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The Three-Body Problem
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TTBP: January 2017 Book Pick: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
Yay! This has been on my to read list for some time. Very excited to finally read this one.
I look forward to the discussion of this, and an happy that this month's book is one I've already read, so that I have time to read babylon's ashes. :D
I'm looking forward to reading this!
I look forward to people complaining that the Cultural Revolution scenes are ridiculous and over the top and could never have happened.
Excellent. This has been on my list for some time and is already in my Kindle library. If I can just get one of my other current reads out of the way first, I'll be all set.
Talking to my friends about it, seems you either love it or hate it. I'll be joining the group to find out!
Sweet! I dug it. I look forward to seeing what others think about it. And it gives me time to catch up on other reading that has been waylaid by life.
Mod
I'm very excited to hear the discussion of this. I read all three of the books in this series in 2016, and it was one of the most unique reading experiences I've ever had. I gave this book to all my friends for Christmas, and now with it being a S&L pick, I think I'll be talking about it a lot in the next couple of months!
I am curious on people's thoughts on why this deserved the Hugo (or not).
Count me in as someone who is looking forward to this, too. Seveneves in 2016, now TBP in 2017. Is January becoming Hard SF month?
Silvana, maybe start a separate thread with that topic? I'm curious as to your thoughts on it. As for me, I have to jog my memory of specifics.
I've had this on my shopping list for months and now is the perfect time to pick it up.
I read this a while back and, while I found it dark in places and wierd in others, I really enjoyed it and the sequel. Very thought provoking. I was planning to read book 3 in January but may now reread this with the group first.
Great way to start being part of this book club. I've been listening to the podcast for a while and now I decided to also take part of the reading group.
Excuse my honesty, but I read this book earlier in the year and it made my general opinion of the Hugo sink lower. I no longer think "Oh, that won the Hugo, it must be a good read".This was one of those books I wanted to Lem, but felt obliged to complete so I could say "Yep, I read it all, and I still hated it".
Maybe in its original language it was good (but I doubt it). Some of the translated characterisations were so clumsy as to be laughable. (I'm looking at you "Big Shi").
I can honestly say I have nothing positive to say about this book at all. I hated it. I loathed it from beginning to end.
I'll say no more about why I hold this view until people are more into it, but I am interested to hear if others felt the same.
@terpkristin: Good idea on a separate thread later on why it won the Hugo...Though I have four group reads for January so I won't reread this one.
@fezfox: I gave it two stars (read it before the Hugo) but I can understand your points. Let's discuss more in the Hugo thread :D
I also was not a big fan of this story, but enjoyed it enough to finish it without question. I am excited to see what others think as part of this book club pick.
It took me a very long time to get into this book (read: 3/4 of the way through the book), but it was very unique and unusual in its presentation. I disagree about the translation-- while in some places, it was a bit odd, in most others, the writing style was more beautiful than many other sci-fi novels I've read.
I read this a few months ago and I remember wanting to read it again. Nice to have a reason.
Nice, this has been on my TBR list. Let's do this!
Also looking forward to finally reading this. Anyone who's read it who has opinions on the audiobook?
Oooh! I've been really curious about this one. I've had a free eBook edition languishing on my tablet for quite a while now, and this will give me the perfect excuse to finally give it a shot.
I picked up this book a few months ago as Tom had mentioned it on the podcast and I was intrigued by what a Chinese take on sci-fi would be. Time to dive in methinks :-)
Mod
I'm a fan of Luke Daniels as narrator, but I didn't feel him a great fit for the book. I don't think audio is a bad option, but it's not a must listen either.
They changed narrators for the second book too. The new one wasn't as good.
So if you like consistency, that's another thing to consider.
When I first heard about this book awhile ago I was very excited to read a sci-fi book written for a different culture. I really loved it and while there are issues I think it has more to do with it being written for another culture and imagine that books written for an English audience have the same types of issues when translated. It made me think about that as well as the story was very interesting.I did listen to the first two audio books and like the first one much better. Still excited to get to the third one.
Cool! I haven't participated in a while because I have so many books on my TBR list, but I recently read this one so I can participate in the discussion!
Rob wrote: "Tobias wrote: "Also looking forward to finally reading this. Anyone who's read it who has opinions on the audiobook?"I'm a fan of Luke Daniels as narrator, but I didn't feel him a great fit for t..."
IIRC the translator is also different for the second book, so consistency is just not something we will have in the English language version.
Mod
Rob wrote: "Yeah. That's true as well. Ken Liu did this one and book 3, but the second has another translator."I asked about why they had a different translator on Tor.com, and Ken Liu replied saying, "The schedule is so compressed that it was decided best to use multiple translators to work in parallel. I’ll be doing the third book in the series."
