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The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Book 1 Only) - Kindle Edition $2.00, Audible Narration + $2.99 @ Amazon AU

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Kindle edition (ebook) at $2.00 (through 1-Click) and additional $2.99 with Audible narration

Close to the previous deal at $1.89 just over a year ago

Unfortunately, book 2 and book 3 are at $8.79 each

"1967: Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China's Cultural Revolution. This singular event will shape not only the rest of her life but also the future of mankind.

Four decades later, Beijing police ask nanotech engineer Wang Miao to infiltrate a secretive cabal of scientists after a spate of inexplicable suicides. Wang's investigation will lead him to a mysterious online game and immerse him in a virtual world ruled by the intractable and unpredictable interaction of its three suns.

This is the Three-Body Problem and it is the key to everything: the key to the scientists' deaths, the key to a conspiracy that spans light-years and the key to the extinction-level threat humanity now faces"

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  • +25

    I dont use Audible but this is the best hard SciFi book I've come across in recent years

    • +2

      Completely agree. Most of the characters were meh but the story and the concepts were excellent - one of the best things I’ve read in a long time.

  • +25

    I read this trilogy this year and was blown away by it. Cixin Liu comes up with some truly mind-bending sci-fi concepts and I love it.
    Highly recommend this hard sci-fi series!

    Also, I think I paid $2 for the first book and then borrowed the next 2 eBooks from the Brisbane Library using Overdrive :D

    • +3

      Cixin Liu comes up with some truly mind-bending sci-fi concepts and I love it.

      I'll look into this, thanks…

      Haven't come across good sci-fi for a long time…

      • +2

        Yup, it's difficult to find hard sci-fi, mainly because the "SF" section of bookstores is mostly filled with "sword and sorcery" type books.

        Anyone know a bookseller that has a proper Sci-Fi section?

      • +2

        Expanse series?

        • +1

          Was about to suggest the same. The Expanse (both the books and the TV show) is fantastic.

      • +1

        Accelerando by Charlie Stross has been the best Sci Fi I've read in years. It's even free to download if you have an eReader.
        http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera…

        Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie is also excellent, the sequels lose a bit of magic but well worth it.

        Seveneves by Stephenson was decent.

        Not liking 3 Body Problem on Audible format thus far… (~2 hrs in), narrator just doesn't quite pull me in. Sounds a lot like Ben Wishaw haha.

        Nonetheless I'll stick with it as the premise seems cool, and it's a nice change to go east rather than west.

        • +2

          Three body is excellent, but it takes a while to warm up and reveal all its hooks. The subsequent books are also good, although it starts to lose the "hard" sci fi part. One character in particular infuriates me in the second book.

          Honestly i felt the ancillary series to be horrifically boring and dull (audiobook). Just because the main character is an ai doesn't mean it has to be read like a robot. It kept moving to plot points i wasn't interested in.

          I'll check out the others you mentioned.

        • +1

          I listened to audiobook as well. It was difficult to keep track of the chinese characters in the beginning.But it got better. Just stick with it. you will start liking it. Books 2 and 3 are better than the 1st book. Even narration is better.

  • +1

    Any Japanese version?

  • +10

    It's a Hugo award winner.
    I'm on the third book 'Death's End' and I'm loving it.
    Apparently Amazon were going to spend $1B to purchase the rights to create a TV series based on this trilogy but Netflix beat them to it.
    There's some controversy surrounding the TV series.

    • +3

      TV series will be well presented.
      A movie released in 2019 was based on another of Liu's early short work The Wandering Earth, some major change in the end of story, but still a good one.

    • There's some controversy

      Ooooo….

      I'd be just and interested (if not more) to see a murder mystery series about the making of this SF trilogy…

  • +4

    Can vouch that the concepts within the triolgy are amazing.

    However, the characters are bland/2D and the sub-plots are pointless. I would argue with shaky memory that the entire first book is pointless in terms of the amazing concepts that come out in books 2 & 3.

    • +2

      I think a lot of the cultural Revolution stuff was lost in translation, especially if you're unaware of his upbringing and Chinese history in general

      • Oh I am familiar, but the brilliance of the series isn't its portrayal of the Red Revolution, but the exploration of the SciFi ideas e.g. Dark Forest. Maybe there is a lost in translation but the subplots were pretty horrible e.g. (spoiler) the protagonist in book two moping at home thinking of his dream girl.

        • +1

          Those long winded parts were definitely not so enjoyable. I think they were multi layered metaphors but I'm not sure what the author meant. Book 3 did an excellent job of tying concepts together and not screwing around so much with sub plots

  • Does it have a solution?

