{"id":729,"date":"2015-10-03T21:42:31","date_gmt":"2015-10-04T04:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/?p=729"},"modified":"2015-10-03T21:42:31","modified_gmt":"2015-10-04T04:42:31","slug":"my-review-of-the-three-body-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/?p=729","title":{"rendered":"My Review of The Three Body Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just finished\u00a0The Three Body Problem<\/a><\/em>\u00a0by Cixin Liu<\/a>. \u00a0This is the most recent Hugo winner for best novel, and stands out historically for being the first translated work to receive such an honor. \u00a0I listened to the audio book, which I will link here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Three Body Problem<\/em>\u00a0is a science fiction novel\u00a0about first contact with an alien species, and how humanity responds to this contact. \u00a0It is also about the importance of science and morality, spanning forty years of human history.<\/p>\n

Before I start sharing my opinions, let me first say that when I read books for enjoyment as I read this one, I don’t read with critical focus. \u00a0The opinions I will be expressing are simply the impressions left on me by the story. \u00a0I don’t have the education or background to be a true critic.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed the way the story was told. \u00a0Its\u00a0focus changed\u00a0throughout, zooming in to minute, sometimes gory details in a moment, and pulling back to broader, transitory levels when traversing longer periods\u00a0of time. \u00a0The story follows several characters, giving greater attention to two in particular:\u00a0Ye Wenjie and\u00a0Wang Miao. \u00a0The tale is not spun out in chronological order.<\/p>\n

Characterization seemed a bit thin, in my opinion. \u00a0Three female characters stand out to me as being nearly identical: Ye Winjie, Yang Dong, and Shen Yufei. \u00a0The latter two weren’t visible in the narrative often, but when they were, they all seemed to have the same qualities as Ye Winjie: they were all three fiercely intelligent, driven women, that were quiet, cold, and distant. \u00a0The men in the story came in two main varieties: those like Wang Miao, and those like Shi Qiang. \u00a0Those like Wang Miao were intelligent, but fearful, and usually passive. \u00a0Those like Shi Qiang, on the other hand, were men of action, proud, and willful. \u00a0Colonel Stanton and Mike Evans were in this category of characterization.<\/p>\n

There is a little detail in the story that stands out to me, and I wonder if it is just a difference between American and Chinese cultures. \u00a0It had to do with families. \u00a0Wang Miao, for example, had a wife and child, but he frequently ignored them in order to focus on problems that he didn’t bother explaining to his family. \u00a0As the story continued,\u00a0he was out in the wee hours of the morning, and didn’t seem to give any consideration to his family at home. \u00a0Later in the story, it’s as though they never existed. \u00a0His family isn’t even mentioned again.<\/p>\n

Ye Winjie is the only person in the story that seems to have a strong familial attachment, and that is to her father. \u00a0We don’t ever get to see their relationship. \u00a0We just see her reaction to his death at the beginning, and the way that influences her decisions throughout her life.<\/p>\n

For the most part, I enjoyed the pacing. \u00a0There was a bit at the end that seemed slow, so it seemed to drag on longer than I wanted. \u00a0Other than that part at the end, I was engaged in the story the whole time.<\/p>\n

I mentioned that characterization seemed a bit weak, but there were characters I enjoyed. \u00a0I liked Shi Qiang, because he seemed to have more wisdom than intelligence. \u00a0And Wei Chang stood out as well, though he was the most passive character in the whole story, by design. \u00a0Those two characters had the most “flavor” and stood out from the others.<\/p>\n

The premise was interesting, and the science sounded plausible to me. \u00a0There was a bit of Flatland<\/a><\/i> to it at one point, which I enjoyed.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed the book, but I wasn’t so hooked that it consumed me. \u00a0I listened to it in the car when driving, as I do most audio books. \u00a0But unlike books that have really drawn me in, I didn’t spend much time listening to the story out of my car. \u00a0I listened to the last 45 minutes last night at my computer, not because I needed to know what was next, but because I wanted to have the whole thing finished before writing this review.<\/p>\n

I don’t think the book being translated had anything to do with my level of enjoyment. \u00a0This isn’t the first translated book I’ve read. \u00a0I thoroughly enjoyed The Alchemist<\/a><\/em> by Paulo Coelho. \u00a0It’s a translated work that pulled me in and kept me pulled in. \u00a0It’s also a different genre, and I’m not going to compare apples to oranges. \u00a0I just don’t think that translation detracted or enhanced my enjoyment of\u00a0The Three Body Problem<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This is a Hugo award winning book, and I feel a need to comment on that. \u00a0If\u00a0someone told me that it won the Hugo after I’d read it instead of before, I probably would have pursed my lips, nodded slowly, and said, “Okay.” It didn’t capture my imagination the way Heinlein and Asimov have in the past, but it was serviceable. \u00a0I don’t regret reading it.<\/p>\n

So, this is not a glowing review, but it’s not a bad review, either. \u00a0Would I recommend others read it? \u00a0Sure. \u00a0It’s good enough for that, and perhaps other people would enjoy it more than I did. \u00a0I thought it was okay, but I’m not in any hurry to read the sequel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just finished\u00a0The Three Body Problem\u00a0by Cixin Liu. \u00a0This is the most recent Hugo winner for best novel, and stands out historically for being the first translated work to receive such an honor. \u00a0I listened to the audio book, which I will link here. The Three Body Problem\u00a0is a science fiction novel\u00a0about first contact with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=729"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":731,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729\/revisions\/731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}