In its relatively short history, science fiction has had a fair number of books which could be considered Classics, books that are so interesting in what they do, it is reasonably certain that people will still be reading them in the future. Take Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, for example. The idea of imagining what would happen if the laws of social science were as stable as the laws of physical science and then going forward through time was clever; the stories were well done and reasonably well-written, and the books were fun.
There is a new trilogy in town that is every bit as good as Asimov’s trilogy. I don’t know any higher praise than that for a work in science fiction.
Cixin Liu’s The Remembrance of Earth’s Past is brilliant. If you have even a nodding like of science fiction, you’ll want to read this.
There is one annoying problem however. The trilogy is formally called The Remembrance of Earth’s Past, but it is often called The Three-Body Problem Trilogy, since that is the name of the first book. An interesting question of nomenclature; if the author has one name for his trilogy, but popular discussion of it uses a different name, which name wins out in the end? The publisher is already stuck; there is a nice slip cover edition of the trilogy and the slip cover uses the popular name, not the actual name.
What makes this book so great? Therein lies another problem. Part of the joy of reading these books is watching the story unfold. This series has more twists and turns than any work I have read in a very long time. The more you know about the plot in advance, the less surprising and wonderful it all would be. If you know nothing about the plot, do your best to keep it that way as you venture into the world Liu has crafted.
What will you find? Here is one way of describing it which does not give away plot developments. After reading this trilogy, for the first time in my life I have a reasonable definition of “science fiction.” Science fiction at its best creates a plausible word in which the mechanics of that world bring philosophical problems into a new light.
The best science fiction is a novel and interesting way to do that; most science fiction is terribly derivative. What is incredible about The Three-Body Problem trilogy is that it manages to create a new world and a new philosophical problem every couple of hundred pages. Just when you think you have settled into the world and are wrestling with the problems inherent in that world, you realize that the world has morphed and the problems you thought you were solving were not the real problems to be solved.
This wouldn’t work if every morphing of the world felt like a simple restart—it would seem like a series of unrelated short stories then. But, in this work, the world seems to morph organically—of course this world is morphing into this next world and the philosophical problems are obviously really the ones you are now facing. In other words, the trilogy just keeps getting deeper and deeper.
Moreover, the development of the world arises from constant thinking about the laws of physics. This is the rare since fiction work in which the science part and the philosophical musing part are both vital to the structure of the plot.
Just as the science underlying the book develops naturally, the philosophical questions the book raises throughout are related. It is an exploration of the individual and society. At no point is it really obvious that is what is going on, though. I only realized it when I started thinking about the trilogy after finishing it.
Lest this review seem like unbridled praise, I can note that the prose style could use some work. The book was originally written in Chinese, so the problem may be entirely in the translation. But, there are moments of ridiculously ham-handed style that will make you cringe a bit. Just ignore them and move along. The story is worth it. And, don’t even be tempted to look at the explanatory footnotes in the first volume. The translator decided that you really do need to have all the references to Chinese history and politics explained to you in footnotes which are totally irrelevant to understanding the story and totally incomprehensible to anyone who didn’t underhand the reference already.
Let’s not end on the sour note, however. This is a long work. The volumes are 390, 512, and 610 pages long. All together that is longer than War and Peace, but, then again, the scope of this work rivals the scope of Tolstoy’s magnum opus. The Three-Body Problem is likely not a Great Book, but it will have a very long shelf life. Set off on the journey; you’ll be glad you did.
I love this trilogy for all the reasons you described (I’m in the middle of the third book now) but can confirm that the writing is occasionally ham fisted in Chinese too!