5 ms·

One thing I've noticed about Liu Cixin's books, is that for people who follow futurism and hard Sci-fi beyond the shallow level of a typical mainstream layperso

One thing I've noticed about Liu Cixin's books, is that for people who follow futurism and hard Sci-fi beyond the shallow level of a typical mainstream layperson, there are huge glaring plotholes. Here's perhaps the big one: Ask, what if instead of doing [X], [certain characters] put those resources instead into building space industrial infrastructure space colonies? This also applies to The Wandering Earth.

jnovek 2y ago
The decisions made in Death's End in particular are very frustrating but I think the point was that humanity's biggest barrier to reaching the stars is itself.
marcellus23 2y ago
In general, I get the feeling that the people who gush about all the awesome ideas in the 3BP books, are not people who read very much sci-fi. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. But those ideas have been explored previously, and much better (IMO), in other less popular books.
- jnovek 2y ago
  That's fair -- I read some here and there but I recognize that I'm not a hardcore sci-fi reader. You mentioned that there are other, lesser known books that explore the same ideas in a more compelling way. Can you give some examples so I can add them to my reading list?
  - marcellus23 2y ago
    For an exploration of the dark forest theory at least, I recommend The Killing Star. Fair warning though, it’s extremely bleak.
    - fmoralesc 2y ago
      I read it recently and while the ideas are there, it is not a great read (the dialogues in particular are pretty bad).
      - marcellus23 2y ago
        I won't argue the prose or characterization is great, but then that's extremely true of the 3BP as well. In every other sense I found the Killing Star to be a better book.
- xandrius 2y ago
  Can you give me your top 3 sci-fi books/series? My favourite one so far was Broken Earth trilogy. I'm looking for something new and really awesome but I'm not interested in a series with more than 3-4 books (as they rarely keep the same level of quality across the series).
  - marcellus23 2y ago
    If you're interested in series, I recommend the one beginning with Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton. It's only two books, but it's a great space opera to dive into. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson is also good. I haven't read the sequel(s) but the first book can be treated as a standalone, and has some big ideas. Finally, the Algebraist by Iain M. Banks remains one of my all-time favorites.
    - xandrius 2y ago
      Do you have any non-space related books (non-series are ok)? Just curious :)
      - marcellus23 2y ago
        I'm not sure I know of any that are similar to the 3 Body Problem that don't involve space. But if you're just asking about SF in general... Spin, which I mentioned above, takes place entirely on Earth. But it's definitely at least somewhat "space-related" in terms of its plot. Caves of Steel by Asimov is a certified classic who-dunnit in a far-future underground New York City. If you're interested in golden age scifi at all, this is a great one to check out. Anathem by Neal Stephenson is one of my favorite books of all time. It has a tiny bit of space in it, but the whole book pretty much takes place on a single planet. Permutation City by Greg Egan is all about computer-simulated consciousness. Thought-provoking but also a bit horrifying. I also love Fine Structure by qntm (author of Lena[0]). Though it's a bit rough around the edges, I find that every time I pick it up to re-read it, I can't put it down until I'm done. Those are just some ones I personally like. There's more I could list, but SF is a very wide genre and I have my biases — you should check out /r/printSF for some more broad recommendations maybe. 0: https://qntm.org/lena https://qntm.org/lena
xkcd-sucks 2y ago
> Ask, what if instead of doing [X], [certain characters] put those resources instead into [something else] In most of these cases the outcome is "it makes a less entertaining story". The Anthropic Principle of Literature, if you will.

jnovek 2y ago

The decisions made in Death's End in particular are very frustrating but I think the point was that humanity's biggest barrier to reaching the stars is itself.

marcellus23 2y ago

In general, I get the feeling that the people who gush about all the awesome ideas in the 3BP books, are not people who read very much sci-fi. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. But those ideas have been explored previously, and much better (IMO), in other less popular books.

jnovek 2y ago
That's fair -- I read some here and there but I recognize that I'm not a hardcore sci-fi reader. You mentioned that there are other, lesser known books that explore the same ideas in a more compelling way. Can you give some examples so I can add them to my reading list?
- marcellus23 2y ago
  For an exploration of the dark forest theory at least, I recommend The Killing Star. Fair warning though, it’s extremely bleak.
  - fmoralesc 2y ago
    I read it recently and while the ideas are there, it is not a great read (the dialogues in particular are pretty bad).
    - marcellus23 2y ago
      I won't argue the prose or characterization is great, but then that's extremely true of the 3BP as well. In every other sense I found the Killing Star to be a better book.
xandrius 2y ago
Can you give me your top 3 sci-fi books/series? My favourite one so far was Broken Earth trilogy. I'm looking for something new and really awesome but I'm not interested in a series with more than 3-4 books (as they rarely keep the same level of quality across the series).
- marcellus23 2y ago
  If you're interested in series, I recommend the one beginning with Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton. It's only two books, but it's a great space opera to dive into. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson is also good. I haven't read the sequel(s) but the first book can be treated as a standalone, and has some big ideas. Finally, the Algebraist by Iain M. Banks remains one of my all-time favorites.
  - xandrius 2y ago
    Do you have any non-space related books (non-series are ok)? Just curious :)
    - marcellus23 2y ago
      I'm not sure I know of any that are similar to the 3 Body Problem that don't involve space. But if you're just asking about SF in general... Spin, which I mentioned above, takes place entirely on Earth. But it's definitely at least somewhat "space-related" in terms of its plot. Caves of Steel by Asimov is a certified classic who-dunnit in a far-future underground New York City. If you're interested in golden age scifi at all, this is a great one to check out. Anathem by Neal Stephenson is one of my favorite books of all time. It has a tiny bit of space in it, but the whole book pretty much takes place on a single planet. Permutation City by Greg Egan is all about computer-simulated consciousness. Thought-provoking but also a bit horrifying. I also love Fine Structure by qntm (author of Lena[0]). Though it's a bit rough around the edges, I find that every time I pick it up to re-read it, I can't put it down until I'm done. Those are just some ones I personally like. There's more I could list, but SF is a very wide genre and I have my biases — you should check out /r/printSF for some more broad recommendations maybe. 0: https://qntm.org/lena https://qntm.org/lena

xkcd-sucks 2y ago

> Ask, what if instead of doing [X], [certain characters] put those resources instead into [something else] In most of these cases the outcome is "it makes a less entertaining story". The Anthropic Principle of Literature, if you will.