5 ms·

Liu Cixin, China’s hottest science-fiction writer

140 points by bootload 11y ago

Gys 11y ago
One interesting thought: "... there are many civilizations in the universe, they all want to survive, and there is only so much space out there. Follow the logic through, and it’s clear that every civilization must regard every other civilization as an existential threat, leaving attack on sight as the only safe strategy. All that keeps technologically inferior civilizations safe is the ignorance of others about their existence." "And here is humanity firing messages into space, building bonfires and standing beside them screaming, “Here I am! Here I am!”
- nsns 11y ago
  "...and there is only so much space out there" How so?
  - T-A 11y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_an_expanding_universe#Coalescence_of_Local_Group_and_galaxies_outside_the_Local_Group_are_no_longer_accessible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_an_expanding_univers...
- a_bonobo 11y ago
  I like the perspective of Stanislaw Lem on this, especially in His Master's Voice - there may be others shouting out there, but we have not the ability to understand their shouts, we may even have problems understanding that a shout is a shout and not just random noise. Later pretentious edit: To quote Wittgenstein, "If a lion could speak, we could not understand him."
  - thret 11y ago
    I disagree with this view. If a species is intelligent enough to shout and desires to be heard, not sounding like random noise is the first criteria they will address.
    - radicalbyte 11y ago
      We couldn't even understand the language of one of the great empires (Egypt) until we found a rock containing translations into other known languages.
      - cmsj 11y ago
        But we could distinguish it as a language from the background noise of the sand/Rock. Finding a message would be hugely significant, even if we're too dumb to decode it.
        a_bonobo 11y ago
        >Finding a message would be hugely significant, even if we're too dumb to decode it. That is actually what the majority of my above mentioned His Master's Voice is about - is this relatively regularly appearing signal a message? Or is it just regularly looking noise from some physical object we haven't discovered yet?
        fit2rule 11y ago
        All the white noise of the sun could indeed just be part of the galactic network, of which we have not yet discovered the keys .. so it may look like white-noise until we find the key. I'm happier with that position than that, so far, we just don't know the message because there has not been a 'good one we can understand easily', i.e. ufo on the whitehouse lawn ..
        adrianN 11y ago
        If that regular noise produces prime numbers, it is very unlikely to be natural. Species that have the ability to send signals into space also have the ability to show their intelligence. Whether actual communication is possible is a different question.
- adnzzzzZ 11y ago
  This assumes every other civilization thinks like humanity does. While there may be many that do, there may be many that don't. And it seems that humanity's progress points towards a direction where people are much more peaceful than they are now, simply because the resource allocation problem might be solved with technology. And it also makes sense to assume that civilizations that don't move towards more peaceful existences would end up killing themselves given that technological progress usually gives individuals more power to be destructive. So another interesting thought is that if there are civilizations out there who are more advanced than us, it's likely that they are by default peaceful and not aggressive, because if they were aggressive they would have stopped existing due to escalating internal conflicts aided by advanced technology.
  - louithethrid 11y ago
    The one whoe gets c on the rocks and those into your blocks, wins this argument. A strange game where not to participate, is not a option, but a embraced necessity. One can imagine a conquering civilisation though, that has peace enforced on the inside.
  - abrookewood 11y ago
    Agreed. It also ignores the practical issue of actually getting to another planet in order to conquer it.
    - est 11y ago
      This is the exact plot of Liu CiXin's fiction. Suppose you wanna conquer a civilization 1M lightyears away, but by the time you get there, the technology of the civilization will out grow yours. What's your strategy?
  - V-2 11y ago
    @adnzzzzZ obviously we have no way of knowing, but for argument's sake, I believe for every assumption you make there's an equally compelling rebuttal. "This assumes every other civilization thinks like humanity does" Survival of the fittest is a fact of life, and whatever mindset one has about it may be irrelevant. As game theory proves, the majority, or even all players may dislike the game, but they have to play it all the same. "the resource allocation problem might be solved with technology" Perhaps there are resource allocation problems that can't, eg. the scarcity of habitable planets. "it's likely that they are by default peaceful and not aggressive, because if they were aggressive they would have stopped existing due to escalating internal conflicts aided by advanced technology" Or it could be a bell curve with a self-destructing "war of all against all" on one side, "peaceful but defenseless monks" on another, and the middle-of-the-road compromise of "disciplined legions where backstabbing is forbidden" being best fitted for survival, preying on less efficient civilizations from both ends of the spectrum alike.
- benihana 11y ago
  https://xkcd.com/1377/ https://xkcd.com/1377/
- elorant 11y ago
  If a scenario like that was true we shouldn’t be here in the first place. Assuming that there is an advanced civilization out there in a killing spree all they’d have to do is launch a legion of probes in the outskirts of the galaxy and once they find sentient life unleash a biological weapon and eradicate it once and for all. They don’t have to find us by listening to radio waves. They could just look for planets that could support life, same as we do with our Kepler mission. Only they could have spotted Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago, so no chance for humanity to evolve in our current state at all.
