Before reading this book I watched the Netflix series…then I listened to the novel on audio books, before purchasing the hard copy. So much can be said about this book, and having won so many awards, it’s difficult to find an angle that hasn’t already been addressed. Clearly I am a fan. Liu understands all of the science he writes about and turns it into fiction in a very credible way. He is the Carl Sagan of our times. And he expands beyond the adroit Sagan’s astronomy and cosmology to take us into all of the technology necessary to achieve all of the truly fanciful stories he creates about how we are going to make first contact with an Alien species. Then, only to find out, the worst possible scenario. Damn, the universe isn’t a big beautiful benevolent place, rather, it’s just like the jungle. Survival of the fittest is the prime directive. Not something more altruistic such as, first do no harm, as the Hippocratic Oath might be applied to the discovery of alien worlds. No, in the jungle, hunt, or be hunted. In this book, a naive radio astronomer makes first contact with the Alien world, the “Tri-solarians”, and for the survival of their species, they tell us they are coming to Earth, to kill all earthlings, and take over the place. The catch…which makes the science particularly credible, to get to earth it will take 400 years of space travel. Plenty of time, if you are on earth, to have any number of reactions. Running the gamut from, “Who cares?”, “Aw Shit, we are Fucked”, to being a sympathizer on their side if you already hate humans, to going high order in a way necessary to defeat the bastards before they get to our planet.
He is creative in ways that are refreshing, such as his correct use of actual science, computer gaming, computer technology, radio astronomy, and space control, and at least speculatively correct in ways science could be used for the more advanced magic that is necessary for some of his futuristic aliens to prepare their way on as they journey here. For instance, wanting to freeze our technology at its current level, lest we invent ways to defeat them in the next four hundred years…aka, being more advanced than they are upon their arrival. And the use of quantum entanglement to communicate over the great distances.
One of my favorite parts of this book, and the NetFlix series, was for the Tri-solarians to create a computer using 30 Million physical objects as binary gates, thus creating the largest computer in the history of the universe. The book describes this quite well. The TV series illustrates how it might work in CGI.
An additional insight one cannot refuse to acknowledge is the fact that Liu wrote this book in his native language of Chinese and it was translated to English by his brother. How well this book holds up in English is either a testament to the translation or simply the compelling nature of Liu’s story. I think both were necessary to achieve such acclaim for this story.
This book is a must read for any science fiction fan. As I have already completed the trilogy…which includes the second novel, “The Dark Forest”, and “Death’s End”, I can tell you that this is by far the best of the three that scratch science fiction writing. I’ll address the others if independent book reviews. Five stars, if I was still on Amazon, for “Three Body Problem”.
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