Book Review: The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (2014)


I've been wanting to read this book for some time as it's on every Booktuber's hotlist of modern first-contact, hard sci-fi. For the most part, I was not disappointed...

The book begins set during China's cultural revolution which serves to highlight man's cruelty to man and the tension between science and politics. In fact, a good portion of the book - almost it's entire first half - is dedicated to driving this point home. While not a major strike against the book, it does serve notice that the book does not move along at breakneck speed and often spends vast amounts of time dedicated to particular scenes. Fortunately, the book is so beautifully written (or should I say beautifully translated save some remote juvenile-sounding passages) that I completely forgave this particular criticism.

The story is vast and infused with intriguing ideas both scientific and philosophical - and I love this - which ultimately culminates in contact with an alien civilization that [spoiler alert!] winds up being as cruel in their vision for the future as the events of the Chinese Cultural Revolution were, and this is the major plot twist of the book a lot of other book reviewers don't seem to mention. The book's final act gives us the perspective of events from the alien civilization's point of view which on one hand is quite intriguing but at the same time frustrating; we catch a glimpse of a world vastly scientifically superior to human civilization but can't seem to figure out the Three Body Problem or where else they could have escaped their hostile world to before now? This is the book's only glaring plot hole, but it is a big one. 

My other hard criticisms of the book are that the story doesn't really get going until almost half-way through (I can be impatient) and that we're ultimately given a non-ending where the book makes it clear that there will be a sequel instead of being more ambiguous and giving an ending that could make this a stand-alone novel. Despite this, I loved the philosophy, the hard sci-fi and even most of the characters, especially Ye Wenjie (hard not to sympathize with her even after she makes a tragic decision because its easy to understand her motivations) and the police officer, Da Shi, a rough-around-the-edges investigator who was unfortunately completely changed in Netflix's adaptation. 

All things considered, and with a little bit of hindsight, I rate this a strong 8 out of 10. 


Final Score: 8/10

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