  - yclept 11y ago
    Maybe they spotted earth millions of years ago and wiped out the dominant dinosaur population mammals being unaffected? :]
  - V-2 11y ago
    Unless Earth life as we know it (unicellars, dinosaurs, humans - everything) WAS this biological weapon that eradicated whatever else would normally have evolved here ; )
- chuckup 11y ago
  > every civilization must regard every other civilization as an existential threat I've wondered about this! If "the singularity" is something that really can happen, then perhaps it IS wise to fear any civilization that has developed basic computing, as it could quickly spawn an incredibly advanced, immortal being in a very short amount of time. And if it can happen, then I'm sure at some point in history, an AI did take hold somewhere. Realizing how dangerous this whole singularity thing can be, it sought out the destruction of any biological life that could someday create their own singularity. I've wondered if the Fermi paradox is simply that a few AI's developed long ago, and decided not to take any chances.
- wging 11y ago
  I like Peter Watts on this. WARNING--this will be a spoiler of sorts for Blindsight. So... go read it. It's online for free, as is a fair amount of his back catalog, and it is a CLASSIC of harder-than-hard SF. http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm > Imagine that you encounter a signal. It is structured, and dense with information. It meets all the criteria of an intelligent transmission. Evolution and experience offer a variety of paths to follow, branch-points in the flowcharts that handle such input. Sometimes these signals come from conspecifics who have useful information to share, whose lives you'll defend according to the rules of kin selection. Sometimes they come from competitors or predators or other inimical entities that must be avoided or destroyed; in those cases, the information may prove of significant tactical value. Some signals may even arise from entities which, while not kin, can still serve as allies or symbionts in mutually beneficial pursuits. You can derive appropriate responses for any of these eventualities, and many others. > You decode the signals, and stumble: > I had a great time. I really enjoyed him. > Even if he cost twice as much as any other hooker in the dome— > To fully appreciate Kesey's Quartet— > They hate us for our freedom— > Pay attention, now— > Understand. > There are no meaningful translations for these terms. They are needlessly recursive. They contain no usable intelligence, yet they are structured intelligently; there is no chance they could have arisen by chance. > The only explanation is that something has coded nonsense in a way that poses as a useful message; only after wasting time and effort does the deception becomes apparent. The signal functions to consume the resources of a recipient for zero payoff and reduced fitness. The signal is a virus. > Viruses do not arise from kin, symbionts, or other allies. > The signal is an attack. > And it's coming from right about there.
  - hackuser 11y ago
    >> The only explanation is that something has coded nonsense in a way that poses as a useful message; only after wasting time and effort does the deception becomes apparent. The signal functions to consume the resources of a recipient for zero payoff and reduced fitness. The signal is a virus. Hmmm ... this makes me think of how much time I spend reading information on the Internet, reducing my fitness with little payoff. A virus indeed.
- wangii 11y ago
  It's exactly what the 2nd instalment about: a `scientific` definition of good/evil in the scale of universe, and its consequence, the Femi Paradox.
aaron695 11y ago
Warning this review is quite spoloilery on his books. What I found most interesting with the first novel 'The Three-Body Problem' was it to me shows an immature view to science by the Chinese. This is assuming I'm guessing correctly how this book sits with the public and scientific community there. Maybe it's not considered Sci-Fi in China. I'm not saying it's pulp either. An interesting and entertaining read anyway.
- Gys 11y ago
  > it to me shows an immature view to science by the Chinese A daring thought as it is 'just' a fictional novel ? Can you elaborate on how you came to that conclusion ?
- zariskij 11y ago
  This is absurd. How could you judge view to science by just a fiction? Do you consider star wars as a mature view to science?
  - gaius 11y ago
    Star Wars was not vetted by any government officials for its ideological purity before publication, is the difference. Anything that is published in China, by definition is representative of the opinions of the Party.
    - skaevola 11y ago
      Is this statement parody? If not, then you are incredibly ignorant about China.
      - gaius 11y ago
        The latter, I guess. We read stories in the press all the time about authors and "dissidents" being locked up, censorship of the Internet, etc etc. Are you saying none of that is true?
fsloth 11y ago
The description of the plot strongly reminds me of relationship of china with the industrialized nations in the 19th century - huge technology gap and threat of effective colonization from 'alien' barbarians. Is it popular because it's inspired by a historic national trauma or because it's actually good?
- pavlov 11y ago
  The science fiction genre is often so much about ideas that the difference becomes moot. For example, Robert Heinlein's books are hardly "actually good" in any sense understood by conventional literal criticism, but they certainly have made a lasting impression by extrapolating upon some very American political ideas and national archetypes.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- freewizard 11y ago
  every author comes with his/her background, but IMHO the historical root plays a much less significant role in ttbp trilogy than it does in grrm's asoiaf. ttbp is somewhat more close to Cthulhu Mythos in which mankind feels powerless facing alien with unknown purpose and incomprehensible technology.
yc1010 11y ago
