The Three-Body Problem

I'm not thoroughly familiar with science fiction as a genre, but I'd imagine this is pretty quintessential hard science fiction. That means that quite a lot of text throughout the novel is devoted to explaining the scientific realities behind the events of the narrative. For example, entire chapters are devoted more or less to detailing the physical minutiae of how messages might be transmitted between Earth and alien civilizations.

In the case of this novel, hard science fiction also means substantially less attention is given to the development of characters and the drama between them. Indeed, I found the book somewhat reminiscent of my experience with Isaac Asimov, where all the important characters are STEM academics and the only interesting thing they could imagine talking about is science in one form or another. So don't expect a very compelling drama from this novel or particularly deep or complex characters. With maybe one exception (the character Ye Wenjie) the stakes of this narrative are all practical, not emotional or relational.

But there is (in my mind) a very clever plot in here. The author does a great job of leveraging a variety of concepts and technologies from various STEM disciplines as plot points and narrative developments, both breakthroughs and setbacks for the protagonists. There's also a fascinating layer of 20th century Chinese history that overlays and informs the narrative. But this is neither a thriller nor a romance, so don't expect some pulse-pounding climax at the book's end that will leave you breathless.

I have a degree in a STEM field (computer science) so I may be biased in this assessment, but I thought the book was pretty readable insofar as the science is presented and detailed. But detractors are not wrong to call the writing in general both dry and wooden. I can't tell if it's a authentic reflection of the original author's personal style or perhaps indicative of Chinese prose generally, but in either case this book's writing is far from poetic.

Bottom line, if people are uncertain that they'll be able to get through this book, the only advice I can offer is this: if & when you find yourself struggling to get through a heavy passage detailing scientific minutiae, not only is the novel not going to "get better" from there, but passages such as those are themselves a great part of why this book's fans love it so much. So pull that ripcord early if you find yourself struggling to enjoy yourself; you'll know if this novel is for you pretty quickly. Even those who do enjoy it might be tempted to line up a romance or other drama-rich novel as a chaser.

Empecé con muchas ganas este ganador del Premio Hugo de 2015. Ciencia ficción "hard", de una cultura un tanto exótica para mí como la china, y con aplauso unánime de la crítica, prometía mucho. Y no es que sea una mala lectura ni mucho menos, pero me ha acabado decepcionando bastante.

Se dice que el autor está muy influido por Asimov, Clarke y similares, y la verdad es que sí: la trama contiene muchos elementos que podían haber sido originales en los años 60, pero que desde luego hoy en día no lo son, al menos en Occidente. El personaje principal es bastante plano; los secundarios, que tenían mimbres para ser interesantes, acaban resultando estereotípicos; el hecho de que la novela acabe en un "continuará" (es el primer libro de una trilogía) no ayuda tampoco a la redondez de la trama.

En otros aspectos donde se ven influencias de otros autores, los extraterrestres, lejanos y enigmáticos pero a la vez muy humanos, me recuerdan poderosamente a los de Los Propios Dioses; el juego de realidad virtual no puede menos de sonarnos a Ender... Pero todo ello con menos fuerza que las referencias originales.

Curiosamente, donde me parece que el libro se vuelve más vivo y brillante es en sus regresiones sobre China, la Revolución Cultural y su evolución posterior. Quizás es simplemente por mi desconocimiento sobre el tema, pero los capítulos centrados en ese tema se me hicieron mucho más interesantes.

El libro se lee bien, entretiene y es de lectura ágil, pero esperaba algo más. No sé si continuaré con los otros dos libros de la trilogía, tocará pensarlo.

Three Body Problem follows two main character; one starting from the Culture Revolution era China, another in current day. The story was originally written in Chinese, and there are quite obvious cultural differences, but luckily translator is up to the task and gives a Western reader enough extra information to help us decipher at least most of the references to Chinese history.
For me, the book splits into two parts. For the first two thirds, it's a murder mystery with some elements that you might call even supernatural, some interesting virtual reality scenes and very little in the way of science fiction. The language is a bit blocky at times, the characters are fairly thin, but all in all it's still enjoyable read.
Then we come to the final third of the book. That's where the science fiction kicks in... and that's where the enjoyment ends. When in the first two thirds there's talk about relatively mundane science, here it turns into unbelievable fiction, and the writer seems to know it. There's, for example, a pre-emptive "aha, but we just borrow energy" paragraph in case someone notices the law of conservation of energy doesn't seem to hold. The viewpoint moves from first person to third person to... fourth person?, but no matter who's talking, there's too much description and too little action. The sections of alien civilization are mostly dialogue where the content seems to be aimed for the benefit of the reader, not the parties of the conversation.
And the aliens? They seem pretty human to me. Even though they strive to be emotionless, they are regularly described to have and to talk about emotions (love, terror, ecstacy...). Their culture seems to have similar "Ages" as humans have, but whereas humans move from one age to another at accelerating speed, the aliens' velocity through ages is constant.Describing this difference using Ages draws parallel to two cultures which aren't supposed to be similar. Why would the aliens go through Hunter-Gatherer/Agricultural/Industrial/Atomic/Information age? Why would they recognize them as distinct ages? And why would the speed they go through them be constant, considering achieving tehcnical prowess of one age is mandatory but also makes it easier to achieve the next step faster?
And yes, the unfolding of n dimensions of a proton into 2D (and missing it by one, twice) and then re-folding it back into a proton - and, as a sideshow, meeting another civilization and destroying it - just bends the reality too much. The idea is nice but the execution doesn't work.

All in all, I find this book hard to judge. The first part is promising, but the second part falls flat and does it spectacularly. There's still enough good points to make me mildly interested in the second part of the trilogy, but I can't really say I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for it.