What Is ‘The Three-Body Problem’, The Book That Inspired Netflix’s New Epic Sci-Fi Series?
The book has been praised by everyone from Barack Obama to George R. R. Martin.
Earlier this week, Netflix announced their next big project, an adaptation of The Three-Body Problem, an acclaimed sci-fi epic from Liu Cixin, to be brought to the small screen by the creators of Game of Thrones and Rian Johnson of Star Wars fame.
To be honest, a Three-Body Problem adaptation has seemed inevitable for a while now. Cixin’s novel, which was published in China back in 2006, but only translated into English in 2014, has gradually been building up steam as one of the most acclaimed series in recent speculative fiction history. Everyone from Barack Obama to George R. R. Martin have spruiked the book, with the former calling it “immense.”
But don’t worry — if you’ve never heard of the book or its sequels before, then we’re here to bring you up to speed.
Let’s dive into it.
What Is The Three-Body Problem About?
Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem is a dense, time-jumping alternative history novel and the first in a trilogy called The Remembrance Of Earth’s Past. Spanning from China’s Cultural Revolution to a warped version of the present day, the book follows the lives of a host of characters who are preparing for an inevitable invasion of Earth by a hostile neighbouring alien species.
That’s the logline, but to be honest, the book is way more complicated and far-reaching than could ever be summed up in a single sentence. Alongside that “simple” plot, there’s also diversions about physics — the three-body problem of the title refers to efforts to track the movement of a celestial body drawn back and forth between the orbital pulls of two other masses — video games, international governmental disputes, and China’s political history.
It is a great honor as an author to see this unique sci-fi concept travel and gain fandom across the globe and I am excited for new and existing fans all over the world to discover the story on Netflix. https://t.co/BkWO0iVBb1
— Liu Cixin (@CixinLiu) September 1, 2020
Indeed, there’s so much context about Chinese politics, that the English translation has a number of footnotes to help explain goings-on for Western audiences. It even makes a slight structural change — the book opens with a flashback set in the Cultural Revolution which doesn’t occur till much later in the original, just so audiences can get an early grip on what’s going on.
Why Should I Read The Three-Body Problem?
Maybe that makes the book sound overwhelmingly dense and unwieldy. But that’s not the case. Cixin’s epic is compulsively readable, fun rather than overwhelming, and packed with a range of beautifully-drawn, real characters. The joy is in the sheer chaos, and it never once feels like homework — which it might have, in the hands of a less skilled author than Cixin.
George R. R. Martin put it best in his blog about the work. “This is a very unusual book, a unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, politics and history, conspiracy theory and cosmology, where kings and emperors from both western and Chinese history mingle in a dreamlike game world, while cops and physicists deal with global conspiracies, murders, and alien invasions in the real world,” he wrote.
Here’s the full profile of Liu Cixin by the always excellent @JiayangFan:https://t.co/ZnUK8KmdK0
— Joshua L. Freeman (@jlfreeman6) September 1, 2020
As many have said, a lot of that praise also has to go to Ken Liu’s English translation. In fact, Cixin himself recommends that anyone who speaks English read the translation, rather than his original.
“Usually when Chinese literature gets translated to a foreign language, it tends to lose something,” Cixin said in a New York Times interview. “I don’t think that happened with The Three-Body Problem. I think it gained something.”
What About The Rest of The Remembrance Of Earth’s Past Series?
There are two more books in the series, The Dark Forest and Death’s End, and each are as good as the original. Death’s End in particular only doubles down on the sheer informational chaos of the first book, becoming bigger and more unwieldy than possibly imaginable, all while holding onto the human heart of the story.
Basically, in a year as disrupted and painful as 2020, there are no greater pleasures I can recommend than diving into Cixin’s trilogy, and letting the problems of the real world melt away. Particularly now that you have a Netflix adaptation to spur you on. Get with it.