The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

Title: The Three-Body Problem

Author: Liu Cixin

Publisher: ‎Chongqing Press

Published in English (2014) by: Tor Books

Genre: Science Fiction, Mystery Thriller

First Publication: 2008

Language: English

Book Review: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

For decades, science fiction has promised to transport readers to far-flung galaxies and uncharted cosmic realms. Yet more often than not, these fictional voyages into deep space feel paradoxically small – playing out against the familiar backdrop of good versus evil, with humanity once again cast as the cosmological hero against galaxies of disposable alien antagonists.

Not so in the case of Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem, the opening installment of the critically-acclaimed Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy. From its gripping opening set against the turbulent backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution to its mind-bending exploration of alternate realities and dimensions, this masterwork shatters conventional sci-fi narratives like so many celestial bodies torn asunder by higher cosmic forces.

We meet Ye Wenjie, a brilliant astrophysicist whose spirit is left in ruins after witnessing her beloved mentor’s brutal execution amid the 1960s upheaval. In a moment of utter desolation, the disillusioned Ye commits an act that will upend humanity’s cosmic journey – using forbidden scientific knowledge, she broadcasts a celestial invitation into the infinite darkness, calling out to any alien civilizations lurking among the stars.

Flash forward a few decades, and a shadowy online collective of science luminaries is turning up dead under mysterious circumstances across China. As a motley crew of physics professors, computer hackers, and eccentric scientific minds attempt to unravel the mystery, they stumble upon evidence that these deaths may be mere opening gambits in an existential chess game unfolding light years beyond the comprehension of terrestrial beings.

You see, at the core of Cixin’s labyrinthine plot lies a premise so disquietingly humbling, so cosmically shattering to the human ego, it could spark an ontological meltdown in readers: what if we encountered a hyper-intelligent alien species so evolutionarily advanced, so capable of bending higher spatial dimensions and manipulating the cosmic order itself, that their very existence crumbled our current model of physics like a joke erector set?

It’s an extinction-level scenario for humanity’s accumulated scientific knowledge—the very real threat that our proud understanding of the fundamental laws of physics, chemistry, and mathematics may be laughably incomplete—ham-fisted approximations in the face of civilizations that evolved over unfathomable cosmic epochs. And the key that unlocks these galactic brain-twisters? The very “three-body problem” of the title – a once-simple physics conundrum about the chaotic, unpredictable orbital mechanics between three gravitational bodies, now depicted as an intricate cosmic riddle with universe-shattering implications

To bring such metaphysical leviathans to vivid sci-fi life requires a master’s grasp of theoretical physics and abstruse mathematical principles. And Cixin, a former engineer, delivers on a visionary scale seldom seen in the genre. Woven amid the central mystery are deep dives into cutting-edge cosmological theories, from the “photoid omniric principle” underlying electromagnetism to the sheer quantum delirium of hypothetical scenarios where our basic constants of space and time curvature lose coherent meaning.

In the hands of a less meticulous writer, such technical depths could overwhelm the drama. But even when the hard science particulars threaten to glaze over a general reader’s eyes, Cixin keeps the story kinetic and viscerally grounded through a rich cast of character anchors to invest in emotionally – from Wang Miao, a feisty nanomaterial researcher bringing brains and derring-do reminiscent of Hermione Granger crossed with Ellen Ripley, to a diverse ensemble of theoretical physicists and intellectuals grappling with humanity’s possible cosmic obsolescence.

My main critique is a noticeable lack of strong central female perspectives to counterbalance the novel’s masculine academic milieu—a disappointing shortcoming for a story so consumed with upending human hubris and misperception. And while Cixin’s imagination for rendering the cosmic mind-warping possibilities feels boundless, the sheer magnitude of theoretical physics can occasionally overwhelm the core narrative momentum with densely ornate detours into arcane cosmological tributaries.

But such fleeting flaws are mere celestial flecks against the immense gravitational pull of Cixin’s storytelling ambition and scope. Over the course of nearly 600 metaphysical pages, Three-Body builds towards a gut-punch revelation with more visceral impact than almost any speculative fiction of recent decades—the universe’s true cosmic order isn’t merely uncharted, but potentially so hyperadvanced beyond human ken as to render all our cherished scientific models vestigial relics in the face of higher intelligences’ mastery of physics.

Simply put, it’s a full-tilt existential thrill-ride careening at light speed through infinite cosmic nihilisms and deconstructed realities, orbiting the black hole of a central premise – that humanity’s entire accumulated canon of physics, chemistry, and mathematics may someday be extinguished, exposed as no more illuminating than a child fumbling with matches before a roiling stellar furnace billions of times our meager lifespan. Over and over, Cixin detonates our smug perceptions of the universal order, painting vaster cosmic vistas where mankind’s knowledge might as well be a crude pictographic approximation scrawled in our own filth.

So while your tolerance for digressions into bleeding-edge cosmology will certainly be tested, the deeper rewards of Three-Body lie in its sheer ambition to incinerate anthropocentric bias on a metaphysical scale. Where most sci-fi adventures are content to pondering what cosmic wonders may lurk between distant stars, this is a rare work fixated on ripping away our delusions that we’ve even begun to glimpse the first faint inklings of the true extremities permeating the infinite heavens.

Which makes Netflix’s recent high-profile adaptation of the seminal novel an intriguing, if ultimately unsatisfying, proposition. On one hand, the streaming series delivers a visually breathtaking attempt to literalize some of Cixin’s most unfilmable cosmic grandeur. Entire galaxies curling in on themselves in hypnotic cinematic CGI? Check. Epic space battles across vast hyperspacial vistas rendered in delicious multidimensional eye-protein shakes? Oh, they pulled out all the digital stops, no doubt.

But for all its big-budget interstellar spectacle, something crucial got stripped away in the journey from page to pixel—namely, the profound metaphysical resonance, emotional stakes, and sheer existential displacement underscoring every aspect of Cixin’s imagination in Three-Body Problem. Characters feel reduced to hastily sketched archetypes, the hard math and theoretical physics are eviscerated into disposable, on-the-nose techno-jabber exposition. And while the visual effects team deserves endless cosmic laurels for their sheer dimensional pyrotechnics, the overall experience too often succumbs to that all-too-human flaw – mistaking mere thrilling entertainment for enlightenment.

Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with couch-bound bonbons of CGI splendor, of course – if your sole aim is to gorge on eye-searing intergalactic rapture. The creative team deserves ample applause for even daring to wrestle such a hyper-complex postmodern sci-fi unicorn to the screen at all. They didn’t quite distill the full existential discombobulation Cixin was driving at, but the very attempt feels like a bold refutation of our entertainment mainstream’s simplistic appetite for heroes and villains battling across forgettable cosmic battlegrounds.

So in summary – strap in and consume the written Remembrance of Earth’s Past in its full, uncut metaphysical grandeur, as Cixin intended. Let the words dismantle your preconceptions about humanity’s place in reality itself, singularity by singularity, until the Big Bang itself is but a crude, infantile approximation of the true obscenity straining against the cosmic veil.

Only then will you be properly incinerated and reconfigured for the audiovisual photon spectacular awaiting on your local streaming plane. The streaming experience rockets one’s senses into true celestial ecstasy, no doubt—but without the novel’s foundation, the dimensional dementia remains a sugary diversion, mere space operatic cotton candy for a species still fumbling to grasp the inky true depths lurking just lightyears outward. A glorious spectacle of cosmic pomp, to be sure. But for the full existential free fall? No choice but to start…at the very beginning.