Pick-a-Shelf discussion
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Three-Body Problem
Mod
Let me know what your thoughts are on how we're going to do this; ie:
1. starting Fri, 2nd Aug?
2. end date? are we looking at days or weeks?
3. schedule or no schedule?*
*we usually have targeted number of chapters/pages per week but I can see myself being carried away by this book lol
My edition has 35 chapters... 7 chapters a day (first day will be longest with just over 100 pages but after that gets shorter & shorter: 60-80 pages) will mean we finish in 5 days
Or we could do 5 chapters a day and finish in 7 days (range: 40-70 pages a day) ;)
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starting Friday - i probably won't start until the evening...i'm thinking potentially days, but part of it will depend on how this read-a-thon goes - if it turns out to be a fast read, i could get it done in the 24 hours.
i think we can set some discussion points up for chat - but then ppl can read at their own pace
Mod
Reading at own pace sounds good :)
Just remember your spoiler html, everyone, when you're posting spoiler-ish comments ;)
No - hopefully in next hour! My plan to read through the night got upended by a horribly long work week (50+ hrs)
Mod
I realize the ebook pages won't be the same as the paper copy. But I assume the 3 sections are roughly the same.
part 1 pp 7-41
part II pp 41-194
part III pp 195-310
I'll plan to read part 1 today/tonight (It's Sat AM in the US now.)
Part II will probably take me several days
Part III maybe two days?
I know both Tien and Dee read a lot faster than I do. And Bea will, too, once she gets the book.
So how about if we say:
by Monday (8/5), we can all talk about Part 1 without spoilers.
For Part II, Fri (8/9), and Part III the following Monday (8/12)?
By all means, make changes if you want. And if someone wants to break the parts down to chapters, that's fine with me, too.
How are ppl doing? Ready to take about part 1?
Mod
I had a long weekend so I've only gone into work today (Tues) & finally read the book this morning on the train. I did manage all of Part I which is only about 40+ pages. Can't say whether I'd like the book or not but I like the intro to this character (Yen Wenjie) even if I'm not sure whether she's still going to be in the rest of the book seeing that this is set 40+ years earlier. And I like how Part I ends: the mystery & I really want to get to that... hopefully in Part II?
No one's said anything over the weekend which could be either you haven't started reading (like me) or you've finished (Dee?!)
I’m about half way through - i’m Hooked - it’s kind of weird in places but I just keep turning pages lol
Mod
I expected weird! The title kinda says to me, 'weird' but good to hear that it's a page-turner!
Wonder if I could be antisocial at lunch today so I can read... lol
What is this loonch? Most days I eat at my desk or in mtgs :(
Mod
awww... I'm having a quiet week... most of my things aren't due til end of month so I'll get busy probably from next week onwards :)
actually, i'm going to walk to the bookshop in search of Proust. Going to read along vol 1 with a couple of friends and if we like it then maybe the rest of the series. I'm a little bit daunted at this thought lol
Mod
My 4 other library books which are due on the 10th are short and expectedly easy reads - Solnit, Bradley, Rhys, and Spark.
Definitely will get to it today. I am glad to hear that it is a page turner also. Looking forward to getting started.
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I'm liking Part II so far (3 chapters), but it hasn't grabbed me as a page-turner yet.
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I'm not well-versed with science terms / concepts so I struggle with that and I mostly skim through those when I read scifi 😅 so it's not particularly a page-turner for me in that regards but it seems to go pretty quickly...
It’s definately a hard on the science sci-fi - I understand premises but have found myself googling
Mod
oooh, noooo... it'll probably confuse me more! lol
i'm almost to the end of part 2 - i thought this was interesting - the wiki for three-body problem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-b...
Mod
i thought this was interesting - the wiki for three-body problem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-b..."
Is it safe to read that if I haven't finished Part II yet?
yes - it just talks about what the three-body problem is and as you read, you may understand more about why its important...i'll admit i'm dorking out - and will probably read ther est of the trilogy
Mod
My brother, who reads science fiction almost exclusively, said the entire trilogy was excellent.
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This does help along with with all the weirdness, I guess... 🤔
here's the wiki about the China Cultural Revolution which is the background:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultura...
i finished up part II last night - i'm enjoying it (actually stopped by the library last night to get books 2 and 3 in the series)...
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I've already got books 2 & 3 from the library before I got book 1... for some reason, they were readily available whilst multiple copies for book 1 are ALL out with numerous reserves!
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The cultural revolution was real - the author was a child during it so probably significant influence
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The mathematical history (non-Chinese) that I know appears to be represented accurately. So I presume the other is, too, and we in the West just don't know about it.
I'm not quite finished with Part II, but will finish it this afternoon. I was really caught off-guard by the humor in some of the game chapters. And I'm looking forward to being able to discuss some of the characters.
Not sure I'm enough of a fan yet to go on to the 2nd and 3rd books right away, but I probably will at some point.
i've discovered (and i have a BA in history) - that asian history is rarely taught in colleges unless you are enrolled in a specific focus area and more likely blended with like an asian studies degree
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For one thing, I didn't like the long expositions of the science underlying everything. When it comes out during dialogue among characters, I'm ok. But I don't enjoy pages of lecture.
On the other hand, the level of humor, especially during the game episodes, surprised me. I loved the idea of the duel over who supposedly discovered/invented calculus. And the 3-million-person "computer": obviously, it wouldn't really work that way, but I thought the description of it was hilarious.
I was disappointed that the promise of the first section, to explore the limits of science, seems to have been forgotten in the second section as we gradually learn about Trisolaris.
And I'm still very confused about where the plot is going, and what the point of it all is. Early on, I thought Wang and Ye were interesting. But by now, I'm a bit tired of them. Wang in particular seems to be there just to facilitate having the story play out for us.
I'll be really interested to hear what all of you think about it, especially Dee, since you've said you're enjoying it.
I think the explanations of science are just very common in science fiction books because there is a base need to understand in order to understand parts of the story (the Martian was very similar but they blended his science descriptions into the different experiments that he did)I can’t fully give my thoughts on Wang because i’ve Moved onto part iii already
I think there will be a merging of the limits of science and trisolaris either in part iii or the next books (the description on the backcover of Book two Talks of it)
Mod
True. But I read a lot of science fiction. Not all quite as "hard" as this one, but I don't stick to only "soft" stuff, either. And I can't remember when I've ever been quite as bored by the scientific explanations.
Mod
That makes sense.
I wonder if that is because of the translation?
Mod
You're right. Could be.
Or maybe his. Writing style just isn’t for you
I finished today - so let me know when you guys are ready to talk part iii
Mod
oops... no reading done over the weekend, soz... I had my irl bookclub over on Sat so that's whole day gone! I read a bit of Part III this morning. I hope to finish either tonight or tomorrow morning.
Pick-a-Shelf
Books mentioned in this topic
Death's End (other topics)The Dark Forest (other topics)
The Three-Body Problem (other topics)
The Three-Body Problem (other topics)
The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience this multiple award winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.
"Fans of hard SF will revel in this intricate and imaginative novel by one of China’s most celebrated genre writers. In 1967, physics professor Ye Zhetai is killed after he refuses to denounce the theory of relativity. His daughter, Ye Wenjie, witnesses his gruesome death.
"Shortly after, she’s falsely charged with sedition for promoting the works of environmentalist Rachel Carson, and told she can avoid punishment by working at a defense research facility involved with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. More than 40 years later, Ye’s work becomes linked to a string of physicist suicides and a complex role-playing game involving the classic physics problem of the title.