The Three-body Problem by Cixin Liu. Translated by Ken Liu. Narrated by Luke Daniels. Macmillan Audio, 2014. 13 hours (approx.).
I know a man who reads approximately ten science fiction novels a month, and has been reading at that rate for at least eight years. So when he said Cixin Liu’s The Three-body Problem was the best sci-fi novel he’s ever read, I listened.
According to Wikipedia the novel was first serialized in 2006 and published as its own book in 2008. Ken Liu’s English translation was published by Tor Books in 2014. It became the first Asian novel to win the Hugo Award for “Best Novel” and was nominated for a Nebula Award. Netflix is producing a film adaptation due out sometime in 2023.
The Three-Body Problem is a complex tale told with a variety of narrative devices. There are time jumps, multiple narratives, flashbacks and interviews. In the hands of a lesser writer this could be a point of criticism, but Liu handles it expertly. Moreover, he uses these devices to control the flow of information. The result is mystery and urgency.
The novel begins in the 1960s during China’s Cultural Revolution. Ye Wenjie’s father is killed by students in the Red Guard during a struggle session that eerily reminds me of student protests in recent years. Later, she is sentenced to prison when a letter she transcribed for a journalist was deemed seditious. However, because Ye is an astrophysicist from Tsinghua University, two military physicists recruit her to work on the secretive Red Coast Base. The nature of Red Coast is revealed much later in the novel, but for the purposes of this review we’ll discuss it next.
Red Coast broadcasts radio singles into space in an effort to locate alien life. The search is futile until Ye discovers she can amplify the signal using the sun. She makes contact with the Trisolarans. Their first message is a warning: if Earth replies, the Trisolarans will find it and invade.
At this point Ye has an important decision to make, and it’ll inform the reader of Ye’s physiological state as well as Liu’s theme. She chooses to reply, effectively damning human civilization.
Ye is experiencing an existential crisis. What she witnessed in the Cultural Revolution - in particular her father being beaten to death, but also the rejection of truth and science - has left her disillusioned with the human species. In her mind, alien intervention is the only solution even if that solution might mean total annihilation. To keep her transmission a secret Ye murders two people - one of which was her husband.
Her sentiment is shared by Mike Evans: wealthy American, radical environmentalist and antispecist. Together they create the Earth-Trisolaris Organization (ETO), a kind of cult hellbent on aiding the Trisolaran invasion of Earth.
Flash forward to the present day. There are a number of strange deaths among top scientists that have alarmed world leaders. Nanotechnologist Wang Miao and detective Shi Qiang are tasked to investigate a fraternity of scientists who may be connected in some way. Wang discovers a virtual reality game called Three Body.
Three Body is a recruitment tool for the ETO. It is used to measure a player's sympathies for their cause before being admitted into the organization. In the game, players are tasked with solving the three body problem, a real-life physics dilemma involving a planet caught in the unstable orbits of three suns.
Trisolaris is one such planet. Its climate randomly flips between “stable” and “chaotic eras” depending on the position of the three suns. In the stable eras, civilization thrives. In the chaotic ones, civilization is destroyed by extreme heat, cold or forces of gravity.
Wang’s time spent in the Three Body game are some of the most interesting segments of the novel. The Trisolaran world is rich and fascinating, and Liu’s prose is so vivid that it keeps the reader entertained. One of the best scenes in the book is the near destruction of the planet by gravitational forces.
The three body problem is beyond this reviewer's understanding. It has no “general closed-form” solution … whatever that means. Liu uses the problem as a metaphor for the struggles of human civilization. Just as the planet, Trisolaris, swings unpredictably between stable and chaotic eras, so too do human civilizations as exemplified by the Cultural Revolution, which was a chaotic era of stunted growth and death. There seems to be no solution to either.
Liu, Ye, Mike Evans and the Trisolarans find themselves in the same dilemma: how do you solve an unsolvable problem, a problem that is an existential threat? The Trisolarans plan to flee their chaotic world for the relative stability of Earth. Ye and Mike opt to burn it all down. What about Liu?
At the end of the novel Liu gives us hope with another metaphor. The Trisolarans tell the world leaders, “You are bugs.” But the detective Shi Qiang later points out that bugs have been on Earth longer than humans, and continue to inhabit Earth despite our technologies and best efforts to eradicate them. Life perseveres.
Wang mostly observes others try and fail to solve the three body problem. Eventually, however, he makes a contribution that wins him fame among the players and good repute with the ETO. Wang’s efforts lead to the arrest of Ye Wenjie. She informs the investigators (as well as the readers) of what I have described above. She adds that the Trisolarans will arrive in 450 years. In the meantime, they have sent two photons in advance.
The two photons are, in actuality, tiny supercomputers called “sophons.” They are capable of instant communication across space via quantum entanglement. They disrupt particle accelerators and create visual hallucinations. Their mission is to impede scientific development while sowing fear and panic among humans. This will make Earth an easy target for the Trisolarans when their invasion force arrives 450 years later.
One scene that involves the sophons happens in chapter six. Wang is an amateur photographer who likes to use vintage cameras and develop his own film. One day, he discovers strange numbers in his pictures. Alarmed, he takes many more photos, sometimes leaving the lens cap on. He also has family take photos. The numbers are found on every picture. More, the numbers are counting down! But to what? Later, the numbers appear in his vision, etched onto his retina. Only when he shuts down his nanomaterials research do the numbers vanish.
The phenomenon Wang experienced was a hallucination created by the sophons (the Trisolarans wanted his research to cease). But that explanation isn’t given until later during Ye’s interrogation. Thus, at the time of reading chapter six the whole affair is frightening and mysterious. I point this out not only because it’s a great moment in the novel, but because it illustrates how Liu controls the flow of information and thereby creates mystery and tension.
The only trouble with The Three-body Problem is its seeming lack of a protagonist. The obvious candidate is Wang; most of the book follows him. However, Wang is mostly an observer in both the virtual reality game and in real life. His main function is to discover the mysteries of Three Body and the ETO alongside the reader.
Another candidate is Ye Wenjie. Her character occupies the pivotal role. Her betrayal of humanity is complicated, sinister yet relatable. Unfortunately, Liu does not spend much time with her.
A third candidate is detective Shi Qiang. Although he isn’t in the novel for very long, Shi makes significant contributions. Indeed, he becomes the de facto hero of the story when he devises a plan to stop Mike Evans’ ship and recover the valuable digital information on board. When the weak-minded Wang loses hope and gives in to drink, it is Shi who muses on the perseverance of bugs and gives the novel its upbeat send off.
Nevertheless, Cixin Liu’s The Three-body Problem is a masterpiece. If you are a fan of science fiction it is a must read. If you are not do not worry: the science is well explained and the more complicated bits are not that important to the enjoyment of the book. This is one of the best sci-fi novels you’ll ever read. Don’t miss it.