"... the Trisolarans, are en route with a giant fleet of warships. It will take them 400 years to reach Earth, leaving our panic-stricken species in a state of fevered war preparation. From afar, the Trisolarans incapacitate our scientific research and monitor our communications. We can’t bridge the gap in technology, and the second we discuss anything, the enemy knows all about it ... " Sounds like the author is tapping into the fear of being invaded by USA? with the NSA listening in on everything? and preparations for an inevitable war having to be made I will pick up this book to read once I can find it on shelves, sounds like good sci-fi albeit its obvious who the "Trisolarans" are meant to be ;)
- rsy96 11y ago
  It was far before the Snowden revelation when the book was completed. And as a Chinese, I don't remember anyone, from whichever political side, expressed fear about invasion from the United States. Unless the US wants to drag the whole world into nuclear winter.
  - yc1010 11y ago
    Its a sci-fi book for gods sake, thats what scifi has always done, explore current events and extrapolated future from the point of view of FICTION AND SCIENCE sheehs whats the fucking point of discussing anything on this site if you are going to downvote opinions/theories you do not agree with.
    - stingraycharles 11y ago
      It's not the opinion or theory we're downvoting, it's the way you present it.
- mhurron 11y ago
  Yep, it's all about the US. Everything, everywhere is all about Americans.
  - yc1010 11y ago
untilHellbanned 11y ago
Washington Post is now a flagrant Amazon marketing machine. I'm calling it now. Facebook buys the NY Times. See you later journalism.
- s_baby 11y ago
  The NYT book list is already a joke.
- toephu2 11y ago
  Not sure what you're talking about, I didn't see a single amazon link in the article. They even link to google books instead.
  - untilHellbanned 11y ago
    Bezos owns the Washington Post. Bezos owns the biggest book seller in the world.
abrookewood 11y ago
This is actually a great book. I read it a few months ago and can't wait for the release of the sequel.
ThePhysicist 11y ago
Warning, spoilers below. I recently finished the first book of the "The Tree Body Problem" series (the second one will be translated to English soon) and I really enjoyed the beginning and middle part of it, which are packed with interesting scientific ideas and an intricate and captivating plot. Towards the end the book tends to become a lot more unrealistic and even a bit "cheesy" though. An example would be the hyper-dimensional computers that the Trisolarians send to Earth to hinder our scientific progress. Still, it is a very good read and packed with fascinating ideas that will make you think. Another example of very good contemporary science fiction is Ramez Naam's "Nexus Arc" series of books, which I actually liked much better than the Three-Body Problem, and which are a bit more plausible and realistic as well.
- desireco42 11y ago
  Thank you for the recommendation, I've seen "Nexus Arc" title but kind of glossed over it.
- timdorr 11y ago
  I might suggest giving the Rho Agenda book trilogy a whirl: http://www.amazon.com/Second-Ship-Rho-Agenda-Book-ebook/dp/B007TBSLG8/ http://www.amazon.com/Second-Ship-Rho-Agenda-Book-ebook/dp/B... The author does a good job of keeping the science plausible and grounded in reality. It certainly does get fantastical, but never to the point of distraction. I never found myself making eye rolls at the book and it's clear the author, Richard Philips, did his research. The story itself is entertaining and it features very short chapters, which makes it easy to find a stopping point very quickly when you need it. There are a lot of intertwined subplots to follow, but never too many as to be overwhelmed. And that also means if one of them is boring (I didn't quite like the reporter's one), then you can sort of gloss over those sections. And the short chapters keep the "pain" of those sections to a minimum at a time. And as a bonus, it's free to rent on Amazon Prime. I'd definitely give it a try.
  - philfrasty 11y ago
    never skip affiliate-link day...
ak1394 11y ago
I don't think this book deserves that much hype. I have mostly read it (hasn't quite finished the last chapter) but really didn't think much about it.
FLUX-YOU 11y ago
>A high-ranking U.S. official thinks that suicide tactics might be effective against the Trisolarans. He visits the leader of al-Qaeda to propose an alliance, but the terrorist boss tells him that his organization has renounced violence and is lost in ennui. al-Qaeda™, Suicide Consultants
wineisfine 11y ago
Or, maybe this planet (Earth) is another planet's hell.
zeroonetwothree 11y ago
I'm pretty sure that if we faced an alien invasion in 400 years we'd spend the first ~350 of those doing absolutely nothing about it. After all, everyone we know will be dead long before that happens, so what's the point? Most people would probably just ignore it.
CountSessine 11y ago
SPOILERS - don't read unless you've read the book: I read the book earlier this year and I loved it. One thing I had been thinking about though was the carbon nanotube wire and the ship. Single-atom-thick wires used as knives have shown up in science-fiction before. In Ringworld, for example, a character is decapitated when they run into a nano-wire strung across a path. In The Three Body Problem, I don't think you could ever 'cut' metal like that with carbon nanotubes - you'd have to overcome the cumulative bonding energies of all of those iron atoms in the ship and I doubt even the ship's engines running at full blast could push hard enough to do that. And that's assuming that a string of nanotubes has the strength to resist all of that tension. Apparently carbon nanotubes can resist about 100000N of tensile force (about a 10000kg weight in earth's gravity), so perhaps it wouldn't break - but I doubt that the metal in the ship would cleave, either. Is there anyone who knows more about chemistry/solid state physics/materials science to comment?
blacksmith_tb 11y ago
I'm surprised they didn't mention his translator, Ken Liu (no relation), who recently published a very entertaining fantasy epic of his own, The Grace of Kings.

