The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
I'm going to classify this one as an interesting failure.
I probably need to start with the title. The title is both the name of a virtual reality game and meant to be a descriptor of the problem faced by the civilization portrayed in the game. The unknown world of the game is the satellite of three suns which causes "chaotic era" where temperatures fluctuate tend towards extreme heat or cold and "stable era" where civilization can develop.
The problem I have with this is what's described is not a three-body problem, but a four-body problem (the three suns and the planet) because ultimately what people really are interested in is the orbit of the planet and whether it is orbiting stably around one of the suns or being dragged between them in an unstable orbit. The system in question is a counter factual Alpha Centauri/Alpha Proximal (as they have a stable, predictable orbit.) See also loonunit's comments on my tweet complaining about this.
I mentioned yesterday that I found the characterization of some scientists unbelievable, and that problem did not abate through the novel. There were also other points in the novel where the science felt rather dodgy. In particular, at one point the three suns align in a syzygy and the alleged gravitational effect of this is to completely counteract the gravitational force of the planet. The problem I have with this is the sun's gravitational pull on a person is 0.06% of the effect of the Earth's pull on the same person. So either those suns are much, much bigger or they are much closer (and presumably the life that lives on them would be the sort adapted to live on Mercury, not Earth.) So for an allegedly hard SF book, I'm not feeling like Liu did much in the way of sums to back up his world building.
The book opens with what I think is its most successful section, set during the Cultural Revolution where Ye Wenjie sees her father, an astrophysics professor murdered during a rally that is trying to force a confession out of him. The story follows Ye where two years later she is part of tree clearing crew and offers to rewrite a letter for an acquaintance highlighting the ecological damage they are creating with their logging. The letter is not received well and the acquaintance betrays her and says that she wrote it and stole his copy of Silent Spring. She is taken into custody and pressured to sign a "confession" but she refuses. Eventually she is brought to what we eventually learn is a SETI operation up on the mountain near where she is logging. Between the death of her father and the betrayal, Ye has lost faith in humanity and this camp is the perfect place for her to hide from it all.
The next section was largely filled with Wang, the main protagonist infiltrating the three-body game and descriptions of his interactions in the game. There were a number of touches that I enjoyed. One was when they made a computer out of people. Soldiers act as all the components with three soldiers being used to make an AND gate and combining them to make the motherboard and scribes serving as RAM. Eventually, the computer boots for the first time:
“A row of soldiers standing halfway down the face of the pyramid repeated the order using flag signals. In a moment, the motherboard made of thirty million men seemed to turn into a lake filled with sparkling lights. Tens of millions of tiny flags waved. In the display formation closest to the base of the pyramid, a progress bar made of numerous green flags slowly advanced, indicating the percentage of the self-test that had been completed. Ten minutes later, the progress bar reached its end.
“Self-test complete! Begin boot sequence! Load operating system!”
Below, the light cavalry on the main bus that passed through the entire human-formation computer began to move swiftly. The main bus soon turned into a turbulent river. Along the way, the river fed into numerous thin tributaries, infiltrating all the modular subformations. Soon, the ripple of black and white flags coalesced into surging waves that filled the entire motherboard. The central CPU area was the most tumultuous, like gunpowder on fire.
Except it doesn't quite make it, as several soldiers make an error and they are immediately beheaded. The whole scene is a chilling reminder of the way China can mobilize their population (and just as quickly throw them away if they are damaged.) Which we really ought to remember every time we are buying an expensive piece of electronics that was made in a Chinese factory.
I also liked that the way the trisolarians coped with their unstable world was to essentially dehydrate themselves into suspended animation and then wait for a stable era. The goal throughout is trying to predict the when there will be stable periods and when there will be chaotic ones. Eventually, when Wang has played the game long enough, it's revealed that they won't ever find a solution and eventually the planet will be captured by one of the suns. Which leads Wang to the next goal-find a new home for the Trisolarans.
The final section of the book is again in the real world where it is revealed the Ye is the leader of people who want to hand over the earth to the Trisolarans and they are already on their way (but won't be there for another 450 years.) To stop earth from outstripping their progress, the Trisolarians have made some intelligent protons by dimensionally unfolding them and then printing circuits on them and then refolding them back together. (Which sounded cool, but also bobbins.) These "sotons" were then sent at the speed of light to the Earth to stop us from further development. (This is why people are getting random results as mentioned in my last post.) They are also going around and doing weird things like adding the countdown clock to some photos Wang took.
The book ends before the aliens arrive, but with the conspiracy to hand over the planet exposed and the world governments all concerned about what is to come.
Ye is probably the most well developed character. Wang is a blank slate and most of the others hover in stereotype country. I didn't really mind so much as the story has more of thriller structure with a focus on plot.
So as I said at the beginning, an interesting failure. A failure because I think the science isn't convincing and there isn't enough in plot or characterization to distract me from that. But it was interesting enough that I want to read the next installment. (And it will appear on my ballot above no award, but the lowest of the three non-pup nominees.)
