-provoking, all too plausible discussion of human behavior and politics. To me, the book did not seem like a commentary on the Cultural Revolution specifically, but on universal truths about crowd and government behavior.
There are four books. Each will blow your mind more and more.
And there's an amazing Animated series that's worth reviewing.
[2:40] "Maybe these people haven't read Greg Egan." 🤣🤣🤣 Seriously, read Greg Egan. My favorites are QUARANTINE and PERMUTATION CITY.
I read the first book. It's great. A little slow in some places, but very thought provoking. I understood the human motivations very well (or could fill in the blanks when necessary), but I wish he spent more time with the Alien mindset. It was very alien, but not clear why or how it evolved.
Loved loved loved it. Also the Chinese 30 episode series.
I actually thought the opposite. I didn't understand yi, and I found wang relatable, & was more able to sympathize with him. Maybe bcuz yi's actions are less understandable, i couldn't connect. That's one reason, I suppose. Wang had less back story, but I think the book went pretty deep into his story, only more in the present.
Lui Cixin took a risk since I remember how an editor of "Science Fiction World" in of Chengdu Sichuan Province became an Orwellian "unperson" while papers I signed to give an MIT presentation I am not allowed to exchange avionics info with such a periodical.
Maoists thought they could run an economy without technicians who they labeled "Japanese Collaborators".
excellent review!
Weird how many people love sci-fi, but cannot be bothered much with the actual physics.
If you want the solution to the 3-body-problem, the consequences are more acute than any novel.
Here is that solution:
ruclips.net/video/gSz9BAGH51Y/видео.html
Just ordered a copy. I’m so excited to read this
It gets better if readers are more knowledgeable about Chinese history. And it will explain why Liu created Trisolarians and Sophone like that.
🚀 I really struggled with this one initially - IIRC it may have been the virtual world bits that frustrated me. But then the story unfolded itself, IYKWIM, and I enjoyed the latter half enough to pick up the next books in the series. Haven’t touched them yet mind you! Have you read any Stephen Baxter e.g. “Ring”?
I almost DNF'd this book due to the first 2 virtual world segments. I'm glad I decided to stick with it though but generally I was left a bit disappointed by the book. After saying all that though I did really enjoy the virtual world bit with the 30 million people computer 😁
Love this channel just subscribed!
Outstanding 🤯
Just finished 3 body audio book few days ago . On mind . U expressed my similar thoughts .
I did audio book ( expertly narrated ) dark forest narration is t as good . ,ay e he voices yet I’m only on chapter 1 of dark forest .
Fav character was the cop . By far . There’s a net comic f three body . It’s okay . It has a,axing charater prfiles with visuals amd descriptions . Good visuals .
After the book . Hmmm . Paranoia ? Sympathy ? I think myself most interested in the methods . I wanna know more about trisalriams .
Good graphic novel is letter 44 . Low level compared yet awesome sci fi with twists
Thank you, Darrell.
great review, the first one was the one i liked the least of the three, you're going to continue with the series?
I certainly am! The tbr is now out of control but I want to read the others this year if possible.
Very good review. Thank you. I live in a remote area, so when I got to a bookstore I bought this book just because it won the Hugo award. I enjoyed the history section (I studied history of China) and the first few game sections. I like hard science. However the change of scene in the game sections, where we are advanced 1000s (from memory) of years each time, I really didn't enjoy. Finally I put the book down about 2/3 of the way through, so about the fourth game section. Maybe it's because I am an older person and don't find games that interesting, but the lack of continuity in those sections was disappointing. It might have been saved if there was a closer relationship to the non-game sections. I would not give the Three Body Problem any award. I consider it a below average novel.
Death’s End was my favorite of the trilogy! I had a hard time putting that one down!
Really I thought Dark Forest was the best
What is the point of the countdown? We spent a lot of time on the countdown with zero payoff?
Having studied some chinese, I noticed a few weird translations of idioms or grammar that did not fit well in the english version.
I mean that some sentences were very obviously word for word translations mostly
The hardest for me to digest is in Death’s End. The third book.
What is your best hard SF...
Schild's Ladder :D
Makes Cixin look like an amateur lolll
Really good review. Will the Netflix version cover just the 1st book or all three? Sure hope it's a series that would cover all three. I just finished book one and about to start on book 2.
I liked the books a lot. What is interesting to me is that you don't mention the main point of the book, the dark forest concept. The driver of the whole series.
The Dark Forest isn't really touched on in this book, though. It is revealed in the book of the same name
U should do a vid about ur books n bookshelves. If u do book reviews, you have to, those are the rules.
can we see your book collection!
All 3 are terrific.
Can anyone recommend a book to me? I really liked 3 body problem but nothing I’ve read so far is anywhere close as good.
Peter Watts: Blindsight
great book but the writing sometimes felt like the dialogue in a dubbed movie.