140 points by bootload 11y ago

Gys 11y ago

One interesting thought: "... there are many civilizations in the universe, they all want to survive, and there is only so much space out there. Follow the logic through, and it’s clear that every civilization must regard every other civilization as an existential threat, leaving attack on sight as the only safe strategy. All that keeps technologically inferior civilizations safe is the ignorance of others about their existence." "And here is humanity firing messages into space, building bonfires and standing beside them screaming, “Here I am! Here I am!”

nsns 11y ago
"...and there is only so much space out there" How so?
- T-A 11y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_an_expanding_universe#Coalescence_of_Local_Group_and_galaxies_outside_the_Local_Group_are_no_longer_accessible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_an_expanding_univers...
a_bonobo 11y ago
I like the perspective of Stanislaw Lem on this, especially in His Master's Voice - there may be others shouting out there, but we have not the ability to understand their shouts, we may even have problems understanding that a shout is a shout and not just random noise. Later pretentious edit: To quote Wittgenstein, "If a lion could speak, we could not understand him."
- thret 11y ago
  I disagree with this view. If a species is intelligent enough to shout and desires to be heard, not sounding like random noise is the first criteria they will address.
  - radicalbyte 11y ago
    We couldn't even understand the language of one of the great empires (Egypt) until we found a rock containing translations into other known languages.
    - cmsj 11y ago
      But we could distinguish it as a language from the background noise of the sand/Rock. Finding a message would be hugely significant, even if we're too dumb to decode it.
      - a_bonobo 11y ago
        >Finding a message would be hugely significant, even if we're too dumb to decode it. That is actually what the majority of my above mentioned His Master's Voice is about - is this relatively regularly appearing signal a message? Or is it just regularly looking noise from some physical object we haven't discovered yet?
        fit2rule 11y ago
        All the white noise of the sun could indeed just be part of the galactic network, of which we have not yet discovered the keys .. so it may look like white-noise until we find the key. I'm happier with that position than that, so far, we just don't know the message because there has not been a 'good one we can understand easily', i.e. ufo on the whitehouse lawn ..
        adrianN 11y ago
        If that regular noise produces prime numbers, it is very unlikely to be natural. Species that have the ability to send signals into space also have the ability to show their intelligence. Whether actual communication is possible is a different question.
adnzzzzZ 11y ago
This assumes every other civilization thinks like humanity does. While there may be many that do, there may be many that don't. And it seems that humanity's progress points towards a direction where people are much more peaceful than they are now, simply because the resource allocation problem might be solved with technology. And it also makes sense to assume that civilizations that don't move towards more peaceful existences would end up killing themselves given that technological progress usually gives individuals more power to be destructive. So another interesting thought is that if there are civilizations out there who are more advanced than us, it's likely that they are by default peaceful and not aggressive, because if they were aggressive they would have stopped existing due to escalating internal conflicts aided by advanced technology.
- louithethrid 11y ago
  The one whoe gets c on the rocks and those into your blocks, wins this argument. A strange game where not to participate, is not a option, but a embraced necessity. One can imagine a conquering civilisation though, that has peace enforced on the inside.
- abrookewood 11y ago
  Agreed. It also ignores the practical issue of actually getting to another planet in order to conquer it.
  - est 11y ago
    This is the exact plot of Liu CiXin's fiction. Suppose you wanna conquer a civilization 1M lightyears away, but by the time you get there, the technology of the civilization will out grow yours. What's your strategy?
- V-2 11y ago
