The Three-Body Problem
Nov. 24th, 2022 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu
I spotted this in the shop during my recent visit to the Science Museum; perhaps an additional attraction was that it was the last copy on the shelves, but a few friends have read it and it sounded interesting enough to have found its way onto my to-read list anyway.
The story begins brutally, in the height of the Cultural Revolution, but it sets the scene for the path of Ye Wenjie's life through the 1970s and 1980s to the present day. Meanwhile, nanomaterials researcher Wang Miao is taken by the police and led into a briefing about some sort of intelligence operation. Through a few other characters, their paths cross. An online game turns out to have additional meanings. Conspiracies and destinies loom.
It's difficult to say very much about the story without spoilers. Not being very much in the habit of reading "hard" science fiction, it was interesting to see how much detail was laid, and although there were one or two speculative leaps, for the most part it retains terrestrial plausibility. I did wonder whether the game-playing parts of the story would work for me, but the inclusion of an array of historical figures helped keep my attention while also being amused by the stylisations and anachronisms. I liked the conflicting motivations and imperfections of many of the characters on all sides of the story and although I'm not in a hurry, it would be interesting to see how the series develops.
I spotted this in the shop during my recent visit to the Science Museum; perhaps an additional attraction was that it was the last copy on the shelves, but a few friends have read it and it sounded interesting enough to have found its way onto my to-read list anyway.
The story begins brutally, in the height of the Cultural Revolution, but it sets the scene for the path of Ye Wenjie's life through the 1970s and 1980s to the present day. Meanwhile, nanomaterials researcher Wang Miao is taken by the police and led into a briefing about some sort of intelligence operation. Through a few other characters, their paths cross. An online game turns out to have additional meanings. Conspiracies and destinies loom.
It's difficult to say very much about the story without spoilers. Not being very much in the habit of reading "hard" science fiction, it was interesting to see how much detail was laid, and although there were one or two speculative leaps, for the most part it retains terrestrial plausibility. I did wonder whether the game-playing parts of the story would work for me, but the inclusion of an array of historical figures helped keep my attention while also being amused by the stylisations and anachronisms. I liked the conflicting motivations and imperfections of many of the characters on all sides of the story and although I'm not in a hurry, it would be interesting to see how the series develops.