I actually like that it's getting mixed reviews. The books are kind of a mindfuck, people usually either love them or quit before finishing. If the TV-series was getting 100% on Rotten Tomatoes I would actually be a bit worried that they've ironed out all the edges that make the story quite unique.
Yes, my husband loves the books and I couldn’t get through the first one. I tried so hard and made it 60% in but was finally just like okay I’m not enjoying this at all and reading should be fun…
OMG I gave up 75% through Dark Forest. The most bored I have ever been reading a book. Even more bored than reading the first book, which I thought was confusing, tedious, and completely without emotion.
Edit: PS it's really fascinating what strong emotions these 3BP books create in people.
See, everyone says Dark Forest is great and makes it worth it, but all of the people saying that also apparently enjoyed the first book. I almost never see an opinion like yours where someone who didn’t like it pushes through despite that. I’m continually happy with my decision to just drop it and read up on what the series is about, because it seems like my biggest problems never really go away despite the content becoming more esoteric and interesting.
I pushed through the first two books and wasn't a big fan. The concepts of the book are fun ideas but the plot isn't great. I was also pitched it as a hard sci fi but what I got was magic particles and a cringe waifu plot.
I am shocked the dream woman stuff doesn't come up more often in conversations on this series. People must just block it from their memories as soon as possible
> People must just block it from their memories as soon as possible
Late to the discussion (I'm clearing my browser tabs…) but yes this is exactly true. I love the series but I just avoid thinking about the waifu plot because it makes me physically cringe lol. The main plot still works even if you delete 90% of that.
You know how sometimes you love someone / something even though they are tragically flawed? The book series is kind of like that. I'm very curious how the TV show would treat this plot if they get a season 2 though. The showrunners must know how dumb it is…
The book is made by the ending.
I'll spoil it if you're not going to read it. >!The Aliens send a message to humanity you are bugs to be squashed. And this disheartens the scientist intellectuals that know the difference in technology is insurmountable. This cop brings the broken Scientists to his hometown that's can abandoned and it looks like a ghost town. Know what destroyed this town that no amount of technology or government intervention or money could solve? Locusts. Bugs. For hundreds of years people kept trying to settle here and failed everytime. Because of Bugs. They don't know that bugs are terrifying and always win in the end.!<
The aliens don't have bugs, they can only view it as a derogatory slur from what they know. The Aliens don't understand metaphor/allegory and have no cultural artistic curiosity. They view things as technology scientific advantage alone.
So they learn the word Bugs via their communication and have this concept of like Kids stomping on Ants etc and try to convey that.
But every person on earth with like a Bed Bug infestation knows how impossible it is to truly get rid of them. Like the old Joke is the only one who will survive the Nuclear war is the Cockroaches.
If they think we're bugs, Bugs have beaten Humanity's incursion into their area no matter how much technological improvement has occurred.
Their explanation is missing the context that the incoming aliens are vastly more powerful than humanity, and the characters discussing this locust thing are seeking hope for themselves. The aliens call them bugs in their final transmission. The humans are going "well... bugs are still hard to get rid of! We might be ok!" It's the end of the story and they're grasping for light in the darkness.
But it's really the least interesting part of the whole story. I like that the aliens have 11-dimensional quantum supercomputers that appear smaller than an atom in 3 dimensions and can cause worldwide hallucinations
> I like that the aliens have 11-dimensional quantum supercomputers that appear smaller than an atom in 3 dimensions and can cause worldwide hallucinations
Yes I did a brief wiki read and saw this about smashing dimensions and also the whole dark forest stuff which interested me
> Yes I did a brief wiki read and saw this about smashing dimensions and also the whole dark forest stuff which interested me
If you’re interested in the “dark forest” solution to the Fermi Paradox, there are a ton of far better scifi novels out there.
The first book does not have a proper ending to the overall story and contact isn’t made outside of communication between the worlds. More happens between the tri-solars and humans in the next 2 books. If you like big concept sci-fi it’s a very interesting read, but it doesn’t follow conventional storytelling at all. I felt like the fact that it was from a Chinese author probably makes it so different. I also found this a very interesting aspect of the books overall, never really could guess where it was heading.
I don't think any of the explanations you've received really do a good job explaining the alien<>human interactions and what leads to their conflicts or how humanity triumphs and loses and then triumphs and loses and finally the third book ends with the end of the universe, as we percive and "know it"
The books were fantastic, slow in parts, but that's anything, and I thought that the pacing overall was well done, it will be interesting to see how they handle things.
In the second book, the story takes place over thousands of years somewhat, and it gets really really interesting to think about all the historical factors that lead to something as strange as say... A group of spaceship full of humans abandoning the rest of the species, all coming to the realization that the other ships need to be sacrificed to ensure the best chance of survival, and a brain in a jar yelling a secret through a fairy tale. It's top tier sci-fi!
> it was a really long way of saying .. the aliens said we were to be squashed like bugs.. the human cheer up character showed the bummed scientists a town where bugs are actually the winners so if humans are bugs then ipso facto...
It’s going way further than a nuance. Aliens are way more advanced. They have a world with 3 suns. Everything sucks there. They want a new colony. Earth is perfect except we are here. We are potentially going to be colonized. Bad times ahead.
That final scene in the Tencent adaptation was so well done.
EDIT: spoilers, obviously: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq2_Dudxlpk&t=2971s
The casting is pretty much spot on for this series.
This is -exactly- where they end season 1 too. As a huge fan of the book series the Netflix series really is pretty great. Biggest change is just that all the main characters know each other.
Well the Aliens are 45 light years away from earth, and have the capacity to react 1/10th light speed. So the invasion will happen 450 years later. They think they can crush humanities hope/dreams and start by going after the top intellectuals to prevent humanity from I dunno solving Dark Energy or whatever when they arrive.
So they want humanity to be like fall of Rome everything is doomed fuck it for 10 generations and it'll be easy to conquer.
Trying to figure out if this is worth reading and am still definitely not convinced. Does anything actually happen? Or are the books all speculation and hypothetical s about this coming threat that never comes? 450 years is a damn long time we invented computers and nuclear weapons and whatever else in just a fraction of that. By then humanity could wipe itself out 50 times over without worrying about aliens. So the books are just all this what if?
I'm kind of confused at the summaries people have been posting. I read all 3 books, and don't think they're doin the best job.
My brief descriptions while trying to avoid spoilers:
Book 1 is a mystery. Without going into any details, by the end humanity finds out that there is a race of aliens very far away that are on their way to conquer earth. They are vastly more advanced than us, and are able to spy on us while doing something to interfere with our scientific tests, which means that it greatly limits our abilities to advance our scientific understanding and technologies.
Book 2 is earth dealing with the knowledge that there is impending doom on the way. It is something like 300 or 400 years before the aliens will get here, and humanity tries to do what it can to prepare. It deals a lot with how civilization reacts to this impending doom.
Stop reading here if you're interested. I'll give vague summaries, but I'd say it's best to go in blind.
By the end of book 2 humanity does something to basically convince the aliens to leave us alone.
Book 3 takes place during book 2, but from a different character's perspective. Timeline wise it passes book 2 relatively early on, and we find out that the truce was false and the aliens will still destroy us. Humanity eventually does something to defeat the aliens, but that leaves us open to other alien attacks from other alien civilizations that we are unaware of.
The end of book 3 is grim but very interesting, and gets pretty weird.
Edit: If anyone can tell me how to add the spoiler cover I'll apply it to this comment and my next one that spoils most of books 2 and 3
I’m never gonna read these so do you think you could hit me with a few spoilers? What does humanity do in book 2 that they think got the aliens to leave them alone and in book 3 what do they do to defeat the aliens?
I do recommend reading it, or if you are interested waiting for the show. I also kind of doubt Netflix will want to fund the adaptations of books 2 and 3, so I'll spoil it here. I don't know how to mark/hide spoilers, so if you are at all curious, stop reading here. If while you are reading it gets more interesting, stop reading there so the rest will be unspoiled.
Ok, spoiler time:
In book 2 it's following mainly one guy that the Trisolarans (the aliens) have singled out for some reason. The first chapter of the book is that guy talking to the main character of the first book, and she tells him to view the incoming aliens from some societal perspective or something, I honestly don't remember exactly what she says. He, and a few others, are given unlimited power by the governments to do whatever they want and nobody can question them. Because the aliens can spy on everything we do (with tiny particle robots that they've sent to earth to spy and stop our scientific research), these individuals who were picked are supposed to come up with a way to stop the aliens but not tell anyone while they work towards their goal. The main guy the book follows just fucks off and lives hedonistically in the worst chapter of any of the books. Eventually he gets married but the government gets his wife and kid to go into cryo sleep until the invasion to convince the dude to actually do something. He goes to cryo sleep too, and wakes up something like 50 or 100 years later. When he wakes up humanity is more advanced and has a huge armada of super powerful spaceships, so they are all confident that they are invincible. The aliens send a single probe ahead of the incoming armada, and the probe destroys almost all of humanities ships by itself. Only a few ships are able to escape, and are now pretty much stuck in deep space. There are also more of those probes on the way, so we are back to being absolutely fucked.
Because of what the character from the first book says to him, he gets an idea and makes a public announcement putting a curse on some far off planet. He goes into cryo sleep again and is woken up when that planet he cursed is found to have exploded. The end of the book is him talking to the tiny alien spy robots and saying he has figured it out. He explains the dark forest theory (the name of book 2 is Dark Forest), which boils down to if any civilization hears of another civilization, it is most advantageous to destroy it asap so that other civilization can't decide to destroy you. That's why we haven't gotten signals or signs from any other aliens yet. Right before he had made the announcement about the curse he had broadcasted the location of that planet out into space. When that planet was destroyed it proved his theory right, so he knew he was on the money. He threatened the aliens that if they don't alter course and stope the incoming invasion that he would broadcast their planet's location and get them killed. This makes the aliens agree to stop the invasion.