  @adnzzzzZ obviously we have no way of knowing, but for argument's sake, I believe for every assumption you make there's an equally compelling rebuttal. "This assumes every other civilization thinks like humanity does" Survival of the fittest is a fact of life, and whatever mindset one has about it may be irrelevant. As game theory proves, the majority, or even all players may dislike the game, but they have to play it all the same. "the resource allocation problem might be solved with technology" Perhaps there are resource allocation problems that can't, eg. the scarcity of habitable planets. "it's likely that they are by default peaceful and not aggressive, because if they were aggressive they would have stopped existing due to escalating internal conflicts aided by advanced technology" Or it could be a bell curve with a self-destructing "war of all against all" on one side, "peaceful but defenseless monks" on another, and the middle-of-the-road compromise of "disciplined legions where backstabbing is forbidden" being best fitted for survival, preying on less efficient civilizations from both ends of the spectrum alike.
benihana 11y ago
https://xkcd.com/1377/ https://xkcd.com/1377/
elorant 11y ago
If a scenario like that was true we shouldn’t be here in the first place. Assuming that there is an advanced civilization out there in a killing spree all they’d have to do is launch a legion of probes in the outskirts of the galaxy and once they find sentient life unleash a biological weapon and eradicate it once and for all. They don’t have to find us by listening to radio waves. They could just look for planets that could support life, same as we do with our Kepler mission. Only they could have spotted Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago, so no chance for humanity to evolve in our current state at all.
- yclept 11y ago
  Maybe they spotted earth millions of years ago and wiped out the dominant dinosaur population mammals being unaffected? :]
- V-2 11y ago
  Unless Earth life as we know it (unicellars, dinosaurs, humans - everything) WAS this biological weapon that eradicated whatever else would normally have evolved here ; )
chuckup 11y ago
> every civilization must regard every other civilization as an existential threat I've wondered about this! If "the singularity" is something that really can happen, then perhaps it IS wise to fear any civilization that has developed basic computing, as it could quickly spawn an incredibly advanced, immortal being in a very short amount of time. And if it can happen, then I'm sure at some point in history, an AI did take hold somewhere. Realizing how dangerous this whole singularity thing can be, it sought out the destruction of any biological life that could someday create their own singularity. I've wondered if the Fermi paradox is simply that a few AI's developed long ago, and decided not to take any chances.
wging 11y ago
I like Peter Watts on this. WARNING--this will be a spoiler of sorts for Blindsight. So... go read it. It's online for free, as is a fair amount of his back catalog, and it is a CLASSIC of harder-than-hard SF. http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm > Imagine that you encounter a signal. It is structured, and dense with information. It meets all the criteria of an intelligent transmission. Evolution and experience offer a variety of paths to follow, branch-points in the flowcharts that handle such input. Sometimes these signals come from conspecifics who have useful information to share, whose lives you'll defend according to the rules of kin selection. Sometimes they come from competitors or predators or other inimical entities that must be avoided or destroyed; in those cases, the information may prove of significant tactical value. Some signals may even arise from entities which, while not kin, can still serve as allies or symbionts in mutually beneficial pursuits. You can derive appropriate responses for any of these eventualities, and many others. > You decode the signals, and stumble: > I had a great time. I really enjoyed him. > Even if he cost twice as much as any other hooker in the dome— > To fully appreciate Kesey's Quartet— > They hate us for our freedom— > Pay attention, now— > Understand. > There are no meaningful translations for these terms. They are needlessly recursive. They contain no usable intelligence, yet they are structured intelligently; there is no chance they could have arisen by chance. > The only explanation is that something has coded nonsense in a way that poses as a useful message; only after wasting time and effort does the deception becomes apparent. The signal functions to consume the resources of a recipient for zero payoff and reduced fitness. The signal is a virus. > Viruses do not arise from kin, symbionts, or other allies. > The signal is an attack. > And it's coming from right about there.
- hackuser 11y ago
  >> The only explanation is that something has coded nonsense in a way that poses as a useful message; only after wasting time and effort does the deception becomes apparent. The signal functions to consume the resources of a recipient for zero payoff and reduced fitness. The signal is a virus. Hmmm ... this makes me think of how much time I spend reading information on the Internet, reducing my fitness with little payoff. A virus indeed.
wangii 11y ago
It's exactly what the 2nd instalment about: a `scientific` definition of good/evil in the scale of universe, and its consequence, the Femi Paradox.

