The Three-Body Problem

One of the greatest science fiction novels of the century. Profoundly thoughtful, thought provoking, intelligent and intricately designed. The Netflix adaption is a travesty which succeeds only in making a complete mess of the story and missing every important aspect of it. It should be disregarded. I would invite anyone who was responsible for it to justify, amongst other things, relocating most of the story to Britain. There is, however, a thoughtful and faithful Chinese adaptation available on Amazon Prime in 30 episodes which is entirely excellent. But be advised, the Neflix version is shockingly dreadful.But read the book first.

Truly, the story is original and captivating and I will be buying the second novel on that basis.The writing style is "sub-optimal", being rather simplistic and (nearly, sort of) reminiscent of a child's adventure story. Is this the writer or the translation; does it really matter? There are a lot of suddenly this and suddenly that type of expressions and some of the sub-plot tropes feel false or rather farcical. The stereotypical manner in which, seemingly all, female characters are portrayed is disappointing in modern fiction. But the idea seems new and original and makes the book into a page turner.With all that in mind, it rates a (reluctant) 7 out of 10; the originality really does beef up the ratings!

Love this trilogy, bought it after watching the netflix series 1, so glad I got the books as these are so much better! the first book takes a while to get used to the writing style (if you're reading the English translation), as how it's been translated from the Chinese can feel a bit clunky for the English language (I think, i'm not a language professor or anything, but got this for my dad too and discussed it) - but I think its so interesting how language can represent culture, norms, everything.I'd reccomend getting the physical book copy if you aren't used to reading translated copies, as I got the Chinese names muddled up quite often (I also didn't realise until about halfway through the second book that Firstnames and Surnames are the other way round in Chinese too!) and forgot who was who, but at the start of the book there's a name guide to remind you who is who, but I wasn't aware of this in the kindle version!.The first book can be a bit tough going, but once you get used to the language and the names, it is absouetly fantastic, i would say it's the best sci-fi series I have read, ever!!! it has also translator's notes which add in more depth to the Chinese culture and facts a Westerner may not know, which was really interesting and so helpful.

As with many other reviewers, I found one half of this book gripping, fast-paced and original, and one half of this book slow, derivative and a little dull. But unlike these other reviewers, it was the first half that I really liked, and the second half where, for me, the book pretty much jumped the shark.[Spolier alert: There are no serious spoilers here--but I will talk a little bit about the set-up and you may wish to avoid this if you've not already read this -- at least for me, part of the fun of the book were the introduction early on of so many unexpected subplots.]The set up really kept me guessing -- and I liked that. Early on, there were many surprises and unexpected turns. We quickly move from the atrocities of the Chinese revolution -- very well written: evocative, very disturbing, emotionally shocking -- to the strange and sinister deaths of a number of physicists working at the frontier of fundamental physics, to an inexplicable and portentous numerical countdown appearing on every photograph taken by a particular protagonist, to a bizarre and unnerving new virtual reality game that depicts the tribulations of an alien world as its civilizations are repeatedly destroyed by a series of apparently unpredictable solar events.That's a lot in the mix, and we're not even half way through. And, throughout the first half of the book, the book had a real atmosphere: the mixture of these bizarre and inexplicable events combined with the shocking factual, historical events combined again with the writer's sound scientific knowledge, gave the book a certain surreal, dreamlike quality which, at times, reminded me at times of Murakami. It wasn't clear that there was a real logic to the whole, that it could all possibly come together, but so gripping were the events, so interesting the conspiracy unfolding, one was just happy to go along for the ride.Unfortunately, the second half of the book was much more conventional. As is often the case, the resolution of the paradox is somewhat mundane as what seemed extraordinary is suddenly given an explanation. Usually, this is not too bad, as the big reveal only normally occupies the last chapter so the reader can get the sense of revelation, but without having to plow through too much that is mundane.Sadly, here, that's about half the book. The real nature of the sci-fi story is familiar and not that interesting. The alien culture hinted at in the odd virtual reality game is unimaginatively portrayed -- no exaggeration to say that they're not much better than the aliens from Plan 9 in outer space: a petulant, feudal bunch who are only all too familiar. The "scientific" explanations of the opening mysteries are no longer convincing and are hard work to read through as they are there simply in order to explain the set up. The atrocities witnessed by a key character in her youth turn out to be there only so she can commit an act of treachery which isn't really psychologically earned, but is there, again, to explain part of the plot.And, as many have said, apart from the Police Chief, the characters are rather flat and uncharismatic. I don't mind unsympathetic characters (Bateman, anyone?) as long as they're interesting, but these characters aren't. Apart from the Police Chief, I couldn't see myself wanting to spend any time with them.So, overall, 3 stars -- not because, as Amazon says, `it's ok' -- but because there's a five star start and a one and a half star end. But there was certainly enough good stuff here for my interest to be piqued by the writer. Many have said that the next books are much better and, while I'm not rushing to buy The Dark Forest immediately, I do intend to read it at some point in the future. If you're interested in sci fi and you're looking for something out of the ordinary, then I think this book is worth a go. Be prepared for disappointment though!

I really enjoyed Liu’s style. I found it very easy and pleasing to read.Theres a decent amount of technical jargon in the book, but I found Liu did a good job of walking the reader through the concepts.Overall, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the other two in the series. As a fan of sci-fi I’m pleased to see a story set on Earth and in a world familiar to ours, rather than in a completely fabricated universe.If you’re a sci-fi fan or not, I’d still recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

Trata muy bien temas fundamentales de la existencia de la raza humana.

Uma estória surpreendente, única e rica, uma ótima surpresa.

This is a great book, if you like 'hard science fiction'. It reminded me a bit of Asimov - although the writing is totally different of course. Some of the ideas are really innovative and thought provoking. After reading it (and watching the Netflix series) I had to get the other two books in the trilogy. So far (as it is often the case with trilogies) the first book is the best. A few details (like some plot devices / twists esp. in the second book) may not always work well, but all-in-all 5 stars for me.

Chinese schrijver: de namen in het boek zijn verwarrend want lijken enorm op elkaar chang, wang weng chin ling, chi