Book Review: The 3-Body Problem by Liu Cixin proved that hard sci-fi is not for me!

 

Are you looking for a sci-fi, multiple award-winning book, which manages to intertwine an exclusive club of scientists playing an online game, aliens and communist China? Look no further, you have just found the perfect balladeur for any reading challenge you’re doing this year!

Written by Liu Cixin, The 3-Body Problem is one if the best-selling sci-fi books in China and even recommended by former U.S. President Barack Obama as an escape read.

The 3-Body Problem revolves around the stories of Ye Wenjie and Wang Miao.

♥  Ye Wenjie is a young woman living during China’s Cultural Revolution, who is sent off to a re-education camp in the deep forests after watching her father being murdered by the Red Guards.

♥ Some decades later, Wang Miao, a nanotech engineer, is co-operating with the police to uncover the conspiracy behind the numerous suicides of prominent scientists all around the world. His search leads him to the 3-Body Problem, an online game which attracts intellectual players to solve a scientific problem in order to win.

The book calls into question the human life on earth itself. Has technology invaded our lives too much? Has the human race reached the point of no return and if so, who would be responsible for its fate from now on? Are we beyond help?

“How many acts of humankind that had seemed normal or even righteous were, in reality, evil? Is it possible that the relationship between humanity and evil is similar to the relationship between the ocean and the iceberg floating on its surface?”

“It was impossible to expect a moral awakening from humankind itself, just like it was impossible to expect humans to lift off the earth by pulling up on their own hair. To achieve moral awakening required a force outside the human race.”

Even though this is such an acclaimed novel, incorporating hard science (some of which I didn’t understand) and thought-provoking, chilling questions, my biggest complaint is that the characters felt one-dimensional, unrelatable and ultimately I could care less for any of them. For someone who reads to feel inspired, that is a detrimental flaw. Maybe hard science fiction reads aren’t for me?

I had to keep on reading, however, because my boyfriend had got me this book for Christmas. And it was a good thing that I did, because, despite the disappointing characterization, the ending, the haunting threat against humanity, finally had my interest peeked. Therefore, even though I am hesitant towards the second installment of the trilogy (“The Dark Forest”), I am also curious about the story’s unraveling and will give it a shot!