Today, we will be reviewing the popular sci-fi novel The Three-Body Problem by Lu Cixin. Keep reading to find out what we thought of the novel and if you should read it next!
The Three-Body Problem Summary
Wang Miao, a nanotechnology professor, is approached by detective Shi Qiang to investigate the suicide of many of the world’s best scientists. Miao is surprised that many governments have come together to solve the problem at hand which he isn’t told of. But he can tell that they are preparing for war.
Soon after, Wang starts to see hallucinations that start to drive him crazy. Nobody else can see them and he is warned to stop his work. He also comes across a virtual reality game called Three-Body and enters this virtual world where he experiences extreme weathers that wipe out civilizations.
Wang wonders how all of this connected and what is happening to him and the world he is living in. Why are all the governments coming together and preparing for war. Why are the world’s best minds killing themselves? And what is Three-Body? The answer lies in the game and Wang is determined to complete it and find out who is behind it all.
Three-Body Problem History
Like many sci-fi novels, The Three-Body Problem was first serialized as a short story by Cixin in the Science Fiction World in 2006. The short story went on to win the Galaxy Award for Chinese science fiction. Two years later, Cixin published it as a standalone novel and the English translation was published in 2014 by Tor Books.
The translation became the first novel by an Asian writer to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel as well as being nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel. And it has been one of the most successful Chinese novel of the past decade.
The Netflix Adaptation
In 2024, Netflix released the show 3-Body Problem, an adaptation of the novel and brought a lot of attention to this classic sci-fi book. Netflix went all out as it let David Benioff, D. B. Weiss and Alexander Woo direct the show and the results were incredible. This makes the second adaptation of the novel, one of them being in Chinese.
The show was great for the first half of the season and then fell apart. Too many elements that aren’t in the novel are brought into the mix and make it feel more like a drama than a sci-fi series. Still, I am glad that I was able to discover the series because of the show.
My Thoughts on The Three-Body Problem
I enjoyed the novel a lot and it is easily better than the Netflix show. The changes made for the show don’t make sense but that isn’t a problem in the book Everything is connected and fits the plot well. This is a brilliant sci-fi book with its own spin on the alien invasion trope. But unlike most novels, the aliens aren’t the sole focus in this novel, even though I imagine they will be in the next couple of books.
I will be reading the rest of this series and can’t wait to read what happens. Cixin has piqued my curiosity and I am hooked. If you like alien novels, then this is a must read. Happy reading!
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I have reading Sci-fi for over 50 years and I found the three body problem the most contrived and unbelievable story I ever read. The idea that an advanced civilization could arise on that planet is absurd, after each return to the stone age the climb up again, only to fall, would keep the civilization barely functional. As a minor note no explanation how one might handle the nano wire is given thus making it perhaps possible but hardly usable. Making the aliens practically omnipotent was the last straw. I would not recommend wasting you time. Pick up anything by Alfred Bester and save yourself $16.