The Three-Body Problem (spoiler free review) by Liu Cixin

Just finished the book! Loved it. Ofcourse there were some lackluster parts but the intriguing story made up for it !

"Spoiler free" and then just drops that there are aliens 2/3 into the book?! Sick one.

Honestly, I haven't even started reading it but I hate how cheap it feels just the naming convention. It's like naming a sci-fi book series third law of Thermodynamics, magnetic flux, third book

I think the book is AMAZING!!! It does have a long buildup, but after reading all 3 books, the buildup becomes better!!! The second book is the best Hard Science story i have ever read or watched. It is like Empire Strikes back good!! The 3rd book is really good and just as good as the second book until the last few chapters. It was similar to the way the Return of the King ended (Or did not End)... After finishing all 3 books the first book got BETTER and you will understand why the buildup was so important and one of the best parts of the entire story. Overall the story "To ME" is the best Hard Science Story! It is up there with LOTR, Dune, and Harry Potter! These books are becoming classics and my only concern about the Netflix series is that they Cut Too Much of the Build-Up, but I understand why they would.

Im glad you were able to seperate the art from the artist. Its tiring seeing people moralizing and politicizing every single thing.

The second book is mind-blowing. For sure!

I haven't read it yet, but Steven Erickson actually wrote a first contact story.

SAGA OF THE SEVEN SUNS!

Earth. Aliens. More mysterious aliens. Mysterious robots. Elementals. Weird. Wonderful. Beautiful. Maybe im the outlier here but man this series was awesome!

Totally agree with the criticisms of this book. For me, 1st book is 3.5 stars, 2nd book is 3 stars, and 3rd book is 5 stars. Seriously. Final book blew me away.

There is way better hard sci-fi out there. You need to read Andy Weir's best, like The Martian. Plenty of classic hard sci-fi too like 2001, Rendezvous with Rama, and Inherit the Stars.

the thing with giving communist people money, you are technically not giving them the money ;)

Definitely had a similar experience with this one…..and then books 2 and 3 became two of my favorite reads of all time. Within a year I did a reread but just of books 2 and 3 and had a blast all over again.

Also I thought book 3 was my favorite and even stronger than bk 2, but they each have their great points so I can see why people would have book 2 as their fav. I cannot freakin wait for you to get into the sequel!!!

Asian authors are on another level

Read Project Hail Mary. That’s all.

I think, -based on observation and your own admissions, - that your taste leans towards the fantasy side of the SFF spectrum. With this in mind, I expected you might not like a hard science fiction book like this. I’m not surprised. As I get older I too am reading more fantasy than SF. Irregardless, this is one of my favorite trilogies ever written. I think “the three body problem” is a tour de force of SF literature.

Your review brings up my default response to sci-fi books "concept over story"

Me favorite book of this trilogy was the third one 😅💖

there are aliens in 3 body problem!?!?! What????? haha jkjk 😂

So simply put: "soft sci-fi" is stuff like Star Trek. There's fantastical technology that isn't explained and the story just goes from there. "Hard sci-fi" is plausible from what the author knows at the time of writing. Stuff like "we're in a moon base and have space suits and are looking for rare ores." There's a little bit of extrapolation but nothing too outrageous.

This review reminded me of how I feel about David Brin's Uplift series. The first book, Sundiver, is good, not great, but it introduces a lot of concepts and a unique universe. It largely reads as a long prologue. The second book, Startide Rising, is superb, a 5/5 star book, winner of multiple awards, etc. That's where the series really takes off. The third book, Uplift War, is good, better than the first, but not as great as the second. The series has some "first contact" type of situations although strictly isn't that.

Other first contact novels:
Mote in God's Eye.
Black Star Rising.
Footfall.
Pushing Ice.
Legacy of Heorot. (Sort of, more of man vs. monster novel. In the second book, Beowulf's Children, a first contact situation occurs... kinda.)

The Trilogy is the best scifi ever for me. Not even close.

About separating art from artist: I like H.P. Lovecraft’s stories although some are offensive. The guy was a virulent racist scumbag, but one can’t deny how his stuff has impacted literature.

I thought this was one of those overhyped booktube darlings. Hard sci-fi I guess isn’t my jam. I hated this book as much as I hated The Martian.

I read the first three Book of the New Sun novels by Gene Wolfe right before reading Three Body Problem…that was definitely the most jarring shift in quality of prose I’ve ever encountered while reading 😂. But I suspect there was a lot lost in translation when it comes to the writing. I thought this book was great overall despite the wooden prose and characters. The history portions were a bit of a slog at times. Really curious to see what you think of the second book. I had a really difficult time getting through the first half, then the second half was great.

You definitely need to revisit The Expanse- I remember in one of your previous videos you'd mentioned enjoying the first couple, but not necessarily enough to complete the series, but if you want some pretty cool 'first contact' concepts the back half of that series will wow you! And they're pretty quick reads to boot.

Some first contact suggestions... Pandoras Star/ Judas Unchained, big first contact space opera. Hamilton is a top 5 SF writer for me.

Hated this book, 1 star. Everybody said it gets better so i gave book two a try. If anything it gets worse, DNF. I suspect the horrible translation is partly to blame. Story itself should be at least a 3 star but the horrible writing and flat characters dragged it down for me.

Would love yo hear you review children of time by Adrian tchaikovsky

Project Hail Mary is a really really great first contact story. I also would recommend the audiobook for that, as that truly brings the "communication with an alien species" aspect to life.

