8 ms·
For a captivating exploration of these same ideas in contemporary fiction, try Liu Cixin's The Three Body Problem. As a tip, I enjoyed it much better having not
by eckmLJE 8y ago
For a captivating exploration of these same ideas in contemporary fiction, try Liu Cixin's The Three Body Problem. As a tip, I enjoyed it much better having not even read the blurb on the back of the book. It spoils events that don't truly unfold until far into the story.
- arethuza 8y agoI was going to say something similar about the Xeelee stories (I also love the The Three Body Problem) but remembered that humanity in those stories only manages to have weaponized neutron stars in a feeble attempt to fight the Xeelee.
- littlestymaar 8y agoHow funny, a friend recommended it to me last week and I just started reading it yesterday. I'm only in the beginning, but I must say I really like it so far.
- shrimp_emoji 8y agoIt starts with a horrifying dive into '60s Revolutionary China, then veers off into an extremely surreal and nerdy anime plot, and proceeds on a very cool and foreboding sci-fi arc (I think; I don't remember how much of the sci-fi it has vs. how much of it is in the two sequels).
- pradn 8y agoThat's a good way to put it. The novel series manages to have 1) brilliant and highly imaginative set-piece sci-fi events 2) ruminations on the possibly dark nature of humanity in space 3) amateurish characters - save two or three 4) universal-scale scope 5) awareness of just 6 countries in the world : all at the same time.
- elorant 8y agoAnd a lame ending compared to the rest of the trilogy. It's like in the last 50 pages he run out of ideas.
- eximius 8y agoIn his defense, he explored quite a bit. I really had kind of hoped to get a glimpse into what he'd have come up with for if the universe restarted.
- littlestymaar 8y agoEnding is hard, and when it comes to sci-fi series it empirically looks impossible: I can't remember a single one whose end wasn't disappointing.
- Florin_Andrei 8y ago> Liu Cixin's The Three Body Problem His vision of the future is bleak in the extreme. His characters are naively constructed and occasionally make incomprehensible choices. The worst sin is he's unsure whether he wants to write hard sci-fi or just mostly "fi" with a thin veneer of "sci". Occasionally he seems like he wants to stick to solid science with a few extra assumptions (in the best tradition of hard sci-fi); but then he veers off into some cartoonish "science" that's quite jarring. In the end, you get the impression he just tries to brag about how much science he "understands". In the end I was reading it the way some folks watch a bad movie - to make fun of it. If you want cosmic scale hard sci-fi, try Stephen Baxter. He can be a bit dry at times, but that's his only fault.
- pasabagi 8y agoI'm completely with you. It baffles me how many people loved Liu Cixin's book. It's written like a 70's era 'ideas, no execution' sci-fi novel, but the ideas are terrible. I mean, the central 'xeno-anthropology' thing, that's treated as like a deeply profound maths proof, is kinda a brain fart. If you read a writer like Peter Tchaikovsky, you get actually interesting ideas, and really good execution. And I'd say PT is pretty mid-range for contemporary sci-fi authors. People like Yoon Ha Lee or China Mieville are really pushing the genre forward. Lui Cixin's work on the other hand reads like one of those 70's books about uplifted dolphins and sexy spacewomen, all robotic characterization and uninspired writing.
- Florin_Andrei 8y ago> It baffles me how many people loved Liu Cixin's book. If this is the first sci-fi book you read, and especially if this happens at an early-ish age, I imagine it may seem impressive.
- natosaichek 8y agoI think you mean Adrian Tchaikovsky, right? Peter was a great composer of music, but not SF. Where would you recommend someone start with Adrian Tchaikovsky?
- ohaideredevs 8y agoThe Three Body Problem is officially the most overrated book on Hacker News. I am trying to understand why. It has no soul, the "science" is garbage, not a single character is memorable, it's way, way too long for what it is.
- colordrops 8y agoI would mostly agree, but having lived in China and studied Chinese for several years the element of Chinese culture and history intermingled with sci-fi made it a lot more intriguing to me. Also, it was a great way to practice reading Chinese.
- otabdeveloper2 8y agoEh? It reads like a book translated into Chinese. It's probably one of the most not-Chinese Chinese books you can read.
- colordrops 8y agoWhich makes it an easy first book for a beginner.
- flukus 8y agoI mostly agree but I still enjoyed the story, at least until book 2, the ending of book 3 was horrendous. For the "soul" I gave it the benefit of the doubt, maybe Chinese writing different from western writing or something get lost in translation. For the characters I don't know if it's them or me dealing with Chinese names, I get lost playing games like shogun total war because of this.
- wazoox 8y agoI'm reading Shuǐ hǔ Zhuàn right now, there are 108 heroes along the ~2000 pages but somehow the most important remain memorable enough: Gao Chai, Song Jiang, Li Kui, Wu Gong... See, I can even remember some names :)
- kristianp 8y agoI really enjoyed the trilogy, some clever and original stuff there. I didn't enjoy the third book so much, but don't want to spoil anything.
- ethbro 8y ago> events that don't truly unfold until far into the story Aka "the last 100 pages, where something actually happens."