Don’t let the fact that “The Three-Body Problem” by Cixin Liu is Chinese put you off. At the heart of this tale of attempted planetary conquest is a searing commentary on today’s elites willingness to betray the rest of humanity that caught my attention and gets my recommendation.
Spanning decades and multiple narrators, The Three-Body Problem melds historical fiction and futuristic fantasy. It explores the real-life impacts of China’s Cultural Revolution on its scientific and intellectual life from the 1960s to the present day. At the same time, it spins an allegorical tale about an endangered alien species and the cult on Earth that will help it to take over our planet. The Three-Body Problem is a masterclass in sci-fi with a thesis, telling a complex story about the perseverance of intelligent life and the psychology of cultures in crisis.
Vee Cipperman book review Quarantine
The Three-Body Problem itself is real mathematical and astrophysical challenge that is unsolvable in a general application of Newton that arises when as few as three objects come into gravitational range of each other. Watch
Throw in the depravations of Mao’s the Cultural Revolution and you’ve got a winner that would make some interesting table talk with your brain dead leftist relative at this year’s Thanksgiving Table. Imagine the look of astonishment upon that comfortably smug leftist face when you ask if they’ve read the Hugo Award winning science fiction book from China? Either way you’ve got them trapped in their own sense of superiority when you describe the plot as an alien invasion enabled by the elites who hate humanity and want to have it destroyed by helping an intergalactic conquest of earth. Watch the idiot squirm in misery as you rely the role Mao’s Cultural Revolution played in turning a key character against humanity and betraying the world in a heartbeat when warned not to do so by a kind hearted alien from across light years distances. The befuddling possibilities this book offers are numerous.
OK, Dr. Tar, I’ve had this recommended by one friend already and now that you’re touting it, too, I’m game.
Note: this is a trilogy. If you’re still doing Amazon, the first book is available through Kindle Unlimited ($0 for subscribers).
Don’t know about all that sciency stuff, but that guy in the video has killer eyebrows.
You have got them trapped in their own sense of superiority when you describe the plot as an alien invasion enabled by the elites.
I read it a couple of years ago. It can be a bit of a challenge but it’s well worth it. Sadly I lent it to my children so I’ll have to buy it again to re-read it.
I ghost wrote it for Liu.
Can’t begin to describe the disappointment when looking at the comment count and thinking there’s a lively book conversation going on only to find the Trisolarian sophons have invaded the thread and are disrupting the flow of thoughts.
Uncle Al I finished the first book yesterday and have already reserved the second book “Dark Forest” from my local library.
It’s a good time to pick up a good book here, two inches of snow on the ground and more to come this weekend it looks like.
I tried so hard to get into this (because normally this is the kind of book I love – aliens + hard science with some politics thrown in) and I just couldn’t. I finally just turned it back in to the library.
(Ha. Grammarly wants me to say I turned it back “into” the library. No, just for the record, at no point did I attempt to transform the book into anything else. I merely returned it so that someone else could read it.)
I looked it up on Amazon – impressive not just the rating but the number of reviews. It’s in my shopping cart.