My personal favorite first contact story however is the Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton (consisting of Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained). In that series, humanity as spread over a couple of hundred star systems. One day, an astronomer notices that two distant stars suddenly vanish. So what happened to them? The only possible explanation seems to be, that they were enclosed by gigantic force fields that keep in all radiation. But by whom? And why? To keep some threat out? Or to keep something in?
So a ship is built to travel there and find out. The story that starts off from there is absolutely mindblowing - with some of the most unique and interesting aliens that I ever read of.
However, these a two very chunky books - and some people say that with all the side stories going on, it could have needed ab bit more editing and streamlining.
But I loved every page and in the end, everything comes together beautifully.

Solaris, a fire upon the deep, blindsight, children of time,pushing ice, pandora's star...happy reading

If you want something short and amazing:
Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang. It is the novella that the movie Arrival was adapted from. Loved the movie and loved the novella. The last sentence left me sobbing.

Dude condoned putting people in camps because of their religion. Maybe spend 3 seconds googling something before brushing it under the rug as 'politics'.

Can someone please tell me what that book on Matts bookshelf is that has a golden butterfly on it? I wanna say the mostly green background book, but it might be turquoise. Thanks!

Blindsight.

It is highly philosophical and incredibly hard scifi. However, the story is really interesting and it poses some questions about consciousness and self-awareness that are quite interesting and refreshing. It starts out throwing a lot of scientific jargon, but after a few chapters things slow down more and you get to sit with each character, including a vampire. Yeah. A vampire in a hard scifi novel. It's amazing. The characters are quite interesting as well.

Sad to hear the english translations isn´t great, was planning on doing my re-read in english :( The spanish one is top notch, perfectly structured and to be fair, it was quite beautiful and poetical.

I hope you continue with the next two books. They were something, and for a freshman reading law at uni, Cixin Liu's books truly got me through the boring slumps.

If you liked the ideas in this book, the next two in the trilogy will blow your mind, but it covers thousands of years, so characters change, save one, but it gets wild. I agree the authors views doesn't impact the enjoyment of art. People like J. K Rowling, Orson Scott Card, Cixin Liu, Terry Goodkind, and even H. P. Lovecraft are a representation of their time and opinions. Everyone lives in their own time, and are allowed their own opinions. These days social media can ruin an artists career because they don't completely agree with the masses. I say enjoy good art and love your fellow man (or woman) and don't sweat the little things. It makes for a miserable life. Thanks.

I agree that the character work is not very good, but I still liked this quite a lot. Characters become a little bit better in the sequals (not much but a little bit). If I remember correctly, I gave this book five stars in GoodReads, and I recommend reading the sequals.

No spoilers here, but I was a little bit disappointed with one small thing in the end of the third book. There was one choice the author could have very well done differently, and the ending would have still be essentially the same but a bit better.

I've been learning mandarin and I was considering setting reading this book in Chinese as a goal for myself, but I've heard the writing is actually better in English (and the amount of technical terms would make it extremely difficult). I also read that the publishers in China moved the chapters on the Cultural Revolution to the middle of the book to try to aviod censorship. I haven't read it yet, but I'm curious what impact that has on the pacing of the story

Book 2 is still my favorite. Great review. Agree with most of it. I think you would like Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Sci-fi that feels more character driven.

Other first contacts...
- A Fire Upon the Deep
- A Mote in God's Eye
- Childhoods End.


There are lots of other great ones. Some that you wouldn't want to know are First Contact until you actually read it.

Remembrance of Earths Past is definately about the situation over the characters. And many people love book 3 the most. I see 2 and 3 almost the same, but 3 got almost too confusing to me at one point. Ha.

The controversy of the author is not because he is communist unless your thinking is "anything bad is communism and I don't like communism". The controversy is that his support of the CCP (which is not the definition of communism) includes supporting their treatment of Uighur Muslims including the Muslims "reeducation" in camps. It's more the authoritarian elements of the government in which he supports that is the issue.

Communism is bad, but Matt being unbiased is good!

Book 2 concept's are some of the best in SF. And while the character work is still a bit lacking it is a step up from the first.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is a really fun and easy to read alien/science book!

I can forgive weaker characters when the ideas are great, but the writing and specifically the dialogue are terrible. People have told me that's true even in the original Chinese. It's bad with the different translator as well in book 2.

Hated this book. Just remember them randomly showing up to someone's house to talk to him about the game they're playing. like 0 build up or introduction. They're just in his house randomly.

And then the wire ship cutting lmao.

It’s funny how you have a problem with sexism in Dresden files but have no problem with an author that supports a genocide. Truly a western worldview

Book 2 is so much better. It's a plot driven story. Don't expect to get any good characters 😅

I enjoyed "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars" by Christopher Paolini if you're looking for harder science first contact sci-fi, the Expanse is also kind of a no brainer in that category.

If you're interested in a First Contact type of story you can read The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Best first contact I've ever read

Here's how I would summerized the trilogy:
Book1 = The X-Files
Book2 = Arthur C Clarke
Book3 = Isaac Asimov

Having readed some of the big three's works, you can clearly tell Liu Cixin's writing style was highly influenced by them, this guy is a computer engineer and working inside a powerplant, he normally write during his free time or while slacking off during work.
Fun fact, book 1&2 weren't really that popular when they're released in China back then, so for book 3 Liu Cixin decided to write something that not gonna sell well with public and only for his own entertainment, throwing in some of the craziest idea ever and ironically the 3rd book was the one kicked off his popularity.