The Three Body Problem - Liu Cixin
When my friend who recommended The Three Body Problem to me asked me what I thought of the book, I said that a lot of it felt like prologue to a video game that was setting the scene for the action you were about to experience rather than an actual book. Having now finished it, I stand by this statement, but the ending did tie things together nicely.
The Three Body Problem is a science fiction novel that was written and takes place in China. It was recently translated into English and apparently it is starting to grow in popularity here in the States. The story takes true elements of Chinese history, primarily the Cultural Revolution, and weaves those into a version of history where these cultural movements were intertwined with humanity’s first encounters with extraterrestrial intelligence. The narrative bounces between a few primary storylines: a disillusioned scientist during the cultural revolution, a modern day physicist trying to figure out why weird things are happening around him, and a virtual reality-like strategy game known as The Three Body Problem.
My favorite parts of reading this book took place during the The Three Body Problem simulations. Without giving too much of the plot away, there is a particular sequence where an army of men essentially recreate the core functions of a computer just with binary actions from every man involved. This was really cool. My least favorite parts of the book were when seemingly major parts of the story were explained in two pages as if they were the scrolling text at the beginning of a Star Wars movie.
At the end of the day, I’m glad I read this book and I did enjoy it. The last 50 pages of the book ratchet things up and set up for an exciting second and third book. Going into the book, I didn’t know that it was part of a trilogy and so I think was expecting more of the story to develop and resolve before the last 50 pages. Once I realized that it was part of a trilogy, however, my expectations changed and I enjoyed the ride more. I’ll likely read the next two books but I don’t find myself itching to read them immediately.