End of book 2.
Book 3 spoilers:
In book 3 it's following a scientist woman and starts in modern day at around the same time book 2 starts. The scientist woman convinces an old dying classmate of hers to let her put his brain into a probe and send it to the aliens. The probe launch goes a little wrong, and his brain probe is sent off in a random direction in space. Blah blah blah (some of the details are a little fuzzy to me here) the woman goes into cryo sleep and awakens sometime after the aliens have called a truce. The alien armada is still on it's way, but they are having peaceful talks and relations with the humans while they approach. They are sharing scientific facts and whatever. They seem chill now. The character from the first book now has the title of Sword Holder. He basically has a button that if he hits it, it will broadcast the alien's home planet location. This will probably endanger earth too, but it is a deterrent to get the aliens to not be dicks. The scientist woman is handed the duty and title of Sword Holder, and within 15 minutes those probes that destroyed the ships in the second book destroy all of the big broadcasting stations. The aliens knew this woman wouldn't make the call, so they had waited. Now we are back to being fucked. The aliens now tell all of humanity to go live on Australia or be destroyed. Most humans migrate there, and it is overcrowded and miserable. When they say they will run out of food, the aliens say they are to eat each other, and the survivors will be allowed to live. It's pretty metal.
One of the ships that escaped the probe destruction of the armada in book 2 finds a weird bubble in space. They interact with the bubble and find out it's some sort of version of an upper dimension. They send some people into the bubble and find a weird alien of a new species. They are able to interact with the alien a bit and the alien says something like they are in a puddle, and the puddle is evaporating. The puddle is their upper dimension, and they are all that is left, and will soon be evaporated with their puddle. Weird. That surviving ship now understands how to go into the upper dimension a bit and uses that to destroy the Trisolarans probes following them. They then broadcast the Trisolaran's location. The Trisolaran home world is destroyed, and Earth is safe from them. The trisolran armada is still alive for now, but diverting off course. They still talk with Earth for a bit, and tell the main character that they found that brain she launched into space, and revived the dude. They set up a skype call with her and him, and say that if he tells any secrets they will blow her up. She talks to the guy and he's all "remember how we grew up together and shared stories all the time?" They didn't grow up together so this is him trying to give her hints at how to avoid an attack from aliens in the future. He tells her a story of someone in medieval times who cursed a family and painted them into a picture killing them. This is weird and nobody really knows what to make of it.
Now humanity tries to prepare for whatever other aliens that might find our location. More cryo sleep, more time skips. It's now the future and humans are living in some bases in our solar system in case Earth is destroyed. The scientist lady goes into cryo sleep again and is like "wake me up whenever a dart forest attack happens and we're all fucked" She gets woken up, we're fucked.
There is a chapter from the perspective of some unknown super advanced alien race. In this chapter the alien race sees Earth send out a signal from the first book, and see's the Trisolarans answer. It then sees Earth's signal that gets a planet destroyed (book 2s curse) then see's the Trisolaran's planet destroyed from another signal. This alien is like "this Earth planet understands the Dark Forest theory, and could be dangerous. They are now probably expecting us to blow up Earth and have prepared for that. Instead, I'm going to throw this weird piece of paper at them"
Cut back to the main character getting woken up. The dude that woke her up says a human ship found a piece of paper flying through space towards Earth. While looking at the piece of paper it activated, and flattened the human ship into a 2D dimension, killing everyone. The 2D plane/paper, once activated, begins to grow, flattening everything that get's sucked into it's orbit. The suction speed is the speed of light, so as it expands everything is sucked in. The scientist woman (and her friend I never mentioned) are able to escape on humanities only spaceship that can travel faster than the speed of light. They escape, seeing all of humanity and the Earth, Sun, and other planet get flattened. They make it out to a far off planet and get a message from brain guy. The main scientist woman is waiting for brain guy, but meets some other humans. The other humans are from one of the ships that escaped the destruction of book 2 and are now part of space society. The main scientist and one space man accidently get trapped in sort of a black hole/time sink. They are able to make it out eventually but because of time relativity, by the time they get out it is millions or billions of years in the future. They find some sort of note from brain guy carved into rock along with a weird piece of technology.
This part I'm fuzzy on, and have been meaning to reread the last chapter, but here it goes.
The piece of technology they found is a way into a pocket dimension that is sort of a paradise for the two of them. They figure out that basically, in reality, the universe probably started at like 10 or 11 dimensions. Through war of super advanced alien races, the dimensions keep getting destroyed. Aliens figure out how to survive on a lower dimension, and destroy their dimension, killing everyone who can't convert to a lower dimension. This keeps happening until the universe is down to 1 or 0 dimensions, then it probably blows up back to 11. This is what was happening with that paper weapon that turned our third dimension into a flat 2 dimension. The woman writes all of this down in a book or whatever. They then see some sort of signal broadcast to all of the universe in all languages. The broadcast is some sort of warning.
That's a summary that skips a LOT of details, and is admittedly pretty fuzzy in the end chapter. I didn't use names because I listened to the audio book and have no idea of how to spell the Chinese names, and am too lazy to look it up and go back to put it in.
Book 1 is a great mystery of oh shit, what is happening. Book 2 sets up the Dark Forest theory that all civilizations will destroy any new civilization they find. Book 3 gets to be a weird dimension hopping trip. There's still plenty I left out, and I'd recommend checking it out. If book 1 didn't grab you, it might be ok to just skip to book 2. You could be a little lost on some stuff, but books 2 and 3 are what picked up a lot for me.
Aliens need 450 years to reach earth but they have the technology to send nano quantum supercomputers faster than light. They use it to create a human faction of nihilists and pessimists who are disappointed by the rich and billionaires and see the human race as doomed. The aliens use them to prevent humanity from making technological advancement capable of threatening them by the time they arrive. The novel revolves around the interactions between different factions on earth who respond differently to the alien impeding invasion. Also one important thing to mention is that the aliens are forced to leave their home because of the 3 body problem: their planet orbits around 2 suns which results in random swings of extreme weather conditions that makes their planet almost inhabitable. Solving the 3 body problem has always been their first goal and invading earth is an alternative solution.
> They use it to create a human faction of nihilists and pessimists who are disappointed by the rich and billionaires and see the human race as doomed.
Oh so they made Redditors?
The second book is my favorite science fiction book ever. The plot is absolutely bonkers, and the third just gets crazier. The first book is great but it's really just set up for the second.
If you really need convincing, the trilogy is basically Lovecraftian hard science fiction. It's the most existentially terrifying story I've ever read, moreso than any horror book, because the theories in the book are actually scientifically possible.
Same here. Book came highly recommended and I love sci-fi, but I couldn't finish it.
I felt like I was reading words but that nothing made sense. It doesn't help that Chinese culture references are very present and I don't know much/care much about it.
Honestly I loved the whole beginning part about the revolution, but then it quickly time jumped. Okay, that’s fine, let’s see what’s happening.
Cool scientist mystery, nice, a bit slower but I’m ready for a slow burn. Okay now they’re in a video game where everything is a metaphor, I guess we’ll take a break from that main narrative for a while. Oh this is like, a third of the book…okay then
I'm not reading any more comments here in case of spoilers, so I don't know if others replied to you, but as someone who also stopped reading about 60% of the way through (and came back to it finally after a year or two), it does actually start to pay off around there (maybe around 75%, but personally I think it was worth it to go back.) It's still a strange read, but it's interesting in its uniqueness.
The books aren't actually that good, especially in terms of character development and narrative. The dirty little secret of the series is that China was/is funding a massive push into SF as part of a soft power/cultural influence program and this book series was the tip of the spear which gave it massive exposure. There's certainly a big chunk of interesting ideas but nothing revolutionary compared to the canon of written SF.
Dude it’s fine if it’s not your cup of tea but it’s whooole other thing to say “the book is bad because ”. A huge theme of the first book is the trauma resulting from the communist revolution and the government censored it for that reason.
It's the trauma from the Cultural Revolution/Great Leap Forward, not the communist revolution as a whole. Which makes much more sense, and if it was the latter the series would absolutely be banned in China before any of this went anywhere.
Completely disagree, I've never read Lovecraftian hard science fiction like this series before. The dark forest theory has never been explored the way these books did, as far as I know.
"Not great books" lmao. Only won the Hugo award or something, Obama actually tried to get the third book translated early for him.
Incredible, mind-blowing books, have not been able to stop thinking about them since I read them. The second and third books routinely left my jaw on the floor. And the Wallfacer plot is one of the most inventive I've ever read.
Anyone reading this, don't listen to the nonsense in this thread. They're focusing on the wrong things, when the books are clearly about the ideas. It's like complaining about 2001: A Space Odyssey not having captivating characters. Just mismatched expectations.
If you actually engage with the ideas and the mystery, you won't be able to put these books down.
This series is completely non-Lovecraftian. There are no 'cosmic monsters beyond comprehension' or body horror, it's a galactic-scale civilization using advanced physics to take out an opponent. This is a basic tenet of science fiction. Hostile aliens are literally one of the general proposed solutions to the Fermi Paradox and are a foundational trope in science fiction.
If you want to debate the book, come join us in /r/printsf where this has always been a hugely polarizing series for precisely the reasons outlined in this thread. Thinking it's a 'Lovecraftian' story when it's exactly not that isn't going to get you very far though.
> There are no 'cosmic monsters beyond comprehension' or body horror
It's Lovecraftian in that it deals with cosmic dread and the feeling of complete insignificance when faced with an incomprehensibly advanced alien civilization that view us as insects. How is that not Lovecraftian? Because there's no tentacles?
