Rave Review: "The Three-Body Problem" by Cixin Liu

Quick Summary

Type: Novel

Genre: Science fiction

Back Cover: "Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion."

Read Time: 3 days

Rating: 5 stars

Review

I'm starting to think that heavy science fiction books about humans interacting with extraterrestrials might be my favorite genre, because the last two books of that type I've read - this one and Project Hail Mary - have both made it to my 'All-Time Favorite' list without even going through an initial 5-star period. Although, it's also entirely possible that I've just gotten really lucky with the first two books of this specific genre.

I'll be honest, for a while I was a little confused by this book. The start dropped me into the midst of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which is a subject and time period I have very little knowledge of. William might have had a little bit of an easier time with it.

And it took me a while to understand the point of the death of the young girl with the flag, as well as Ye Zhetai's death. In fact, it wasn't until Ye Weijie was revealed as Yang Dong's mother that I understood why the early events of the book were so important.

The other thing that confused me was the countdown. The end of the story explains how people are seeing the countdown - it's the sophons - but what happens at the end of the countdown? I wish this had been answered, but on the other hand, it's entirely possible that the countdown was just one of the many ways the Trisolarans were trying to drive Earth scientists crazy. Either way, I wish this had been resolved.

Honestly, Ye Weijie's sections of the story were the most interesting to me. After all, she suffered so much in her life, she was the brilliant physicist who made first contact with extraterrestrials, and she was the one so moved by disgust for the human race she chose to doom the Earth. I can understand that right now - I'm pretty disgusted with the human race myself, although I personally don't believe we need aliens to doom the Earth. We're doing a good enough job of that ourselves. Unlike Ye Weijie, I also don't think extraterrestrials would at all help to save the Earth. They'd either destroy us, or - I suspect this is much more likely - just not bother with us.

The second most interesting parts of the book was the video game, the explanation of Trisolaris and its civilization. Reading about extraterrestrial civilizations is one of the things I like the most about books in this genre, and I thought the exploration of Trisolaran civilization - through the Three Body video game - was clever and novel. I also appreciated that for the most part, Wang Miao acted as an observer of this civilization (with the exception of his identifying the three-body problem of Trisolaris's existence).

And of course, I have to mention the savior of humanity, the corrupt cop Da Shi (Big Shi, whose real name I've completely forgotten) who is derided as a simple-minded cop but who over and over again proves the most useful person in the room. He connects the dots of the ETO conspiracy. He comes up with the way to recover Trisolaris communications while simultaneously ridding the world of the ETO Adventists. And in the end, after the discovery of the sophons and the overwhelming belief that there is nothing humans can do to survive against the Trisolarans, he reminds Wang and Ding Yi (another scientist) that humans are always going to be capable of resistance. Even though the book ends two pages later, Da Shi is the character who provides hope for the future. He is the savior of humanity.

Finally, the end is beautifully poetic. Ye Weijie watches the red sunset at the same place she sent the first transmission to the sun to be amplified to the rest of the universe. It was only right that the story end where it began, with the woman who set everything into motion.

The book was hard to read from time to time - I imagine it must have been written beautifully in its original Chinese, because the prose is quite literary in English. It was also a little confusing at times, a little hard to follow, and a few loose ends that I feel didn't get properly resolved. But it was also deep and thoughtful, and thoroughly engaging and entertaining.