Book Review: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
Review by Thomas Fernandez
First off, do not touch any of the so-called adaptations of The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Go straight to Jail and read this book. It is the first book from a trilogy called Remembrance of Earth's Past. I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts, upon completing that book you’ll immediately want to finish the rest. This book gives you a delicious snapshot of the Cultural Revolution that feels dangerously current, hard sci-fi that keeps everything feeling grounded, a rabbit hole that is the classical-mechanics problem known as the three-body problem, and a gripping plot that genuinely stands beyond casual book club reads.
The book will challenge your empathy and your understanding of science. Then it asks you when the last time was that you thought about cosmic sociology. Without giving away more, here is a quick list of what the first book has to offer, in no order: murder, science, radicals, a woman scorned, nerds, and a major reminder how stupidly tiny humanity is, despite the invention of Crocs, reality tv, and Facebook. Imagine a feeling that combines the overview effect with cosmic horror. That’s the trilogy as a whole.
I have come back to this book and its series once a year for about six years now. I rarely do that with a title, like maybe two other books in total. We own the books as well as the audiobooks that came out before the Netflix dross. If you need any other recommendation from me about this title, it is that it made me curious about other things. I wanted to learn more about the things it brought up. To me, that’s praise enough. But you don’t have to take my word for it.
The Three-Body Problem by