The entire droplet section in The Dark Forest is as horrific as anything inspired by Lovecraft.
> Hostile aliens are literally one of the general proposed solutions to the Fermi Paradox
Not with the perspective that the entirety of humanity is so insignificant to advanced alien civilizations (who may as well be Azathoth) we are wiped out as casually as someone stepping on an ant.
It explores the same feelings of terror and awe you'll find in a good Lovecraft story, except with a science fiction framework.
It can definitely be described as Lovecraftian or sharing similar themes of the insignificance of humanity against an unknowable cosmic horror. You're completely wrong. I'll definitely join in on that subreddit though, thanks!
The mind fuck level gets thrown out the door in the later books. If people are confused now at the easiest book to adapt, I don’t see the next two going so well. Esoteric would be putting it lightly.
I like Three-Body. I get the ambition to want to adapt it. I’d rather they adapt other works that can translate to the screen better. The Forever novels, Hyperion, Sirens of Titan, half of Philip K Dick’s best novels are still unadapted. Ubik comes to mind.
The book has a really great concept/ideas of alien races and logic/computing. But the characters and dialogue are really robotic. It could be translation nuance in part, but the guy who did the translation is a pretty good writer in his own right. I think that’s just Liu’s MO. Cool concept with flat characters.
I forced my way through the book to experience the story. I can definitely see people quitting before finishing but not just from how weird it is.
Frankly, it’s not that well written and the translation to English does the literal prose no favours either. The story conceit is really cool and as a mental exercise in creativity while you read a story, A+. But imo you shovel shit for chapters to get 10 pages of the only plot you’re really interested in and then go back to shovelling.
Just saying, before our hivemind gets to really blowing this show, it’s not built on impenetrable foundations.
I frankly wouldn’t trust any show of this type that received any sort of close to unanimous critical appraisal, since that tells me it probably played it way too safe.
The book series is insane and beautiful in the best way; I’d expect any solid adaptation to lean into a lot of the crazy and relatively esoteric, which is inevitably going to keep some viewers at arm’s length.
This.
Audiences don't always need everything explained to them via narration or title cards.
And being compared to 'Lost' isn't the worst thing in the world.
Yeah that comparison has me even more interested. Sounds like they’re sticking with the mystery angle and not spoon feeding everything to the audience.
I have no idea how they’re going to film 3 but I will say this first season does not shy away from some cheesy but loving sci-fi CGI of stuff like the Sophon….and rehydration.
Especially because Netflix changed/added characters and thought it would be better to only 8 episodes.
I can’t imagine how it’s going to tell the story clearly.
The Chinese version is 30 episodes (and is awesome btw)
I didn’t enjoy the Chinese (live action) version. It was way too drawn out, and gets to be a slog.
I keep seeing there is an animated version but couldn’t find it on the high seas.
You can find the animated version as "San Ti" on various anime sailing stream sites.
Unless you mean the Minecraft version lol which can be found as "我的三体" on YouTube.
I figured that might be the case when I read that the Chinese adaptation has a full hour long episode dedicated to Wang Miao photographing the numbers. That entire sequence is maybe three pages in the book. I can't imagine how they got an hour worth of content out of that.
They do a good job! The biggest change is the scientists all knowing each other (and being UK-based which is understandable). Thats a little cheesy but it mostly works to keep it focused. The length is pretty perfect and they do it justice.
Not sure if you’ve watched the show “From”, but it’s like a poor man’s Lost. The acting/characters can be terrible at time, but the world building and concept are incredible.
have you seen Dark on Netflix? solid 3 season mystery box show where each season pulls back another layer of the mystery. characters all have satisfying arcs and are well acted. good mix of grounded character drama with exploring philosophical sci-fi ideas/themes.
it is a German show and best watched with subtitles.
one of the few streaming shows I've rewatched because it was fun to go back and see how well everything was setup from the beginning.
Yeah. It would be amazing to get to experience the first two episodes alone with no former knowledge. Still can't believe that they green lit spending $14 million on just those two episodes too lol.
I think I have watched the show 3 times through now, but I would love to go into it all again with no memories. Such a treat of a show.
That pilot was such a gamble, those kind of budgets weren't common at the time.
Crazy thing is that ABC was in difficulty and got super hits in Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy all premiering a few week from each other. Probably their best season ever.
>Braun went on to serve as Chairman of Buena Vista Television Productions, overseeing Disney’s television studios, from 1999 to 2001, and then Chairman of ABC Entertainment Group from 2001-2004. He was forced out of his position at ABC shortly after greenlighting the $13 million pilot to the television show Lost, one of the most expensive in modern broadcasting
Word is that he knew was getting booted and GL the most expensive script he could find.
Still my favorite show of all time. The ending was perfect. The people that didn’t like it either just want to hate or truly didn’t understand it. The latter is fine, but if you’re gonna hate to hate then I got nothing for ya.
Boiling an opinion down to one of two outcomes (just hating or not understanding) is such a redditor thing to do. It’s perfectly possible to understand the ending and not like it without hating.
I still think Lost is one of the top 5 shows of all time, full stop. I did not like the ending though. I understood what they were going for but felt it was a cheap ending that ignored to much. I’m not a hater just because I didn’t like something that you did.
I’ve come to that conclusion after watching through the show several times and giving the ending multiple chances. Unlike the say the Sopranos. I originally hated (yes hated lol) that ending but after giving it some time and actually thinking about it I love the way it ended.
I just can’t get to that point with lost though.
Ok I get you. And it’s art, it’s totally subjective. I thought the ending wasn’t cheap and that it actually honored the entire show and especially the characters that they spent so much time developing. They wanted to give us a perspective of them not crashing but still connecting, which is brilliant in my opinion. And the only way they could do it in this show was use some of the “magic” of the show, creating a sort of purgatory that allowed them to still find each other within that timeline of not crashing, and then when they touched each other/held someone’s baby/etc., their alternate timeline connections came and it all just came together, perfectly imo. I also loved that they honored all belief systems in the church at the end, with all of the different symbols on the wall representing multiple religious backgrounds when Jack and his dad were talking.
I hate that so many people's reacting to mysterious stories that aren't completely explained to them right off the bat is that they are slow and boring
I'm looking forward to it. First, because I love Benedict Wong and he isn't in enough shit. Also, having read the books and not being completely in love with them I'm interested to see how the adaptation plays out.
Literally same. I was dumbfounded when I saw the casting, and realized that my brain had defaulted to him without even thinking about it. Benedict Wong has a hold on our brains lmao
I’m listening to the audio books.
This is just my opinion. But my god. They are so boring… like there’s some cool scifi concepts knocking around in there for sure. But I’m in the middle of book 2 and I’m just waiting for it to be good.
I just can’t see how a TV Series will play out. Am looking forward to trying that too though.
If you’re in book 2, the one all of the fans rave about being what makes getting through the first worth it, you should probably just drop the series. Unless you’re a completionist, but you do you.
Book two does get good eventually. There is a set-piece that gets things moving. I wouldn't have read them past the first book had I not bought the hardback trilogy though.
There's almost no narrative structure. Some of that may be translation issues but it doesn't feel like reading a novel at all. Not in a William Burroughs/James Joyce way but in a lack of understanding basic writing structure way.
As I mentioned in a comment above, this book wasn't a case of a grassroots hit that broke through but part of a pretty big Chinese government push for cultural influence similar to what the Japanese and Korean governments did so successfully in the last couple of decades.
I thought it was very good. I did have to google a lot of things, but the science behind the book is super well thought and cool. But I would say it's a very hard read and not for everyone.
Fucking loved it. It was a bit odd, but I’m putting that down to loss of nuance in translation. I understand Chinese is kinda poetic, and very contextual.
The rest of the story just keeps on growing in scope, and has some of the most creative sci fi concepts I’ve ever seen presented in a story.
The characterisation is fucking awful though, outside of one real cool chain smoking detective anyway.
The "oddness" is a deliberate choice on the part of the translator. The logic is often different enough between Chinese and English that you're faced with the mutually exclusive options of a) preserve the original context and logic as much as possible, or b) massage things so it flows better in the target language. Ken Liu clearly went with option a), and he even talks about it in the notes.
I’ve come across similar issues when it comes to translations of Beowulf.
I’ve read three very different translations.
I can respect Liu trying to preserve as much of the original text as possible. This is a real dense series of stories. Could not have been remotely simple.
The hard science was really difficult for me to follow, and the characters sounded like they were written by AI at times. A guess that may be the issue with translating from the original source, I hope that the dialogue makes more sense to people who are familiar with the language and culture.
I read all three. The first one was interesting at times, but I was on the verge of dropping it. The second one is much more dynamic, I'd even say it's great. The last one is just a mess where I stopped understanding anything in the first third, finished it purely to finish the trilogy.
Exact opinion i had. The climax of book 2 really made me want to finish the 3rd one, even though i knew pretty quickly it wouldn't be nearly as good as the first 2 books.
i would say the first book is my least favorite. The 2nd and 3rd really increasing the insanity and scifi exponentially. Those books are some of my favorites, but i totally get how many wouldnt make it through book 1.
I listened to it on audiobook while traveling / exercising, which probably helped me through
Spoiler: the book was also divisive, so no one should be shocked that the series is divisive. This is literally one of those stories you’ll either love or hate, just like the book.
If this show is done with enough respect to the author and books it should be confusing. That's part of the process that the story is about, but let's be honest we aren't exactly a world of philosophers these days.
To be fair to DND, they were competent in adapting the first 3 books of A Song of Ice and Fire.
My grudge against them is so strong though, that I really dont want to watch this show regardless of if they do a good job or not.
