The Three Body Problem

I love Sci-Fi. Especially Sci-Fi that’s based in some kind of actual science. For All Mankind, The Martian, Contact. So good, very fun for me to read. The Three Body Problem definitely falls into this category. And I liked it! It started out super strong. And all of the acclaim it had gotten had lead me to believe that it would keep going that way, but it started to taper off from the middle to the end, sadly.

The beginning sets up a lot of mystery and questions that I didn’t find satisfyingly answered by the end. And sure you can say that it’s just the first part of a series, which is fair. But they did provide answers, and, while they were conceptually interesting (spoilers! Using extra-dimensionality is interesting), it was really hard to follow along with without glazing over. It also was a very convenient answer.

As for the plot and characters, they fall into the same category. Set up well, but lost steam by the end. Other than a couple of the main characters, every character is a walking exposition dump. Which is fine for sci-fi, but it feels like our main character just has a lot happening to him, instead of doing anything.

There’s a part in the book where a group of characters are brought to a meeting to talk about a video game as a way to see if they’re the right kind of person to join a secret society. The video game is tough, dense, and a lot of people stop playing it. I feel like one of the people at the meeting who questioned the game, and then immediately got told to leave. This book, while I understand it, I don’t really get the high praise it’s gotten. If you like sci-fi, give it a chance, you might like it! There are some interesting concepts, but for me they were overshadowed by some concepts that ended up falling flat (unfolding, if you’ve read the book). Just know that I like sci-fi too, and bounced off it.