The Three-Body Problem

Synopsis

Beginning during China's Cultural Revolution and reaching across light-years, the novel follows astrophysicists, intelligence officials, and one bitter scientist whose decision in the 1960s sets in motion humanity's first contact with an alien civilization.

Editorial review

The first volume of Liu Cixin's 'Remembrance of Earth's Past' trilogy is the most influential Chinese science-fiction novel ever translated into English. Its imaginative scale is staggering, and its opening Cultural Revolution sequence is some of the strongest writing in the genre.

Key takeaways

• 1

  Physics, politics, and personal trauma can be threads of the same plot.

• 2

  First contact is unlikely to be cuddly.

• 3

  Civilizational distrust scales unforgivingly across light-years.

• 4

  Hard science fiction can carry serious philosophical weight.