5 ms·

Reminded me of The Three Body Problem trilogy (currently on Book 3). Highly recommend it for any fans of Science Fiction as the author is incredibly detailed an

Reminded me of The Three Body Problem trilogy (currently on Book 3). Highly recommend it for any fans of Science Fiction as the author is incredibly detailed and comprehensive in the social implications of space/ET life.

qd6pwu4 9y ago
yes, very nice story
mhb 9y ago
In order to calibrate your opinion of a book with mine, could you say what you thought of The Player of Games, if you have read it?
- smaps 9y ago
  I too am curious about this calibration and think that's a good book to use for it.
- 542458 9y ago
  Not the fellow you're replying to, but I've also read both books. I enjoyed The Player of Games very much. Three Body Problem was also good, but I found some characters to be frustratingly irrational (i.e., it feels like some people were doing things simply because the plot needed a character to do that action, rather than out of any meaningful motivation). Still worth your time - the Chinese cultural background was an interesting touch for me. I've not read the two sequels, but they also sound interesting.
- emptyfile 9y ago
  I absolutely hate the Culture series, I find it predictable, boring and unoriginal. The Three body problem and its sequels (it's a trilogy) I find absolutely fascinating. Be warned, this is very dry writing with very flat characters, mostly digestible because of the exotic Chinese background which is noticeable, but this book is all about ideas, so in many ways completely the opposite of the space opera Culture series. Despite its length, much of which I consider filler, these are one of a handful of books which really made me question our position in the universe. The second book, The Dark Forest, is my favorite. The Three body problem is actually my least favorite, written more like a mystery thriller rather than sci-fi. And yes, you absolutely need to read all three parts.
- baq 9y ago
  Completely different, both worth reading.
  - boznz 9y ago
    My thoughts exactly
lmm 9y ago
I don't understand why Three Body Problem gets so much positive attention? I read it and found it incredibly boring. Most of the pages were spent on the historical stuff, which the characters just weren't interesting enough to sustain; when it finally gets around to the sci-fi part the MMO conceit is dragged out endlessly and fundamentally makes no sense on any level, and then the magic unfolded proton at the end was just a deus ex machina with no connection to anything. For the calibration comparison, I did enjoy The Player of Games; I felt the setup was a little clunky (the bit about provability of recordings by Minds should have been set up beforehand to give the reader a fair understanding of the world) and I struggled a little because I had little sympathy for the protagonist (and there's only really one) for a long time. But on the whole I did enjoy it; the part about wanting to know that victory is possible is a good crystalization of a genuine insight into human nature, and the vision of devoting one's life to something that completely catches the imagination. And the conclusions works very well as a "continuation of politics by other means" thing.
- hfourm 9y ago
  I tried listening to the audio book while on a cross country road trip. Almost killed us putting us to sleep
- stevendhansen 9y ago
  Different strokes I guess. I really enjoyed the Three Body Problem trilogy due its expansiveness both in time and in space, and its focus on ideas rather than (solely on) characters. Then again one of my favorites hard SF authors is Greg Egan, and I've heard many times that people find his work dull (which blows my mind - Egan writes some of the most thought provoking, interesting SF by FAR).
  - lmm 9y ago
    > Different strokes I guess. I really enjoyed the Three Body Problem trilogy due its expansiveness both in time and in space, and its focus on ideas rather than (solely on) characters. I don't know what ideas or expansiveness you're talking about? > Then again one of my favorites hard SF authors is Greg Egan, and I've heard many times that people find his work dull (which blows my mind - Egan writes some of the most thought provoking, interesting SF by FAR). I found the metaphysical stuff in e.g. Permutation City slow and boring - it felt like he'd had a clever idea but wasn't pushing it as hard or as fast as it could go. Had the same experience with a couple of others of his (Distress and Schild's Ladder are the ones I read). To the point where I stopped reading him for a while. I found the Orthogonal trilogy a lot better; the physics of that is a lot more interesting than metaphysics. Though as a confounding factor I do think the characters in that were much better - still broad-strokes archetypes, but not total nonentities like in his earlier work.

