A review of the novel “The Three-Body Problem” by Cixin Liu
This is the first novel in the ‘Remembrance of Earth’s Past’ trilogy by the noted Chinese science fiction writer. It was first published as a book in 2008 and, when translated into English, won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the first work by an Asian writer to win this award. It achieved even more widespread fame as the inspiration for the 2024 Netflix series of the same name.
As a sci-fi novel, this work has two very distinctive features.
First, reflecting its authorship, it includes lots of references to Chinese characters and history, stretching from the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who was born in 259 BC, to the Cultural Revolution, which lasted from 1966 to 1976. Many Western scientists and thinkers also make appearances in a fantastical online virtual reality game called Three-Body.
Second, the narrative raises a huge range of scientific issues, starting with the three-body problem in orbital mechanics and running through the development of atomic-level nano-materials and the eleven dimensional space-time of fundamental particles. One chapter has the wonderful title ‘Three Body: Newton, Von Neumann, The First Emperor And The Tri-Solar Syzygy’.
Fundamentally this enormously inventive work is asking some existential questions: If there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, how would we know? If we could, should we communicate with such an alien civilisation? If we did, what would be the consequences?
A major problem for writers addressing such questions is the almost infinite distances that would be involved. How could one communication, still less travel, across such vastness of space? Cixin Liu has some inventive solutions which means that, by the end of the novel, the very existence of humankind is threatened – but apparently not for some 450 years.
This first novel in the trilogy runs to 424 pages, but I devoured them, and now I need to move on the next book.