This series by Cixin Liu starts with a bang! Some of the biggest ideas in sci-fi woven together into a hugely mysterious plot that you'll never see coming.
Published 2006-2010; won a Hugo and Locus award.
Brent: 3 stars. Three-Body, the first novel, has such incredible mystery, history, and a propulsive plot. I liked the ideas in the last two novels, but didn’t like them nearly as much. The 3rd book especially struggles.
Cody: 4 stars. While the characters are flat and can all feel like the same person, the concepts are just so completely novel and well described and explored that it makes the series (especially Three-Body) canonical.
Adam: 5 stars. Yes the 5 is sacred, but in this case I give this rating based upon how many hours it’s made me think about it, after putting it down. Not to mention the influence the book had in China and globally.
Here's the setup:
The first novel, The Three-Body Problem, starts with the heartbreaking story of a young woman, Ye Wenjie, trying to survive the cultural revolution. She watches in horror as her parents, prominent scientists at a Chinese University, are persecuted and tortured, and she is labeled a political enemy of the revolution as well.
Then we jump to the near future, where we explore the world through the eyes of Wang Miao. Dozens of prominent scientists all over the world have committed suicide and reported strange results, and now it seems it is Wang’s turn to experience the impossible. A countdown begins appearing in the photographs he takes, and even in his waking vision. It seems impossible, but again and again he sees more and more impossible things happening. At the same time, he is brought into strange meetings where all the governments of the world seem to be working together against some singular enemy.
The back of the book reveals a lot more than this, but we’ll just leave you with one final thought - this is a book about first contact with aliens that is like nothing you’ve ever read before.
The other two novels, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End address the continuation of humanity’s future over the following eons, and explore just about 10,000 new sci-fi concepts.
Hugonauts' Thoughts:
The Three-Body Problem has so many good things going for it we almost don't know where to start. The overarching mystery of the novel makes the plot unbelievably propulsive - it's definitely the kind of book you'll stay up too late reading.
It is also jam-packed with novel tech ideas that are integrated into the plot well - central to the story but embedded within it so it doesn't feel like there's too much exposition. Carbon nanotubes, super advanced video games with haptic feedback suits, radio astronomy - seriously so much here.
Beyond the tech ideas, the grand postulations Cixin Liu makes about first contact and our place in a universe with other life forms is frankly life-changing. Some of his central concepts are so realistic and novel that this series will become larger and larger in your mind long after you’ve read it.
And then there are two big things that really differentiate the first novel from the sequels. First, it has a very interesting narrative structure with two different timelines - jumping back and forth between them to tell the story and keep you invested at all times. Second, it has an incredibly compelling character in Ye Wenjie. Her story of watching her family suffer through the Cultural Revolution is unbelievable (and also taught us a lot, as Westerners who didn't know enough about that time in China) - and it makes the seemingly unthinkable decision she makes later in the book seem totally possible. That decision still feels like it makes sense for her character though - a real testament to the work Cixin Liu did to make her feel real.
The sequels, on the other hand, rely much more heavily on technology and 'big ideas' to carry the books, and they get steadily less polished. As happens all too often, each book in the series gets about 50% longer than the one that came before, and it definitely feels like the author was working against a deadline without time to edit and refine. They are essentially directly linear in terms of their structure. And the characters are wooden at best, and sometimes outright irrational with no explanation. The books also feel more and more sexist the further into the series you go (Cixin Liu has caught a bunch of flack for that in China too).
That said, if you are the kind of sci fi reader who is in it for tech ideas and huge plots with implications for the whole human race, definitely keep going with the series! The Dark Forest in particular has a very interesting idea in it - the darkest solution to the Fermi Paradox we've ever read. Even if you decide not to read the book, we highly recommend googling the dark forest theory at the very least.
The Three-Body Problem is a groundbreaking and life changing book. Its sequels get steadily less impressive, but many readers will enjoy them as well, especially if you are a lover of hard science fiction.
Related Books
If you loved this one, you might also like:
Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky
A detailed and imaginative journey through two of the all-time great science fiction tropes, uplift and generational ships. Plus, you'll learn to like spiders!
Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
Dialogue and ideas! Foundation presents a well-built puzzle for both characters and audience that will keep one thinking long after the book is read. The entire original trilogy is quite good.
House of Suns - Alastair Reynolds
A hard scifi marvel with a clippy plot, Reynolds takes us through a wondrous far-future universe, while exploring the ideas of what makes a conscious being a conscious being.
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