I probably need to start with the title. The title is both the name of a virtual reality game and meant to be a descriptor of the problem faced by the civilization portrayed in the game. The unknown world of the game is the satellite of three suns which causes "chaotic era" where temperatures fluctuate tend towards extreme heat or cold and "stable era" where civilization can develop.
The problem I have with this is what's described is not a three-body problem, but a four-body problem (the three suns and the planet) because ultimately what people really are interested in is the orbit of the planet and whether it is orbiting stably around one of the suns or being dragged between them in an unstable orbit. The system in question is a counter factual Alpha Centauri/Alpha Proximal (as they have a stable, predictable orbit.) See also loonunit's comments on my tweet complaining about this.
I mentioned yesterday that I found the characterization of some scientists unbelievable, and that problem did not abate through the novel. There were also other points in the novel where the science felt rather dodgy. In particular, at one point the three suns align in a syzygy and the alleged gravitational effect of this is to completely counteract the gravitational force of the planet. The problem I have with this is the sun's gravitational pull on a person is 0.06% of the effect of the Earth's pull on the same person. So either those suns are much, much bigger or they are much closer (and presumably the life that lives on them would be the sort adapted to live on Mercury, not Earth.) So for an allegedly hard SF book, I'm not feeling like Liu did much in the way of sums to back up his world building.
The book opens with what I think is its most successful section, set during the Cultural Revolution where Ye Wenjie sees her father, an astrophysics professor murdered during a rally that is trying to force a confession out of him. The story follows Ye where two years later she is part of tree clearing crew and offers to rewrite a letter for an acquaintance highlighting the ecological damage they are creating with their logging. The letter is not received well and the acquaintance betrays her and says that she wrote it and stole his copy of Silent Spring. She is taken into custody and pressured to sign a "confession" but she refuses. Eventually she is brought to what we eventually learn is a SETI operation up on the mountain near where she is logging. Between the death of her father and the betrayal, Ye has lost faith in humanity and this camp is the perfect place for her to hide from it all.
The next section was largely filled with Wang, the main protagonist infiltrating the three-body game and descriptions of his interactions in the game. There were a number of touches that I enjoyed. One was when they made a computer out of people. Soldiers act as all the components with three soldiers being used to make an AND gate and combining them to make the motherboard and scribes serving as RAM. Eventually, the computer boots for the first time:
“A row of soldiers standing halfway down the face of the pyramid repeated the order using flag signals. In a moment, the motherboard made of thirty million men seemed to turn into a lake filled with sparkling lights. Tens of millions of tiny flags waved. In the display formation closest to the base of the pyramid, a progress bar made of numerous green flags slowly advanced, indicating the percentage of the self-test that had been completed. Ten minutes later, the progress bar reached its end.
“Self-test complete! Begin boot sequence! Load operating system!”
Below, the light cavalry on the main bus that passed through the entire human-formation computer began to move swiftly. The main bus soon turned into a turbulent river. Along the way, the river fed into numerous thin tributaries, infiltrating all the modular subformations. Soon, the ripple of black and white flags coalesced into surging waves that filled the entire motherboard. The central CPU area was the most tumultuous, like gunpowder on fire.
Except it doesn't quite make it, as several soldiers make an error and they are immediately beheaded. The whole scene is a chilling reminder of the way China can mobilize their population (and just as quickly throw them away if they are damaged.) Which we really ought to remember every time we are buying an expensive piece of electronics that was made in a Chinese factory.
I also liked that the way the trisolarians coped with their unstable world was to essentially dehydrate themselves into suspended animation and then wait for a stable era. The goal throughout is trying to predict the when there will be stable periods and when there will be chaotic ones. Eventually, when Wang has played the game long enough, it's revealed that they won't ever find a solution and eventually the planet will be captured by one of the suns. Which leads Wang to the next goal-find a new home for the Trisolarans.
The final section of the book is again in the real world where it is revealed the Ye is the leader of people who want to hand over the earth to the Trisolarans and they are already on their way (but won't be there for another 450 years.) To stop earth from outstripping their progress, the Trisolarians have made some intelligent protons by dimensionally unfolding them and then printing circuits on them and then refolding them back together. (Which sounded cool, but also bobbins.) These "sotons" were then sent at the speed of light to the Earth to stop us from further development. (This is why people are getting random results as mentioned in my last post.) They are also going around and doing weird things like adding the countdown clock to some photos Wang took.
The book ends before the aliens arrive, but with the conspiracy to hand over the planet exposed and the world governments all concerned about what is to come.
Ye is probably the most well developed character. Wang is a blank slate and most of the others hover in stereotype country. I didn't really mind so much as the story has more of thriller structure with a focus on plot.
So as I said at the beginning, an interesting failure. A failure because I think the science isn't convincing and there isn't enough in plot or characterization to distract me from that. But it was interesting enough that I want to read the next installment. (And it will appear on my ballot above no award, but the lowest of the three non-pup nominees.)