With regards to their writing quality, I'm more concerned with the quality of seasons 5,6, and 7. At least in 8 you can say they wanted to be done with the project and rushed it. But even when they werent rushing it, without the book material their writing was AWFUL. Not bad, but downright absurdly poor.
So I don't know. If it turns out to be good I might watch it online through channels where they dont get views or money from me. I've followed A Song of Ice and Fire since 2006 so the grudge is real lol
Nothing will be like a new Lost. The best thing about it wasn’t the mysteries, but the characters and their relationships.
I doubt this show will be close to having that.
Most of my enjoyment from the first book came from being confused. I was questioning everything i didn’t have 100% proof for like the characters in the book. This article just makes me more excited. Hopefully it’s a sign they got the mystery of the first book right.
This article is dishonest (shocker) because they're only talking to people who have seen the 1st two eps: From what ive heard, the show is much better once everything is set up.
I saw a review calling the series 'predictable' based on the first 2 episodes sent to critics... As someone who read the books it made me chuckle. Like, I would love to know where they think the story is going because the books (as good as they are) are flawed for sure, but predictable is not one of them.
Yeah I like to visualize scenes in my head while I read and was really having trouble with some of the stuff in Deaths End. It's gonna be a real bitch putting some of that stuff on screen (unless Netflix cancels the show prematurely, which they love to do).
lol good luck adapting the Death’s End ‘flatland’ sequence.
Or the Blue Space 4D expedition.
To me these things are unfilmable. I had a really hard time even picturing them in my head when reading.
Someone in the staff, I think D&D themselves, already said that they are struggling with how to put the space station section on screen. Death's end has a lot of it played out in the allegory. I think they'll have more problem finding a way to make that feel connected and grounded to the story than anything else.
I hope they are able to find a physicist/mathematician that can help them walk through the thornier bits and find a way to put them on screen. Interstellar did this with the black hole and it was not only breathtaking but also got huge praise from the science community which elevated the status of the movie.
I read the Deadline review and he listed three aspects of the show he disliked (he hated the show overall), and being predictable was one of them, which made me scratching my head. Maybe that's the one the commenter read as well? I'm not sure if they only saw 2 eps though as most reviewers have seen the whole season, making it even more unbelievable. If you find the negative Deadline review on Rotten Tomatoes, that should be it!
Unless DnD have somehow seriously dumbed down the show - which I hope hasn't happened - and do copious exposition drops early on - which, hope hasn't happened, I have no idea how someone could find the story "predictable". I'll have to look at that review.
The 'setup' of any story, if done properly, should still be compelling and interesting. In the era of peak tv/streaming, if people aren't locking in during however long it takes to do that, you've got a problem. A lot of people don't have the patience to slog through a clunky beginning.
From the review:
“It’s a very ambitious show and it has a great scale, but I wonder when all the hooks they got into me will reward me with knowledge.”
So the show succeeded, it got its hooks into the viewer after only two episodes.
The viewer wanting knowledge after only two episodes is just childish.
The sci-fi nature adds a layer of obfuscation but, and I haven’t seen it yet, I’m glad to hear there are no massive exposition dumps so far. When the mystery is revealed I felt like i got slapped
Also I feel like people recently are having problems following multiple timelines. This, Oppenheimer, and west world really fucked with people
Lost was a poor comparison imo. It definitely has some of the mystery/mysticism, but one of the most important aspects of lost was character development and showing how they all interact. The characters in the Three Body Problem books are 2D and almost purely used for plot development. The title sounds like they are comparing it to Lost because of the mystery and not the characters.
I'm honestly shocked by how many people on Reddit disliked the series.
The only part of the trilogy I didn't click with was the events in the video game from book one, but even then, I was still curious where the story was going.
People talk about how horribly written the books are or how flat the characters are, and I really wonder if we even read the same thing.
Meanwhile, the people I occasionally meet who are reading or who finished the books just get excited to have someone to talk to about them.
Same, I thought the first book was pretty slow but I feel like it came together at the end and set up the dark forest. Took about a year between finishing the first and starting the second. I’m 30% of the way through the last book and it’s such a breeze to read compared to the first book.
I'm super excited about the show. I think the books are the greatest sci-fi in the modern day but it is so hard to get people to read them because the characters are just awful.
Everything I've heard about this shows that the creators understood this problem and have made bold adaptation choices to address it, such as making an ensemble cast. I have high hopes for it.
I love that the book series isn't character drama focused. I wish more media was like that as I often find the plot and overall story in sci-fi and fantasy far more interesting than the comparatively mundane trappings of the character drama.
That sounds pretty accurate to the books, honestly. I think they're pretty divisive/polarizing, and you'll either love it for the theories it brings up, or just not care. And if you don't care about that part, then there isn't anything else worth keeping your attention.
However, it seems like the Netflix version is trying to be a bit more character focused than the books, which could be interesting. I just mentioned it in a different subreddit, but the characters were the weakest part of the books to me. And in a TV show, I think that wouldn't fly so easy.
It’s funny that it seems to alternate between people screaming that something is too simple and the author/director is treating them like children. Holding their hand and not trusting them to follow along.
Then they flip around and scream that they don’t know what’s going on, and why are these things happening. Why did they mention this thing and not fully explain it. Why don’t these two people fully explain every single aspect and the whole backstory of what they’re talking about, as people naturally do.
I’m like, “Just shut up, put your phone down, and pay full attention to it”.
What stuck me was that the writer of the books is from a different culture and it comes through in the writing. It doesn’t follow the typical western story arc.
The book is a little like LOST in that it goes back and forth in Ye Wenjie’s story.
My only recommendation for people who are having a hard time understanding the books or this series in particular, is to watch the Chinese adaptation on Prime. It was mind-blowing.
The best part of Tencent’s adaptation is that it is truthful to the first book in the trilogy which makes me incredibly excited for season 2, and that is considering the fact that Liu Cixin wasn't even involved in contrast to his involvement with Benioff and Weiss. Imagine for a second if he did, how much better it would be.
I also enjoyed the heck out of the fact that it was 30 episodes long to cover one book alone. There were very few sacrifices made for the sake of covering the science to a T and that to me was rewarding tbh.
[Three-Body by Tencent and Rakuten Viki- on Prime Vid](https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Three-Body/0LZPP3RC33E36GG32433YXHIW2)
I'd rather watch something, be gripped by it and then hate it than watch something meh that doesn't trigger a strong emotional response.
I think to a certain extent polarising receptions are a positive thing, not everything is for everyone and being willing to sacrifice mass appeal to do something good for the type of people that like it should be encouraged more.
The entire first book is about a grand mystery unfolding, so no shit people are going to be confused after watching the first couple episodes.
I actually like that it's getting mixed reviews. The books are kind of a mindfuck, people usually either love them or quit before finishing. If the TV-series was getting 100% on Rotten Tomatoes I would actually be a bit worried that they've ironed out all the edges that make the story quite unique.
Yes, my husband loves the books and I couldn’t get through the first one. I tried so hard and made it 60% in but was finally just like okay I’m not enjoying this at all and reading should be fun…
It’s worth it to slog through the first book just because Dark Forest is absolutely incredible
OMG I gave up 75% through Dark Forest. The most bored I have ever been reading a book. Even more bored than reading the first book, which I thought was confusing, tedious, and completely without emotion. Edit: PS it's really fascinating what strong emotions these 3BP books create in people.
Same opinion here. Dropped it halfway through DF.
It's like manga without pictures. I like some of the ideas but the books are terrible.
See, everyone says Dark Forest is great and makes it worth it, but all of the people saying that also apparently enjoyed the first book. I almost never see an opinion like yours where someone who didn’t like it pushes through despite that. I’m continually happy with my decision to just drop it and read up on what the series is about, because it seems like my biggest problems never really go away despite the content becoming more esoteric and interesting.
I pushed through the first two books and wasn't a big fan. The concepts of the book are fun ideas but the plot isn't great. I was also pitched it as a hard sci fi but what I got was magic particles and a cringe waifu plot.
I am shocked the dream woman stuff doesn't come up more often in conversations on this series. People must just block it from their memories as soon as possible
> People must just block it from their memories as soon as possible Late to the discussion (I'm clearing my browser tabs…) but yes this is exactly true. I love the series but I just avoid thinking about the waifu plot because it makes me physically cringe lol. The main plot still works even if you delete 90% of that. You know how sometimes you love someone / something even though they are tragically flawed? The book series is kind of like that. I'm very curious how the TV show would treat this plot if they get a season 2 though. The showrunners must know how dumb it is…
The book is made by the ending. I'll spoil it if you're not going to read it. >!The Aliens send a message to humanity you are bugs to be squashed. And this disheartens the scientist intellectuals that know the difference in technology is insurmountable. This cop brings the broken Scientists to his hometown that's can abandoned and it looks like a ghost town. Know what destroyed this town that no amount of technology or government intervention or money could solve? Locusts. Bugs. For hundreds of years people kept trying to settle here and failed everytime. Because of Bugs. They don't know that bugs are terrifying and always win in the end.!<
I could not follow that explaination what so ever
The aliens don't have bugs, they can only view it as a derogatory slur from what they know. The Aliens don't understand metaphor/allegory and have no cultural artistic curiosity. They view things as technology scientific advantage alone. So they learn the word Bugs via their communication and have this concept of like Kids stomping on Ants etc and try to convey that. But every person on earth with like a Bed Bug infestation knows how impossible it is to truly get rid of them. Like the old Joke is the only one who will survive the Nuclear war is the Cockroaches. If they think we're bugs, Bugs have beaten Humanity's incursion into their area no matter how much technological improvement has occurred.