My opinion of the series declined with each of the three books. The tone of the series becomes increasingly bleak and nihilistic, and the undercurrent of misogyny that is easy to overlook in the first book becomes increasingly open in the subsequent stories. The exposition problem increases too… by the third bok it is just a giant exposition-dump. Plus, I don’t buy into the “dark forest theory.”
Book has alot of boring parts like characters and over explaining science. Sometimes I skip otherwise a worth wilde read
As a native speaker of Chinese and English and a history fan and a reader of multiple sci-fi novel such as Asimov which I read in English, there're definitely pro and con in the story and the writing style of Liu Cixin.
For the plot, the modern timeline is simply horribly imagined. The sophiscation of the three body organization is simply bad. There's no detail about their success. I feel Liu can expand on that. The historical cultural revolution past is very well written. The three body game plot is very well written although repetitive. However, the plot was to help the reader to understand the three body world.
The characters are all simple minded stereotypical characters. The protagonist and the police are the most boring.
The alien sci-fi part about a proton AI is simply not believable. The using nanotubes to destroy a sea ship is simply a joke not worth the reader to spend more time thinking about the feasibility.
Overall, I think the the book had great promise but failed in many aspects. Had Liu spend more time on one sci fi idea instead of many ideas, the book might look a lot better.
the writing and character development was poor. the ideas were engaging though
I think I read a different translation than everyone else here? The prose was literally unreadable, barely even english. Had to DNF after 10 pages.
sir,as a Chinese,if you want, I can translate for you.But please not say this book is prose.
Dude, you're beautiful.
I am very surprised why people rate this book so highly.
Let me clear some things first - there's good things about the book:
1. The detective is a good, enjoyable character to read. Only one in entire book, but he is there.
2. The human computer was fun to read, doubly so if you have programming background.
3. The three body problem is a nice thing to highlight for people who never heard of it. Having said that, pop-science book "Chaos" by Gleick is way better at describing a whole class of these problems. And is a much better read overall.
4. Setting of the first chapter. Unique and interesting, at least for European folk. If the rest of the book was like the first part, I would rate this book very highly.
Are we good on the good stuff? Ok, the bad:
1. Sloooow pace. I mean this is such a slog I almost abandoned it several times.
2. Boring, borderline neurotic characters. With the exception of the detective, all other characters can be considered either PTSD depressed neurotic, or soon-to-be-dead. Usually both. I had trouble telling them apart at times.
3. Surprisingly few science concepts.
This book offers very little, while getting stellar reviews and awards.
Dan Simmons has better prose, Greg Egan does better hard sci fi, any eastern European sci fi author does the political commentaries and "human condition" stuff better.
It's only my opinion, and a very niche one, since everyone else praises this book, I have no idea for what.
I must be an oddity because this book is terrible. It started off well with the context of cultural revolution, but after that it was difficult going. The writing is amateurish, procedural, and without insights. The characters are flat, the dialogue without voice, the action without suspense. The game sequence makes no sense and the character's interpretation of it doesn't match our experience of it as written, just as the hard science is nonsense presented as deeply profound. This is a stinker through and through. Good thing I'm not living in the cultural revolution or I'd be sent to re-education camp.
"Yes, officer. That man right there."
*Officers proceed with unnecessarily brutal arrest*
...
"As I was saying, if we ignore the bad parts of the book, it's perfect!"
I agree completely. I count it as my least favorite book I read in 2021. The sequel may have challenged for the spot but I DNF it too early to count it.
This is why it is not advisable to use a Western mind to judge Eastern fiction books .
I agree. I read this a couple of years ago and was disappointed. I had high hopes going into it.
You don't even know what their literature is. So the hand is faster than the brain
Just an awful series of books. Bad characters, really bad physics, even worse sci-fi ideas stolen from much, much, much better books. I guess if you live in china and have never read any lovecraft, arthur c clarke, isaac asimov, orson scott card, or james s.a. corey books you might find this series amazing........but it just feels like the author stole bad ideas from each of these author's wikipedia pages, made 2-dimensional characters, and then wrapped communism around them. I feel sorry for anyone that found this series amazing....there are soooo many better sic-fi books out there that actually deal with the horrible nature of humanity and the real science that is very scary to those that falsely believe god exists.
Some parts are brilliant, but there are many, too many, frayed subplots stuck together without continuity. And then characters that defining one-dimensional is a euphemism, they are placeholders, detached figurines for events that have not aroused any interest in me. There's a glimpse of something bigger and maybe it'll make ends meet, but I don't want to read three books and then conclude: ah, ok. And its slow, the times of the Chinese writer and reader are different from ours, deeeeadly slow, there is that alienating sense of stickiness in the writing. Furthermore, since Liu leaves the historical part set during the cultural revolution (literally the best in the book), the approach becomes truly hexagonal, certainly not elliptical and elusive. A good novel, nothing more.