qd6pwu4 9y ago

yes, very nice story

mhb 9y ago

In order to calibrate your opinion of a book with mine, could you say what you thought of The Player of Games, if you have read it?

smaps 9y ago
I too am curious about this calibration and think that's a good book to use for it.
542458 9y ago
Not the fellow you're replying to, but I've also read both books. I enjoyed The Player of Games very much. Three Body Problem was also good, but I found some characters to be frustratingly irrational (i.e., it feels like some people were doing things simply because the plot needed a character to do that action, rather than out of any meaningful motivation). Still worth your time - the Chinese cultural background was an interesting touch for me. I've not read the two sequels, but they also sound interesting.
emptyfile 9y ago
I absolutely hate the Culture series, I find it predictable, boring and unoriginal. The Three body problem and its sequels (it's a trilogy) I find absolutely fascinating. Be warned, this is very dry writing with very flat characters, mostly digestible because of the exotic Chinese background which is noticeable, but this book is all about ideas, so in many ways completely the opposite of the space opera Culture series. Despite its length, much of which I consider filler, these are one of a handful of books which really made me question our position in the universe. The second book, The Dark Forest, is my favorite. The Three body problem is actually my least favorite, written more like a mystery thriller rather than sci-fi. And yes, you absolutely need to read all three parts.
baq 9y ago
Completely different, both worth reading.
- boznz 9y ago
  My thoughts exactly

lmm 9y ago

I don't understand why Three Body Problem gets so much positive attention? I read it and found it incredibly boring. Most of the pages were spent on the historical stuff, which the characters just weren't interesting enough to sustain; when it finally gets around to the sci-fi part the MMO conceit is dragged out endlessly and fundamentally makes no sense on any level, and then the magic unfolded proton at the end was just a deus ex machina with no connection to anything. For the calibration comparison, I did enjoy The Player of Games; I felt the setup was a little clunky (the bit about provability of recordings by Minds should have been set up beforehand to give the reader a fair understanding of the world) and I struggled a little because I had little sympathy for the protagonist (and there's only really one) for a long time. But on the whole I did enjoy it; the part about wanting to know that victory is possible is a good crystalization of a genuine insight into human nature, and the vision of devoting one's life to something that completely catches the imagination. And the conclusions works very well as a "continuation of politics by other means" thing.

hfourm 9y ago
I tried listening to the audio book while on a cross country road trip. Almost killed us putting us to sleep
stevendhansen 9y ago
Different strokes I guess. I really enjoyed the Three Body Problem trilogy due its expansiveness both in time and in space, and its focus on ideas rather than (solely on) characters. Then again one of my favorites hard SF authors is Greg Egan, and I've heard many times that people find his work dull (which blows my mind - Egan writes some of the most thought provoking, interesting SF by FAR).
- lmm 9y ago
  > Different strokes I guess. I really enjoyed the Three Body Problem trilogy due its expansiveness both in time and in space, and its focus on ideas rather than (solely on) characters. I don't know what ideas or expansiveness you're talking about? > Then again one of my favorites hard SF authors is Greg Egan, and I've heard many times that people find his work dull (which blows my mind - Egan writes some of the most thought provoking, interesting SF by FAR). I found the metaphysical stuff in e.g. Permutation City slow and boring - it felt like he'd had a clever idea but wasn't pushing it as hard or as fast as it could go. Had the same experience with a couple of others of his (Distress and Schild's Ladder are the ones I read). To the point where I stopped reading him for a while. I found the Orthogonal trilogy a lot better; the physics of that is a lot more interesting than metaphysics. Though as a confounding factor I do think the characters in that were much better - still broad-strokes archetypes, but not total nonentities like in his earlier work.