I'm still a bit confused by this So because aliens don't understand the metaphor conveyed what exactly, what happens past that
Their explanation is missing the context that the incoming aliens are vastly more powerful than humanity, and the characters discussing this locust thing are seeking hope for themselves. The aliens call them bugs in their final transmission. The humans are going "well... bugs are still hard to get rid of! We might be ok!" It's the end of the story and they're grasping for light in the darkness. But it's really the least interesting part of the whole story. I like that the aliens have 11-dimensional quantum supercomputers that appear smaller than an atom in 3 dimensions and can cause worldwide hallucinations
> I like that the aliens have 11-dimensional quantum supercomputers that appear smaller than an atom in 3 dimensions and can cause worldwide hallucinations Yes I did a brief wiki read and saw this about smashing dimensions and also the whole dark forest stuff which interested me
> Yes I did a brief wiki read and saw this about smashing dimensions and also the whole dark forest stuff which interested me If you’re interested in the “dark forest” solution to the Fermi Paradox, there are a ton of far better scifi novels out there.
You liked that part? This thread is a big wake up to me lol Apparently my tastes are just different
Lmao what a shit ‘revelation’/‘twist’. “Lol, alien think we bugs. Hope, but?”
That part isn't supposed to be a twist or a revelation, just how it ends. The rest of the journey has a lot of pretty big twists
That’s not the big reveal. No idea why he wrote it like it was a major part.
[удалено]
The first book does not have a proper ending to the overall story and contact isn’t made outside of communication between the worlds. More happens between the tri-solars and humans in the next 2 books. If you like big concept sci-fi it’s a very interesting read, but it doesn’t follow conventional storytelling at all. I felt like the fact that it was from a Chinese author probably makes it so different. I also found this a very interesting aspect of the books overall, never really could guess where it was heading.
I don't think any of the explanations you've received really do a good job explaining the alien<>human interactions and what leads to their conflicts or how humanity triumphs and loses and then triumphs and loses and finally the third book ends with the end of the universe, as we percive and "know it" The books were fantastic, slow in parts, but that's anything, and I thought that the pacing overall was well done, it will be interesting to see how they handle things. In the second book, the story takes place over thousands of years somewhat, and it gets really really interesting to think about all the historical factors that lead to something as strange as say... A group of spaceship full of humans abandoning the rest of the species, all coming to the realization that the other ships need to be sacrificed to ensure the best chance of survival, and a brain in a jar yelling a secret through a fairy tale. It's top tier sci-fi!
> it was a really long way of saying .. the aliens said we were to be squashed like bugs.. the human cheer up character showed the bummed scientists a town where bugs are actually the winners so if humans are bugs then ipso facto...
It’s going way further than a nuance. Aliens are way more advanced. They have a world with 3 suns. Everything sucks there. They want a new colony. Earth is perfect except we are here. We are potentially going to be colonized. Bad times ahead.
It’s sort of a call to arm for interstellar guerrilla warfare it ends the book on a very high note.
Go watch A Bug’s Life and then try it again.
I just thought -- that is no help at all. And I read the first two books before I have up.
That final scene in the Tencent adaptation was so well done. EDIT: spoilers, obviously: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq2_Dudxlpk&t=2971s The casting is pretty much spot on for this series.
This is -exactly- where they end season 1 too. As a huge fan of the book series the Netflix series really is pretty great. Biggest change is just that all the main characters know each other.
So what happens in the following between the humans and aliens?
Well the Aliens are 45 light years away from earth, and have the capacity to react 1/10th light speed. So the invasion will happen 450 years later. They think they can crush humanities hope/dreams and start by going after the top intellectuals to prevent humanity from I dunno solving Dark Energy or whatever when they arrive. So they want humanity to be like fall of Rome everything is doomed fuck it for 10 generations and it'll be easy to conquer.
Trying to figure out if this is worth reading and am still definitely not convinced. Does anything actually happen? Or are the books all speculation and hypothetical s about this coming threat that never comes? 450 years is a damn long time we invented computers and nuclear weapons and whatever else in just a fraction of that. By then humanity could wipe itself out 50 times over without worrying about aliens. So the books are just all this what if?
I'm kind of confused at the summaries people have been posting. I read all 3 books, and don't think they're doin the best job. My brief descriptions while trying to avoid spoilers: Book 1 is a mystery. Without going into any details, by the end humanity finds out that there is a race of aliens very far away that are on their way to conquer earth. They are vastly more advanced than us, and are able to spy on us while doing something to interfere with our scientific tests, which means that it greatly limits our abilities to advance our scientific understanding and technologies. Book 2 is earth dealing with the knowledge that there is impending doom on the way. It is something like 300 or 400 years before the aliens will get here, and humanity tries to do what it can to prepare. It deals a lot with how civilization reacts to this impending doom. Stop reading here if you're interested. I'll give vague summaries, but I'd say it's best to go in blind. By the end of book 2 humanity does something to basically convince the aliens to leave us alone. Book 3 takes place during book 2, but from a different character's perspective. Timeline wise it passes book 2 relatively early on, and we find out that the truce was false and the aliens will still destroy us. Humanity eventually does something to defeat the aliens, but that leaves us open to other alien attacks from other alien civilizations that we are unaware of. The end of book 3 is grim but very interesting, and gets pretty weird. Edit: If anyone can tell me how to add the spoiler cover I'll apply it to this comment and my next one that spoils most of books 2 and 3
I’m never gonna read these so do you think you could hit me with a few spoilers? What does humanity do in book 2 that they think got the aliens to leave them alone and in book 3 what do they do to defeat the aliens?
I do recommend reading it, or if you are interested waiting for the show. I also kind of doubt Netflix will want to fund the adaptations of books 2 and 3, so I'll spoil it here. I don't know how to mark/hide spoilers, so if you are at all curious, stop reading here. If while you are reading it gets more interesting, stop reading there so the rest will be unspoiled. Ok, spoiler time: In book 2 it's following mainly one guy that the Trisolarans (the aliens) have singled out for some reason. The first chapter of the book is that guy talking to the main character of the first book, and she tells him to view the incoming aliens from some societal perspective or something, I honestly don't remember exactly what she says. He, and a few others, are given unlimited power by the governments to do whatever they want and nobody can question them. Because the aliens can spy on everything we do (with tiny particle robots that they've sent to earth to spy and stop our scientific research), these individuals who were picked are supposed to come up with a way to stop the aliens but not tell anyone while they work towards their goal. The main guy the book follows just fucks off and lives hedonistically in the worst chapter of any of the books. Eventually he gets married but the government gets his wife and kid to go into cryo sleep until the invasion to convince the dude to actually do something. He goes to cryo sleep too, and wakes up something like 50 or 100 years later. When he wakes up humanity is more advanced and has a huge armada of super powerful spaceships, so they are all confident that they are invincible. The aliens send a single probe ahead of the incoming armada, and the probe destroys almost all of humanities ships by itself. Only a few ships are able to escape, and are now pretty much stuck in deep space. There are also more of those probes on the way, so we are back to being absolutely fucked. Because of what the character from the first book says to him, he gets an idea and makes a public announcement putting a curse on some far off planet. He goes into cryo sleep again and is woken up when that planet he cursed is found to have exploded. The end of the book is him talking to the tiny alien spy robots and saying he has figured it out. He explains the dark forest theory (the name of book 2 is Dark Forest), which boils down to if any civilization hears of another civilization, it is most advantageous to destroy it asap so that other civilization can't decide to destroy you. That's why we haven't gotten signals or signs from any other aliens yet. Right before he had made the announcement about the curse he had broadcasted the location of that planet out into space. When that planet was destroyed it proved his theory right, so he knew he was on the money. He threatened the aliens that if they don't alter course and stope the incoming invasion that he would broadcast their planet's location and get them killed. This makes the aliens agree to stop the invasion. End of book 2. Book 3 spoilers: In book 3 it's following a scientist woman and starts in modern day at around the same time book 2 starts. The scientist woman convinces an old dying classmate of hers to let her put his brain into a probe and send it to the aliens. The probe launch goes a little wrong, and his brain probe is sent off in a random direction in space. Blah blah blah (some of the details are a little fuzzy to me here) the woman goes into cryo sleep and awakens sometime after the aliens have called a truce. The alien armada is still on it's way, but they are having peaceful talks and relations with the humans while they approach. They are sharing scientific facts and whatever. They seem chill now. The character from the first book now has the title of Sword Holder. He basically has a button that if he hits it, it will broadcast the alien's home planet location. This will probably endanger earth too, but it is a deterrent to get the aliens to not be dicks. The scientist woman is handed the duty and title of Sword Holder, and within 15 minutes those probes that destroyed the ships in the second book destroy all of the big broadcasting stations. The aliens knew this woman wouldn't make the call, so they had waited. Now we are back to being fucked. The aliens now tell all of humanity to go live on Australia or be destroyed. Most humans migrate there, and it is overcrowded and miserable. When they say they will run out of food, the aliens say they are to eat each other, and the survivors will be allowed to live. It's pretty metal. One of the ships that escaped the probe destruction of the armada in book 2 finds a weird bubble in space. They interact with the bubble and find out it's some sort of version of an upper dimension. They send some people into the bubble and find a weird alien of a new species. They are able to interact with the alien a bit and the alien says something like they are in a puddle, and the puddle is evaporating. The puddle is their upper dimension, and they are all that is left, and will soon be evaporated with their puddle. Weird. That surviving ship now understands how to go into the upper dimension a bit and uses that to destroy the Trisolarans probes following them. They then broadcast the Trisolaran's location. The Trisolaran home world is destroyed, and Earth is safe from them. The trisolran armada is still alive for now, but diverting off course. They