aaron695 11y ago

Warning this review is quite spoloilery on his books. What I found most interesting with the first novel 'The Three-Body Problem' was it to me shows an immature view to science by the Chinese. This is assuming I'm guessing correctly how this book sits with the public and scientific community there. Maybe it's not considered Sci-Fi in China. I'm not saying it's pulp either. An interesting and entertaining read anyway.

Gys 11y ago
> it to me shows an immature view to science by the Chinese A daring thought as it is 'just' a fictional novel ? Can you elaborate on how you came to that conclusion ?
zariskij 11y ago
This is absurd. How could you judge view to science by just a fiction? Do you consider star wars as a mature view to science?
- gaius 11y ago
  Star Wars was not vetted by any government officials for its ideological purity before publication, is the difference. Anything that is published in China, by definition is representative of the opinions of the Party.
  - skaevola 11y ago
    Is this statement parody? If not, then you are incredibly ignorant about China.
    - gaius 11y ago
      The latter, I guess. We read stories in the press all the time about authors and "dissidents" being locked up, censorship of the Internet, etc etc. Are you saying none of that is true?

fsloth 11y ago

The description of the plot strongly reminds me of relationship of china with the industrialized nations in the 19th century - huge technology gap and threat of effective colonization from 'alien' barbarians. Is it popular because it's inspired by a historic national trauma or because it's actually good?

pavlov 11y ago
The science fiction genre is often so much about ideas that the difference becomes moot. For example, Robert Heinlein's books are hardly "actually good" in any sense understood by conventional literal criticism, but they certainly have made a lasting impression by extrapolating upon some very American political ideas and national archetypes.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
freewizard 11y ago
every author comes with his/her background, but IMHO the historical root plays a much less significant role in ttbp trilogy than it does in grrm's asoiaf. ttbp is somewhat more close to Cthulhu Mythos in which mankind feels powerless facing alien with unknown purpose and incomprehensible technology.

yc1010 11y ago

"... the Trisolarans, are en route with a giant fleet of warships. It will take them 400 years to reach Earth, leaving our panic-stricken species in a state of fevered war preparation. From afar, the Trisolarans incapacitate our scientific research and monitor our communications. We can’t bridge the gap in technology, and the second we discuss anything, the enemy knows all about it ... " Sounds like the author is tapping into the fear of being invaded by USA? with the NSA listening in on everything? and preparations for an inevitable war having to be made I will pick up this book to read once I can find it on shelves, sounds like good sci-fi albeit its obvious who the "Trisolarans" are meant to be ;)

rsy96 11y ago
It was far before the Snowden revelation when the book was completed. And as a Chinese, I don't remember anyone, from whichever political side, expressed fear about invasion from the United States. Unless the US wants to drag the whole world into nuclear winter.
- yc1010 11y ago
  Its a sci-fi book for gods sake, thats what scifi has always done, explore current events and extrapolated future from the point of view of FICTION AND SCIENCE sheehs whats the fucking point of discussing anything on this site if you are going to downvote opinions/theories you do not agree with.
  - stingraycharles 11y ago
    It's not the opinion or theory we're downvoting, it's the way you present it.
mhurron 11y ago
Yep, it's all about the US. Everything, everywhere is all about Americans.
- yc1010 11y ago

untilHellbanned 11y ago

Washington Post is now a flagrant Amazon marketing machine. I'm calling it now. Facebook buys the NY Times. See you later journalism.

