The Three-Body Problem

By: Cixin Liu, Ken Liu - translator

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

The inspiration for the Netflix series 3 Body Problem!

WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL

Over 1 million copies sold in North America

“A mind-bending epic.”—The New York Times • “War of the Worlds for the 21st century.”—The Wall Street Journal • “Fascinating.”—TIME • “Extraordinary.”—The New Yorker • “Wildly imaginative.”—Barack Obama • “Provocative.”—Slate • “A breakthrough book.”—George R. R. Martin • “Impossible to put down.”—GQ • “Absolutely mind-unfolding.”—NPR • “You should be reading Liu Cixin.”—The Washington Post

The Three-Body Problem is the first novel in the groundbreaking, Hugo Award-winning series from China's most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu.

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. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.

The Three-Body Problem Series
The Three-Body Problem
The Dark Forest
Death's End

Other Books by Cixin Liu
Ball Lightning
Supernova Era
To Hold Up the Sky
The Wandering Earth
A View from the Stars

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

Critic reviews

“Remarkable, revelatory and not to be missed.” —<i>Kirkus Reviews, starred review</i>

Sufficiently interesting to rise above problems

Based on a good idea and tons of interesting details, the story is a little longwinded. I never got bored, but I felt impatient sometimes. "Come on, dude. Move it along here."

Fortunately, it was really interesting. I am a fan of translated fiction. I loved learning more about China's Cultural Revolution. The way the author looks at things, constructs subplots and interpersonal conflicts is different from the American run of the mill.

The central issues of the book are completely fascinating. There were twists that were really interesting. The explanation for the pool game was completely, totally unexpected. Some talk about dimensionality that was almost thrilling in its imaginativeness.

3 Stars for a tale about 3 stars

A 3 star listen that could have been 4 or 5 star.
The Three Body Problem is the first part of a trilogy in which an alien planet, Trisolaris, intercepts a radio transmission from China. Trisolaris orbits 3 stars and due to the gravitational tug of war between those 3 stars, is subject to a violently unpredictable climate. Discovering Earth, Trisolaris plans to invade and claim the mild unchanging climate for themselves.
It took me at least an hour and a half of listening before I felt that that the story had actually begun as it goes through some back story that is only just relevant and could have been covered in a much shorter time.
When the book just gets on with the action its a great listen and has an interesting plot. The main problem with this book is that it is far better when its written as a sci-fi thriller than as the hard sci-fi it often bogs down in.
It can be a frustrating book to listen to due to some flaws that occasionally hobble the story. Large sections of the story are set in a computer game, which explains the history of Trisolaris and asks players to try to solve the riddle of predicting the varying climate of the planet. However these sections are long, mind numbingly tedious and repetitive.
There are also some problems with the internal logic of the story. The most obvious is why a group of traitors on Earth (a group of people who have grown disillusioned with the human race) conspire with the aliens to help them invade. They do this without even knowing one single detail about the alien race except for the fact that they exist. They also do this despite the fact that the very first message they get from the aliens is from a pacifist who tells them starkly and ominously not to answer any further communications as it would risk annihalation to humanity.
The last section of the book is also rather tedious and written in a dreamy style which stalls the momentum of the story. This part details the aliens plan to invade Earth (which due to the huge distance will be 450 years from now) and how they plan to disrupt human science so humanity won't have the technology to defend itself. This is also the part of the book where the hard sci-fi element is most prevalent as it describes the scientific principles and experiments they do. Just tell us what the gizmo is and what it does and get on with the story!!!! This is another part of the book that could have been written far more economically and with better characterisation.
One other point pertinent to the Audiobook version is the difficulty Westerners may have familiarising themselves with various characters in the first half of the book. Because the Chinese names are so unfamiliar it can be a little difficult to get a handle on who is who early on - but this does get easier as the story settles and the cast of characters solidifies.
As I said, this first book is first in a trilogy and I will go onto the next book as the story was interesting enough to keep me engaged, I'm hoping though that the second installment has a better editor.

Don't bother (see full review)

This is a decent novel with some interesting concepts. However, I do not recommend listening to it. The Three-Body Problem is the first in a series, but the next novel is read by an atrocious narrator who is no better than a text-to-speech engine. This novel ends on a cliffhanger, but the next novel is un-listenable. You're better off spending your money on something else.

Cixin Liu's novel contains some interesting sci-fi concepts and has a moderately engaging plot, but the narrative tends to dawdle and falter from time to time and is anti-climatic in some places. Luke Daniels does a mostly passable job; in some parts is narration is too dull, but there's a section in the middle where you can tell he got really into the performance and that part is the most fun to listen to.

I would still recommend this novel if it were not for the fact that the next entry is narrated by a lifeless robot instead of Mr. Daniels.

Definitive, Original, Expansive

This trilogy easily ranks alongside Asimov, Clark, and Card in the Parthenon of greatest hard SciFi works of all time. Reading this series feels like listening to a Neil Degrasse Tyson lecture on Physics and Cosmology - each narrative construct blows your mind in a new totally unexpected way. Words like original and expansive are completely inadequate to describe what has been done here, it's simply unprecedented. A word of warning, like much SciFi you are probably not here for rich characters and pithy dialogue. Characters here are more like representations of human kind used to fully explore the impacts of radical technological progress on human society. This work is very much at the macro scale of human society exploring such lofty concepts as the nature of life in the Universe, the fate of humankind, and how each of us fits into the greater cosmos. The story starts in our past, but don't let that fool you - stick with all three books and you will be taken to places far beyond your wildest dreams.

Unique story with hard science and history

Having this book in my wish list for two years was an injustice to myself; I should have read this book as soon as I heard about it. Maybe I thought a translated sci-fi story couldn't be that great. I don't know. But from the first scene the author proved he could weave hard science, history, and fiction together perfectly. The last part of the book gets a bit out there, but not more than any other sci-fi. I don't know who wouldn't enjoy this book. Maybe if you hate physics.