The Three-Body Problem (book review) Liu Cixin

(Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1)

180115: do you like astrophysics? quantum physics? physics?- science at all? or maybe just ‘scientism’ as philosophy? this last being the unquestioned axiom the world is the universe and science is the way to understand all...? if you answer no, if you do not enjoy reading speculative scientific ideas in these disciplines, if ideas in these realms of thought are sleep-inducing, then this book is definitely not for you. i give it a four, so far, as this is the first of a trilogy... with these caveats for other readers: do not expect to understand science, allow yourself somewhat stereotypical characters, plots, politics, be excited by rampant 'scientism' as unquestioned theme, in interpreting nihilism of the entire 'human project', in alienation of all educated elites- this is exactly what it says. hard. science. it is ideas that are heroes, and rather than engineers, think of this as science theoreticians writing science theoretical fiction for science theoreticians... not many great human moments, fantastic images, human emotions, but certainly great ideas territory. i will read the next book... i have now read the next two books: see my review on ‘Death’s End’ that sums up my thoughts on them...