I don't know how many people listen to the book vs read a physical copy, but the ebook version has quite a lot of translator's notes. Some of them provide notes on important historical figures westerners wouldn't know. However, others are pretty clear from the context of the story. I wonder if there was a feeling that more footnotes made the book feel more academic and suited the atmosphere?
Mod
Pretty much all audio books are unabridged though. Footnotes are normally read whenever they are referenced in the book.
I'm listining to it right mow, and if there are footnotes, I'm not catching the distinction from the actual story. Now that being said, there are parts that feel much more academic then others, but I just thought that was a style thing, since often they are fictional as well. To be honest, I'm not loving the narration. He uses Americanized cliche voices for several of the Chinese characters. And that turns a bit confusing when you have actual American characters show up. I've had a few long drives, and I didn't hate the narration enough to stop listening all together, but I wish they had gone a different way with the voice direction on this.
Mod
I am on the third book and having a hard time with it. I remember The Three-Body Problem because of one character, forgot everything about The Dark Forest and am completely lost and bored. Might be because the last 4 books I have read were great and this is a tad on the dense side and my unhappy brain wants none of that.
Brendan wrote: "I don't know how many people listen to the book vs read a physical copy, but the ebook version has quite a lot of translator's notes. Some of them provide notes on important historical figures west..."There are footnotes in the audible version, but they are not mentioned as footnotes. So you would not notice unless you had whispersync for voice going as you had the ebook reading. So the insertion of the footnote may seem jarring in flow of the narrative whereas if you are reading you can choose to read the footnote or not.
And the footnotes are not always used either. It seems only the historic footnotes are incorporated in the narrative.
Mod
The footnotes are handy for the references we in the west wouldn't get.
Though I wish Kindle would handle them better.
Why go to another page? It should just have a pop-up with the footnote. Kindle already has pop-ups for the dictionary, wikipedia and translation for when words are highlighted. So it is a function already built in.
Tassie Dave wrote: "I'm loving it so far 30% in.The footnotes are handy for the references we in the west wouldn't get.
Though I wish Kindle would handle them better.
Why go to another page? It should just have a p..."
Couldn't agree more that about the footnotes, both how they're handy and how they could be handled better by Kindle.
I read this not too long ago. Does anyone else feel like it ruined them for sci-fi? What could compare?
I was hot and cold on this one. I loved some parts of it and then I couldn't get into other parts at all. Overall some very fascinating ideas, but I'm not sure they were always executed in the best manner.
Ooo finally a book I already had! xD lets hope I can join in ^_^
I did like the fact that it was not written with the US as the hero country and that is gave a view into the world of the cultural revolution.I was underwhelmed by the stroy. It seems to be a 'young adult' type book and left me wondering why the writer did not look beyond a narritive that just touched on the surface.
So bummed right now. Got this book off the shelf at my library and was carrying it around when I started sneezing. The bottom half of the book was covered in mold. My wonderful library has ordered a new copy, but now I have to wait.
Eva wrote: "I read this not too long ago. Does anyone else feel like it ruined them for sci-fi? What could compare?"The gaming part of it might compare with Ender's Game? TBP is perhaps more grounded in history than EG, but both have a theme of disappointment with humanity and attacks by aliens. The three-body problem part of it seems unique to me.
Mod
I was thinking it was like "Ready Player One"
Except for Physics nerds instead of 80's Pop Culture Nerds.
Tassie Dave wrote: "I'm loving it so far 30% in.The footnotes are handy for the references we in the west wouldn't get.
Though I wish Kindle would handle them better.
Why go to another page? It should just have a p..."
Probably to keep it universal? The EPUB also has you go to another page. Otherwise they'd have to have a MOBI version and a different EPUB version.
Bruce wrote: "Eva wrote: "I read this not too long ago. Does anyone else feel like it ruined them for sci-fi? What could compare?"The gaming part of it might compare with Ender's Game? TBP is perhaps more grou..."
Also somewhat reminded me of The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer The Young Lady's Primer was closer to the 3BP game than Ender's Game.
I read this when it was up for the Hugo a couple of years ago. I liked it; in some ways, the most alien parts were the opening scenes set during the Cultural Revolution.
The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
Cryptonomicon (other topics)The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (other topics)
The Three-Body Problem (other topics)
The Dark Forest (other topics)
The Three-Body Problem (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Connie Willis (other topics)Luke Daniels (other topics)
Ken Liu (other topics)
Ken Liu (other topics)
Liu Cixin (other topics)
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin will be the Book pick for January 2017.
This won the 2015 Hugo Award and was translated into english by Ken Liu.
Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.