    • +1

      Yes, in book 3

      • +6

        Well a "solution" is a mild way to put it.

  • One of the must read in my list

  • +3

    I thought this was erotica ☹️

    • +5

      That's a different book, "The Third Leg Problem"

  • +2

    Be sure to check out the little known fourth installment "The Redemption of Time".

    It was amazing to revisit the three body world and it ties up all the loose ends and takes the story to the next level. Written by a fan with Cixin Liu's blessing. It is my favourite of all the books and the one I keep rereading: https://www.amazon.com.au/Redemption-Time-Baoshu/dp/12503060…

    • Do you find out who chose the Wallfacers?

      • +1

        I can't remember if they specified 'who' but they dive into 'how' and what circumstances were created for them to be selected. They may have talked about 'who' but it wasn't important.

        You also find out a bunch more about the Trisolarans including what they look like, as well as other races and the true scale and function of the universe.

        • Thanks. Definitely going on my reading list.

    • Looks to be another this version "Remembrance Earths Past" which is the trilogy in 1 book:

      https://www.amazon.com.au/Remembrance-Earths-Past-Three-Body…

    • Not in the same league as the trilogy but not bad either.

  • +1

    I read the Chinese version like 6 years ago and it’s still one of my favorite.

  • +2

    Every now and then I think about the droplet.

    • Droplet go zoom zoom

  • I have read the first 2 books, excellent read. I am going to start Book 3 shortly.

  • +2

    Natural Selection, Ahead Four!

  • Oof.

    According to a June 2019 interview and profile article by The New Yorker, Liu avoids talking about politics. In the same article, Liu argued that democracy was not appropriate for modern China, and individual liberty and freedom of governance is "not what Chinese people care about", adding "If you were to loosen up the country a bit, the consequences would be terrifying." He expressed support for policies such as the one-child policy and the Xinjiang re-education camps, saying "the government is helping their economy and trying to lift them out of poverty". The article reported that Liu had "become wary of touting the geopolitical underpinnings of his work"

    • I imagine that if he said anything different he'd be shut down pretty quickly.

      • apparently it is inconceivable that someone could support the Chinese government without being forced to at gun point.

        • +2

          I'm not saying that. From what I've heard, anyone successful who questions the actions of the Chinese government is censored and removed from the Internet. This would be very bad for a publishing author.

          • +1

            @donm: He could end up with his own body in 3 problem

          • @donm: Dude. Where have you been for last 2 years, it's not just the Chinese dept. of the 'government' that acts like that.

    • +8

      Did you read the books? They're extremely critical of humans and all of our government systems. A lot of parallels can be drawn. It's highly critical of the cultural Revolution and the ccps role in it

      • apparently anyone who is creative must be anti-chinese govt. They are da devil!

    • Definitely not.

    • -1

      Actually, you will find yourself in this book.

  • +3

    I found the book too contrived. The dialogue was like kids talking to one another and the rest was just written like a kid. My opinion.
    Full disclosure, I didn't finish the first book.

  • If you really like the series, also read "the redemption of time" by bao shu. It's the unofficial book 4 of this trilogy.

  • +3

    I personally found this novel very hard to get into and I love hard SciFi.

    The writing style (translated) is stilted and uncomfortable to read. The characters are bland and clichéd. The whole game/real world of Trisolaris was too unbelievable to connect with. The story trundles along at agonisingly slow pace for no reason. Really the only plot piece I found interesting was the beginning Ye Wenjie storyline.

    Real world reviews seem to follow similar lines. There are those who love it and those who found it ponderously boring and uneventful. Not much in between.

    I have the next 2 books in the original trilogy and I have no interest in reading them due to the how I found the 1st.

    • +1

      Well put.

    • +1

      if you finished the first book and didn't like it then you probably won't enjoy 2 and 3. the first half of both books 1 and 2 are extremely slow. the second halves make up for it imo

      • Cool. I started the 2nd book but lost interest. Might trudge through it to get tot he 2nd half. :)

    • +1

      I think the game would be extremely boring, even for someone who is into role playing games.

  • +1

    It is probably just me, but I wasn't blown away by it.Perhaps it had been built up too much or perhaps people were giving bonus points to the book because the author was Chinese and it is rare to see books crossing over from there into the western mainstream. In saying that, it is definitely worth a read, but don't be surprised if you are not gushing with awe and praise at the end.

  • This is hard Scifi, not sure I have read anything more involved. Not for the faint hearted.

    I also read Ball Lightning which is in the same universe but not a direct prequel.

    The first few chapters of the first book are a bit of a slog if I remember correctly but it's an epic story.

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