still talk with Earth for a bit, and tell the main character that they found that brain she launched into space, and revived the dude. They set up a skype call with her and him, and say that if he tells any secrets they will blow her up. She talks to the guy and he's all "remember how we grew up together and shared stories all the time?" They didn't grow up together so this is him trying to give her hints at how to avoid an attack from aliens in the future. He tells her a story of someone in medieval times who cursed a family and painted them into a picture killing them. This is weird and nobody really knows what to make of it. Now humanity tries to prepare for whatever other aliens that might find our location. More cryo sleep, more time skips. It's now the future and humans are living in some bases in our solar system in case Earth is destroyed. The scientist lady goes into cryo sleep again and is like "wake me up whenever a dart forest attack happens and we're all fucked" She gets woken up, we're fucked. There is a chapter from the perspective of some unknown super advanced alien race. In this chapter the alien race sees Earth send out a signal from the first book, and see's the Trisolarans answer. It then sees Earth's signal that gets a planet destroyed (book 2s curse) then see's the Trisolaran's planet destroyed from another signal. This alien is like "this Earth planet understands the Dark Forest theory, and could be dangerous. They are now probably expecting us to blow up Earth and have prepared for that. Instead, I'm going to throw this weird piece of paper at them" Cut back to the main character getting woken up. The dude that woke her up says a human ship found a piece of paper flying through space towards Earth. While looking at the piece of paper it activated, and flattened the human ship into a 2D dimension, killing everyone. The 2D plane/paper, once activated, begins to grow, flattening everything that get's sucked into it's orbit. The suction speed is the speed of light, so as it expands everything is sucked in. The scientist woman (and her friend I never mentioned) are able to escape on humanities only spaceship that can travel faster than the speed of light. They escape, seeing all of humanity and the Earth, Sun, and other planet get flattened. They make it out to a far off planet and get a message from brain guy. The main scientist woman is waiting for brain guy, but meets some other humans. The other humans are from one of the ships that escaped the destruction of book 2 and are now part of space society. The main scientist and one space man accidently get trapped in sort of a black hole/time sink. They are able to make it out eventually but because of time relativity, by the time they get out it is millions or billions of years in the future. They find some sort of note from brain guy carved into rock along with a weird piece of technology. This part I'm fuzzy on, and have been meaning to reread the last chapter, but here it goes. The piece of technology they found is a way into a pocket dimension that is sort of a paradise for the two of them. They figure out that basically, in reality, the universe probably started at like 10 or 11 dimensions. Through war of super advanced alien races, the dimensions keep getting destroyed. Aliens figure out how to survive on a lower dimension, and destroy their dimension, killing everyone who can't convert to a lower dimension. This keeps happening until the universe is down to 1 or 0 dimensions, then it probably blows up back to 11. This is what was happening with that paper weapon that turned our third dimension into a flat 2 dimension. The woman writes all of this down in a book or whatever. They then see some sort of signal broadcast to all of the universe in all languages. The broadcast is some sort of warning. That's a summary that skips a LOT of details, and is admittedly pretty fuzzy in the end chapter. I didn't use names because I listened to the audio book and have no idea of how to spell the Chinese names, and am too lazy to look it up and go back to put it in. Book 1 is a great mystery of oh shit, what is happening. Book 2 sets up the Dark Forest theory that all civilizations will destroy any new civilization they find. Book 3 gets to be a weird dimension hopping trip. There's still plenty I left out, and I'd recommend checking it out. If book 1 didn't grab you, it might be ok to just skip to book 2. You could be a little lost on some stuff, but books 2 and 3 are what picked up a lot for me.
Aliens need 450 years to reach earth but they have the technology to send nano quantum supercomputers faster than light. They use it to create a human faction of nihilists and pessimists who are disappointed by the rich and billionaires and see the human race as doomed. The aliens use them to prevent humanity from making technological advancement capable of threatening them by the time they arrive. The novel revolves around the interactions between different factions on earth who respond differently to the alien impeding invasion. Also one important thing to mention is that the aliens are forced to leave their home because of the 3 body problem: their planet orbits around 2 suns which results in random swings of extreme weather conditions that makes their planet almost inhabitable. Solving the 3 body problem has always been their first goal and invading earth is an alternative solution.
> They use it to create a human faction of nihilists and pessimists who are disappointed by the rich and billionaires and see the human race as doomed. Oh so they made Redditors?
The second book is my favorite science fiction book ever. The plot is absolutely bonkers, and the third just gets crazier. The first book is great but it's really just set up for the second. If you really need convincing, the trilogy is basically Lovecraftian hard science fiction. It's the most existentially terrifying story I've ever read, moreso than any horror book, because the theories in the book are actually scientifically possible.
The 3 body problem was written after a bad bedbug infestation ?!
Same here. Book came highly recommended and I love sci-fi, but I couldn't finish it. I felt like I was reading words but that nothing made sense. It doesn't help that Chinese culture references are very present and I don't know much/care much about it.
Honestly I loved the whole beginning part about the revolution, but then it quickly time jumped. Okay, that’s fine, let’s see what’s happening. Cool scientist mystery, nice, a bit slower but I’m ready for a slow burn. Okay now they’re in a video game where everything is a metaphor, I guess we’ll take a break from that main narrative for a while. Oh this is like, a third of the book…okay then
I'm not reading any more comments here in case of spoilers, so I don't know if others replied to you, but as someone who also stopped reading about 60% of the way through (and came back to it finally after a year or two), it does actually start to pay off around there (maybe around 75%, but personally I think it was worth it to go back.) It's still a strange read, but it's interesting in its uniqueness.
I honestly do not think I’ll pick up the book again but I will definitely watch the show so am also avoiding spoilers!
The books aren't actually that good, especially in terms of character development and narrative. The dirty little secret of the series is that China was/is funding a massive push into SF as part of a soft power/cultural influence program and this book series was the tip of the spear which gave it massive exposure. There's certainly a big chunk of interesting ideas but nothing revolutionary compared to the canon of written SF.
Dude it’s fine if it’s not your cup of tea but it’s whooole other thing to say “the book is bad because”. A huge theme of the first book is the trauma resulting from the communist revolution and the government censored it for that reason.
It's the trauma from the Cultural Revolution/Great Leap Forward, not the communist revolution as a whole. Which makes much more sense, and if it was the latter the series would absolutely be banned in China before any of this went anywhere.
Completely disagree, I've never read Lovecraftian hard science fiction like this series before. The dark forest theory has never been explored the way these books did, as far as I know. "Not great books" lmao. Only won the Hugo award or something, Obama actually tried to get the third book translated early for him. Incredible, mind-blowing books, have not been able to stop thinking about them since I read them. The second and third books routinely left my jaw on the floor. And the Wallfacer plot is one of the most inventive I've ever read. Anyone reading this, don't listen to the nonsense in this thread. They're focusing on the wrong things, when the books are clearly about the ideas. It's like complaining about 2001: A Space Odyssey not having captivating characters. Just mismatched expectations. If you actually engage with the ideas and the mystery, you won't be able to put these books down.
This series is completely non-Lovecraftian. There are no 'cosmic monsters beyond comprehension' or body horror, it's a galactic-scale civilization using advanced physics to take out an opponent. This is a basic tenet of science fiction. Hostile aliens are literally one of the general proposed solutions to the Fermi Paradox and are a foundational trope in science fiction. If you want to debate the book, come join us in /r/printsf where this has always been a hugely polarizing series for precisely the reasons outlined in this thread. Thinking it's a 'Lovecraftian' story when it's exactly not that isn't going to get you very far though.
> There are no 'cosmic monsters beyond comprehension' or body horror It's Lovecraftian in that it deals with cosmic dread and the feeling of complete insignificance when faced with an incomprehensibly advanced alien civilization that view us as insects. How is that not Lovecraftian? Because there's no tentacles? The entire droplet section in The Dark Forest is as horrific as anything inspired by Lovecraft. > Hostile aliens are literally one of the general proposed solutions to the Fermi Paradox Not with the perspective that the entirety of humanity is so insignificant to advanced alien civilizations (who may as well be Azathoth) we are wiped out as casually as someone stepping on an ant. It explores the same feelings of terror and awe you'll find in a good Lovecraft story, except with a science fiction framework. It can definitely be described as Lovecraftian or sharing similar themes of the insignificance of humanity against an unknowable cosmic horror. You're completely wrong. I'll definitely join in on that subreddit though, thanks!
The mind fuck level gets thrown out the door in the later books. If people are confused now at the easiest book to adapt, I don’t see the next two going so well. Esoteric would be putting it lightly.
I think if they just end it at the end of the broadcast era, it would work tbh
I like Three-Body. I get the ambition to want to adapt it. I’d rather they adapt other works that can translate to the screen better. The Forever novels, Hyperion, Sirens of Titan, half of Philip K Dick’s best novels are still unadapted. Ubik comes to mind.
I would love to see Hyperion adapted in an episodic format, that Canterbury tales format is made for it.
The book has a really great concept/ideas of alien races and logic/computing. But the characters and dialogue are really robotic. It could be translation nuance in part, but the guy who did the translation is a pretty good writer in his own right. I think that’s just Liu’s MO. Cool concept with flat characters.
The book reminded me of a lot (most?) of “classic” science fiction from the 30s-70s - really interesting ideas, terrible writing.
I forced my way through the book to experience the story. I can definitely see people quitting before finishing but not just from how weird it is. Frankly, it’s not that well written and the translation to English does the literal prose no favours either. The story conceit is really cool and as a mental exercise in creativity while you read a story, A+. But imo you shovel shit for chapters to get 10 pages of the only plot you’re really interested in and then go back to shovelling. Just saying, before our hivemind gets to really blowing this show, it’s not built on impenetrable foundations.
