The Three-Body Problem

Cixin Liu

Nov 2014 · The Three-Body Problem Series Book 1 · Macmillan Audio · Narrated by Luke Daniels

About this audiobook

The inspiration for the Netflix series 3 Body Problem!

WINNER OF THE HUGO AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL

Over 1 million copies sold in North America

“A mind-bending epic.”—The New York Times • “War of the Worlds for the 21st century.”—The Wall Street Journal • “Fascinating.”—TIME • “Extraordinary.”—The New Yorker • “Wildly imaginative.”—Barack Obama • “Provocative.”—Slate • “A breakthrough book.”—George R. R. Martin • “Impossible to put down.”—GQ • “Absolutely mind-unfolding.”—NPR • “You should be reading Liu Cixin.”—The Washington Post

The Three-Body Problem is the first novel in the groundbreaking, Hugo Award-winning series from China's most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu.

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.

The Three-Body Problem Series
The Three-Body Problem
The Dark Forest
Death's End

Other Books by Cixin Liu
Ball Lightning
Supernova Era
To Hold Up the Sky
The Wandering Earth
A View from the Stars

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

Ratings and reviews

Mixed bag of good and bad. The bad parts include some strange dialogue and some plastic characters. My favorite guy was the police detective. The bad dialogue probably is a result of translation, but it sounds so choppy. I liked the thriller/mystery elements though. Drags on for a bit too long at the end and becomes farfetched when the cult leader is revealed. Overall good, but not the best

Ultimately it was not a great novel, nor was it awful. It played with interesting concepts but the novel had no quality control to the pacing, character development. It does little to generate reader investment. A bit of a slog really. It had the potential to be more but the author wastes a lot of time with asides meant to be emotionally impactful but which end up feeling mostly irrelevant. There are only two or 3 characters in this novel but they have many different names.

Absolutely confusing and disorienting. Couldn't follow the author with so many characters to keep track of. Also, there were no characters that I cared about. They seemed flat and mostly uninteresting. The story and dialogue were awkward and forced. Not sure why this book was hyped as a great novel. Maybe it's greatness was lost in translation to English.

About the author

CIXIN LIU is the most prolific and popular science fiction writer in the People's Republic of China. Liu is a winner of the Hugo Award, an eight-time winner of the Galaxy Award (the Chinese Hugo), and a winner of the Chinese Nebula Award.

KEN LIU (translator) is a writer, lawyer, and computer programmer. His short story "The Paper Menagerie" was the first work of fiction ever to sweep the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards. He has written two novels (The Grace of Kings and The Wall of Storms) and edited and translated the Chinese science fiction anthology Invisible Planets.