s_baby 11y ago
The NYT book list is already a joke.
toephu2 11y ago
Not sure what you're talking about, I didn't see a single amazon link in the article. They even link to google books instead.
- untilHellbanned 11y ago
  Bezos owns the Washington Post. Bezos owns the biggest book seller in the world.

abrookewood 11y ago

This is actually a great book. I read it a few months ago and can't wait for the release of the sequel.

ThePhysicist 11y ago

Warning, spoilers below. I recently finished the first book of the "The Tree Body Problem" series (the second one will be translated to English soon) and I really enjoyed the beginning and middle part of it, which are packed with interesting scientific ideas and an intricate and captivating plot. Towards the end the book tends to become a lot more unrealistic and even a bit "cheesy" though. An example would be the hyper-dimensional computers that the Trisolarians send to Earth to hinder our scientific progress. Still, it is a very good read and packed with fascinating ideas that will make you think. Another example of very good contemporary science fiction is Ramez Naam's "Nexus Arc" series of books, which I actually liked much better than the Three-Body Problem, and which are a bit more plausible and realistic as well.

desireco42 11y ago
Thank you for the recommendation, I've seen "Nexus Arc" title but kind of glossed over it.
timdorr 11y ago
I might suggest giving the Rho Agenda book trilogy a whirl: http://www.amazon.com/Second-Ship-Rho-Agenda-Book-ebook/dp/B007TBSLG8/ http://www.amazon.com/Second-Ship-Rho-Agenda-Book-ebook/dp/B... The author does a good job of keeping the science plausible and grounded in reality. It certainly does get fantastical, but never to the point of distraction. I never found myself making eye rolls at the book and it's clear the author, Richard Philips, did his research. The story itself is entertaining and it features very short chapters, which makes it easy to find a stopping point very quickly when you need it. There are a lot of intertwined subplots to follow, but never too many as to be overwhelmed. And that also means if one of them is boring (I didn't quite like the reporter's one), then you can sort of gloss over those sections. And the short chapters keep the "pain" of those sections to a minimum at a time. And as a bonus, it's free to rent on Amazon Prime. I'd definitely give it a try.
- philfrasty 11y ago
  never skip affiliate-link day...

ak1394 11y ago

I don't think this book deserves that much hype. I have mostly read it (hasn't quite finished the last chapter) but really didn't think much about it.

FLUX-YOU 11y ago

>A high-ranking U.S. official thinks that suicide tactics might be effective against the Trisolarans. He visits the leader of al-Qaeda to propose an alliance, but the terrorist boss tells him that his organization has renounced violence and is lost in ennui. al-Qaeda™, Suicide Consultants

wineisfine 11y ago

Or, maybe this planet (Earth) is another planet's hell.

zeroonetwothree 11y ago

I'm pretty sure that if we faced an alien invasion in 400 years we'd spend the first ~350 of those doing absolutely nothing about it. After all, everyone we know will be dead long before that happens, so what's the point? Most people would probably just ignore it.

CountSessine 11y ago

SPOILERS - don't read unless you've read the book: I read the book earlier this year and I loved it. One thing I had been thinking about though was the carbon nanotube wire and the ship. Single-atom-thick wires used as knives have shown up in science-fiction before. In Ringworld, for example, a character is decapitated when they run into a nano-wire strung across a path. In The Three Body Problem, I don't think you could ever 'cut' metal like that with carbon nanotubes - you'd have to overcome the cumulative bonding energies of all of those iron atoms in the ship and I doubt even the ship's engines running at full blast could push hard enough to do that. And that's assuming that a string of nanotubes has the strength to resist all of that tension. Apparently carbon nanotubes can resist about 100000N of tensile force (about a 10000kg weight in earth's gravity), so perhaps it wouldn't break - but I doubt that the metal in the ship would cleave, either. Is there anyone who knows more about chemistry/solid state physics/materials science to comment?

blacksmith_tb 11y ago

I'm surprised they didn't mention his translator, Ken Liu (no relation), who recently published a very entertaining fantasy epic of his own, The Grace of Kings.