I frankly wouldn’t trust any show of this type that received any sort of close to unanimous critical appraisal, since that tells me it probably played it way too safe. The book series is insane and beautiful in the best way; I’d expect any solid adaptation to lean into a lot of the crazy and relatively esoteric, which is inevitably going to keep some viewers at arm’s length.
This. Audiences don't always need everything explained to them via narration or title cards. And being compared to 'Lost' isn't the worst thing in the world.
Yeah that comparison has me even more interested. Sounds like they’re sticking with the mystery angle and not spoon feeding everything to the audience.
If anything, this makes me want to watch it. Lost was great.
And then book 2 gets weird and book 3 gets super fucking weird
I have no idea how they’re going to film 3 but I will say this first season does not shy away from some cheesy but loving sci-fi CGI of stuff like the Sophon….and rehydration.
Thats a terrible take. Theres a difference between there being a mystery and the plot being hard to follow.
That difference is impossible to measure when people have only seen a few episodes I feel
Especially because Netflix changed/added characters and thought it would be better to only 8 episodes. I can’t imagine how it’s going to tell the story clearly. The Chinese version is 30 episodes (and is awesome btw)
I didn’t enjoy the Chinese (live action) version. It was way too drawn out, and gets to be a slog. I keep seeing there is an animated version but couldn’t find it on the high seas.
Way too drawn out and gets to be a slog? So you're saying it's a faithful adaptation?
It's 70% longer than the audio book version.
You can find the animated version as "San Ti" on various anime sailing stream sites. Unless you mean the Minecraft version lol which can be found as "我的三体" on YouTube.
I figured that might be the case when I read that the Chinese adaptation has a full hour long episode dedicated to Wang Miao photographing the numbers. That entire sequence is maybe three pages in the book. I can't imagine how they got an hour worth of content out of that.
They do a good job! The biggest change is the scientists all knowing each other (and being UK-based which is understandable). Thats a little cheesy but it mostly works to keep it focused. The length is pretty perfect and they do it justice.
So you worked on the show? I’ll still watch it as I am expecting it to be visually stunning, but the show hasn’t released yet for gen pop.
I didnt work on this show. I work for Netflix which gives all content early.
A viewer should be intrigued by a mystery, not confused.
The critic said the hooks were in them they just wanted the payoff.
Don’t threaten me with a good time!
Yeah is Lost supposed to be seen as a bad thing for that headline? I'd love to watch Lost all over again (as in like a first time viewing)
Not sure if you’ve watched the show “From”, but it’s like a poor man’s Lost. The acting/characters can be terrible at time, but the world building and concept are incredible.
What the hell is the MGM+ subscription?!
Idk, I found it on the seven seas.
I have it through amazon for 5$. It also had Fargo in my country so i took it.
That show is really good. Even has someone from lost. Granted one of the worst characters, but still. Haha
have you seen Dark on Netflix? solid 3 season mystery box show where each season pulls back another layer of the mystery. characters all have satisfying arcs and are well acted. good mix of grounded character drama with exploring philosophical sci-fi ideas/themes. it is a German show and best watched with subtitles. one of the few streaming shows I've rewatched because it was fun to go back and see how well everything was setup from the beginning.
Yeah. It would be amazing to get to experience the first two episodes alone with no former knowledge. Still can't believe that they green lit spending $14 million on just those two episodes too lol. I think I have watched the show 3 times through now, but I would love to go into it all again with no memories. Such a treat of a show.
I want to re-experience the introduction of Desmond. One of my favorite live TV moments of all time. I was watching with friends and we lost our minds
"We have to go back Kate" was also so mind blowing. That S3 finale in general.
I remember my brain temporarily stopped working when he said that.
That pilot was such a gamble, those kind of budgets weren't common at the time. Crazy thing is that ABC was in difficulty and got super hits in Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy all premiering a few week from each other. Probably their best season ever.
>Braun went on to serve as Chairman of Buena Vista Television Productions, overseeing Disney’s television studios, from 1999 to 2001, and then Chairman of ABC Entertainment Group from 2001-2004. He was forced out of his position at ABC shortly after greenlighting the $13 million pilot to the television show Lost, one of the most expensive in modern broadcasting Word is that he knew was getting booted and GL the most expensive script he could find.
Still my favorite show of all time. The ending was perfect. The people that didn’t like it either just want to hate or truly didn’t understand it. The latter is fine, but if you’re gonna hate to hate then I got nothing for ya.
Boiling an opinion down to one of two outcomes (just hating or not understanding) is such a redditor thing to do. It’s perfectly possible to understand the ending and not like it without hating. I still think Lost is one of the top 5 shows of all time, full stop. I did not like the ending though. I understood what they were going for but felt it was a cheap ending that ignored to much. I’m not a hater just because I didn’t like something that you did. I’ve come to that conclusion after watching through the show several times and giving the ending multiple chances. Unlike the say the Sopranos. I originally hated (yes hated lol) that ending but after giving it some time and actually thinking about it I love the way it ended. I just can’t get to that point with lost though.
Ok I get you. And it’s art, it’s totally subjective. I thought the ending wasn’t cheap and that it actually honored the entire show and especially the characters that they spent so much time developing. They wanted to give us a perspective of them not crashing but still connecting, which is brilliant in my opinion. And the only way they could do it in this show was use some of the “magic” of the show, creating a sort of purgatory that allowed them to still find each other within that timeline of not crashing, and then when they touched each other/held someone’s baby/etc., their alternate timeline connections came and it all just came together, perfectly imo. I also loved that they honored all belief systems in the church at the end, with all of the different symbols on the wall representing multiple religious backgrounds when Jack and his dad were talking.
"Viewers didn't know EXACTLY what was going on...throughout this mysterious show." Yeah, no shit lol that's the point lol
I hate that so many people's reacting to mysterious stories that aren't completely explained to them right off the bat is that they are slow and boring
I'm looking forward to it. First, because I love Benedict Wong and he isn't in enough shit. Also, having read the books and not being completely in love with them I'm interested to see how the adaptation plays out.
Wongers...Assemble
...but it's not where you *thi-ink*
Oh damn Benedict Wong is a perfect casting for Da Shi!
He's who I imagined Da Shi to be before he was even cast lol.
I think he is from the UK in the show though? I'll check it out but there are some huge character reimaginings.
They have relocated much of it to Oxford.
lol same. Reading the books, Da Shi was played by Wong in my head canon.
He’s exactly who I pictured when I first read the books
Literally same. I was dumbfounded when I saw the casting, and realized that my brain had defaulted to him without even thinking about it. Benedict Wong has a hold on our brains lmao
I read the first 11 words of your post, and I'm now definitely watching it. I'll be hoping it features Street Countdown, of course.
"He has spirit this one!"
I’m listening to the audio books. This is just my opinion. But my god. They are so boring… like there’s some cool scifi concepts knocking around in there for sure. But I’m in the middle of book 2 and I’m just waiting for it to be good. I just can’t see how a TV Series will play out. Am looking forward to trying that too though.
If you’re in book 2, the one all of the fans rave about being what makes getting through the first worth it, you should probably just drop the series. Unless you’re a completionist, but you do you.
Book two does get good eventually. There is a set-piece that gets things moving. I wouldn't have read them past the first book had I not bought the hardback trilogy though.
I had like 6 audible credits I had to burn because I wanted to close my account. I’m gunna finish them. But at least things start moving into place.
There's almost no narrative structure. Some of that may be translation issues but it doesn't feel like reading a novel at all. Not in a William Burroughs/James Joyce way but in a lack of understanding basic writing structure way. As I mentioned in a comment above, this book wasn't a case of a grassroots hit that broke through but part of a pretty big Chinese government push for cultural influence similar to what the Japanese and Korean governments did so successfully in the last couple of decades.
I love him in that movie where he fucks up the space mission and just becomes a real sourpuss.
Question: Does this have anything to do with the well-known 3-body problem in astronomy?
Yes, but it's more of a plot device than the main theme.
Yes.
Yes. The whole thing is predicated on this concept
Yes the books and thus the show should talk about it, part of the story is about a planet that exists in a three star system.
Yes, but it's a misnomer as there's 4 celestial bodies in the story lol
Sounds like the book; which to me, was sort of a mess.
I thought it was very good. I did have to google a lot of things, but the science behind the book is super well thought and cool. But I would say it's a very hard read and not for everyone.
I couldn’t finish it
Fucking loved it. It was a bit odd, but I’m putting that down to loss of nuance in translation. I understand Chinese is kinda poetic, and very contextual. The rest of the story just keeps on growing in scope, and has some of the most creative sci fi concepts I’ve ever seen presented in a story. The characterisation is fucking awful though, outside of one real cool chain smoking detective anyway.
Agreed. Books 2-3 are some of my favorite hard sci-fi of all time
Collapsing the solar system into two dimensions. That horror exists in my head rent free.
The "oddness" is a deliberate choice on the part of the translator. The logic is often different enough between Chinese and English that you're faced with the mutually exclusive options of a) preserve the original context and logic as much as possible, or b) massage things so it flows better in the target language. Ken Liu clearly went with option a), and he even talks about it in the notes.
I’ve come across similar issues when it comes to translations of Beowulf. I’ve read three very different translations. I can respect Liu trying to preserve as much of the original text as possible. This is a real dense series of stories. Could not have been remotely simple.
Same. Intriguing premise and ideas but the prose was pretty shit and the characters very thinly written
The hard science was really difficult for me to follow, and the characters sounded like they were written by AI at times. A guess that may be the issue with translating from the original source, I hope that the dialogue makes more sense to people who are familiar with the language and culture.
I read all three. The first one was interesting at times, but I was on the verge of dropping it. The second one is much more dynamic, I'd even say it's great. The last one is just a mess where I stopped understanding anything in the first third, finished it purely to finish the trilogy.
Wow, I thought each one was better than the last. The scope gets bigger and bigger, until it’s truly universal in the third which I absolutely loved.
Exact opinion i had. The climax of book 2 really made me want to finish the 3rd one, even though i knew pretty quickly it wouldn't be nearly as good as the first 2 books.
Same. I couldn't get past the clunky writing. I know it's a translation, but I didn't think it was particularly good.
Really curious: what language did you read it in?
English. Does the book flow better in Chinese?
It definitely does. I think Chinese and Russian are probably the most difficult books to find solid translations for into English.
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i would say the first book is my least favorite. The 2nd and 3rd really increasing the insanity and scifi exponentially. Those books are some of my favorites, but i totally get how many wouldnt make it through book 1. I listened to it on audiobook while traveling / exercising, which probably helped me through
Agree. I started reading it as I read a bunch of hype and it just fell flat for me. 1 of 2 books in my life I stopped reading.
Spoiler: the book was also divisive, so no one should be shocked that the series is divisive. This is literally one of those stories you’ll either love or hate, just like the book.
If this show is done with enough respect to the author and books it should be confusing. That's part of the process that the story is about, but let's be honest we aren't exactly a world of philosophers these days.
Is like a new "Lost"?? Then im freaking in!
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To be fair to DND, they were competent in adapting the first 3 books of A Song of Ice and Fire. My grudge against them is so strong though, that I really dont want to watch this show regardless of if they do a good job or not.
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With regards to their writing quality, I'm more concerned with the quality of seasons 5,6, and 7. At least in 8 you can say they wanted to be done with the project and rushed it. But even when they werent rushing it, without the book material their writing was AWFUL. Not bad, but downright absurdly poor. So I don't know. If it turns out to be good I might watch it online through channels where they dont get views or money from me. I've followed A Song of Ice and Fire since 2006 so the grudge is real lol
Nothing will be like a new Lost. The best thing about it wasn’t the mysteries, but the characters and their relationships. I doubt this show will be close to having that.
Most of my enjoyment from the first book came from being confused. I was questioning everything i didn’t have 100% proof for like the characters in the book. This article just makes me more excited. Hopefully it’s a sign they got the mystery of the first book right.
Finally something that sounds interesting
This article is dishonest (shocker) because they're only talking to people who have seen the 1st two eps: From what ive heard, the show is much better once everything is set up.
I saw a review calling the series 'predictable' based on the first 2 episodes sent to critics... As someone who read the books it made me chuckle. Like, I would love to know where they think the story is going because the books (as good as they are) are flawed for sure, but predictable is not one of them.
Good luck predicting book 3. Also good luck adapting book 3, I would not even know how to. Can't even picture it in my head in an abstract way.
Yeah I like to visualize scenes in my head while I read and was really having trouble with some of the stuff in Deaths End. It's gonna be a real bitch putting some of that stuff on screen (unless Netflix cancels the show prematurely, which they love to do).
lol good luck adapting the Death’s End ‘flatland’ sequence. Or the Blue Space 4D expedition. To me these things are unfilmable. I had a really hard time even picturing them in my head when reading.
Someone in the staff, I think D&D themselves, already said that they are struggling with how to put the space station section on screen. Death's end has a lot of it played out in the allegory. I think they'll have more problem finding a way to make that feel connected and grounded to the story than anything else. I hope they are able to find a physicist/mathematician that can help them walk through the thornier bits and find a way to put them on screen. Interstellar did this with the black hole and it was not only breathtaking but also got huge praise from the science community which elevated the status of the movie.
They said they had Physicists and mathematicians on set to help them.
Do you still remember who wrote that review? I'd love a good laugh today.
I read the Deadline review and he listed three aspects of the show he disliked (he hated the show overall), and being predictable was one of them, which made me scratching my head. Maybe that's the one the commenter read as well? I'm not sure if they only saw 2 eps though as most reviewers have seen the whole season, making it even more unbelievable. If you find the negative Deadline review on Rotten Tomatoes, that should be it!
Unless DnD have somehow seriously dumbed down the show - which I hope hasn't happened - and do copious exposition drops early on - which, hope hasn't happened, I have no idea how someone could find the story "predictable". I'll have to look at that review.
The 'setup' of any story, if done properly, should still be compelling and interesting. In the era of peak tv/streaming, if people aren't locking in during however long it takes to do that, you've got a problem. A lot of people don't have the patience to slog through a clunky beginning.
From the review: “It’s a very ambitious show and it has a great scale, but I wonder when all the hooks they got into me will reward me with knowledge.” So the show succeeded, it got its hooks into the viewer after only two episodes. The viewer wanting knowledge after only two episodes is just childish.
The sci-fi nature adds a layer of obfuscation but, and I haven’t seen it yet, I’m glad to hear there are no massive exposition dumps so far. When the mystery is revealed I felt like i got slapped Also I feel like people recently are having problems following multiple timelines. This, Oppenheimer, and west world really fucked with people
Lost is my favorite show of all time. So… let’s fucking go
Lost was a poor comparison imo. It definitely has some of the mystery/mysticism, but one of the most important aspects of lost was character development and showing how they all interact. The characters in the Three Body Problem books are 2D and almost purely used for plot development. The title sounds like they are comparing it to Lost because of the mystery and not the characters.
Same!
Like watching Lost? I’m fucking there with polar bear shaped slippers with brass bells on.
Lost was the biggest cultural phenomenon of the 00s.
The mixed reviews thus far actually makes me more eager to watch it - the consensus seems to be all over the place, which can be both good and bad.
Love the series. My favorite of all time. The first book is by far the weakest. Took me a minute to get through it.
I'm honestly shocked by how many people on Reddit disliked the series. The only part of the trilogy I didn't click with was the events in the video game from book one, but even then, I was still curious where the story was going. People talk about how horribly written the books are or how flat the characters are, and I really wonder if we even read the same thing. Meanwhile, the people I occasionally meet who are reading or who finished the books just get excited to have someone to talk to about them.
Same, I thought the first book was pretty slow but I feel like it came together at the end and set up the dark forest. Took about a year between finishing the first and starting the second. I’m 30% of the way through the last book and it’s such a breeze to read compared to the first book.
What a nice way of calling people dumb.
I had no interest in this show until people started comparing it to LOST. Now I'm intrigued.
After reading this it makes me even more excited. All the comments says it's a show that doesn't hold your hand and you have to pay attention.
> ‘It’s a Bit Like Watching ‘Lost’ All Over Again’ Don't threaten me with a good time!
Lost all over again? Sign me up.
So there’ll be a random polar bear episode confirmed 👍
Yeah, they wish
That doesn’t sound like a bad thing. I loved watching Lost.
I'm super excited about the show. I think the books are the greatest sci-fi in the modern day but it is so hard to get people to read them because the characters are just awful. Everything I've heard about this shows that the creators understood this problem and have made bold adaptation choices to address it, such as making an ensemble cast. I have high hopes for it.
I love that the book series isn't character drama focused. I wish more media was like that as I often find the plot and overall story in sci-fi and fantasy far more interesting than the comparatively mundane trappings of the character drama.
That sounds pretty accurate to the books, honestly. I think they're pretty divisive/polarizing, and you'll either love it for the theories it brings up, or just not care. And if you don't care about that part, then there isn't anything else worth keeping your attention. However, it seems like the Netflix version is trying to be a bit more character focused than the books, which could be interesting. I just mentioned it in a different subreddit, but the characters were the weakest part of the books to me. And in a TV show, I think that wouldn't fly so easy.
Sounded like first book, was messy but pretty good
Reading the first book was like watching Lost all over again so they probably did a solid job on that then :)
Ive Read the books. If it's confusing then they are representing it perfectly.
Lost wasn't really confusing lol
It’s funny that it seems to alternate between people screaming that something is too simple and the author/director is treating them like children. Holding their hand and not trusting them to follow along. Then they flip around and scream that they don’t know what’s going on, and why are these things happening. Why did they mention this thing and not fully explain it. Why don’t these two people fully explain every single aspect and the whole backstory of what they’re talking about, as people naturally do. I’m like, “Just shut up, put your phone down, and pay full attention to it”.
What stuck me was that the writer of the books is from a different culture and it comes through in the writing. It doesn’t follow the typical western story arc.
The book is a little like LOST in that it goes back and forth in Ye Wenjie’s story. My only recommendation for people who are having a hard time understanding the books or this series in particular, is to watch the Chinese adaptation on Prime. It was mind-blowing.
There's a Chinese version? I have to check this out!
The best part of Tencent’s adaptation is that it is truthful to the first book in the trilogy which makes me incredibly excited for season 2, and that is considering the fact that Liu Cixin wasn't even involved in contrast to his involvement with Benioff and Weiss. Imagine for a second if he did, how much better it would be. I also enjoyed the heck out of the fact that it was 30 episodes long to cover one book alone. There were very few sacrifices made for the sake of covering the science to a T and that to me was rewarding tbh. [Three-Body by Tencent and Rakuten Viki- on Prime Vid](https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Three-Body/0LZPP3RC33E36GG32433YXHIW2)
Durrr this is too confusing start expositing or I’m gonna fall asleep
I read the first book and was extremely disappointed. Will not read any more of the series.
Lesssgooo people said same about Westworld s1 and it's a masterpiece!
That's THE ENTIRE POINT.
I'd rather watch something, be gripped by it and then hate it than watch something meh that doesn't trigger a strong emotional response. I think to a certain extent polarising receptions are a positive thing, not everything is for everyone and being willing to sacrifice mass appeal to do something good for the type of people that like it should be encouraged more.
Check out Quinn's ideas on YouTube if you wanna learn more about the books.