The Three–Body Problem

The opening installment of China's best-selling apocalyptic space opera trilogy.

1967: Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China's Cultural Revolution. This singular event will shape not only the rest of her life but also the future of mankind.

Four decades later, Beijing police ask nanotech engineer Wang Miao to infiltrate a secretive cabal of scientists after a spate of inexplicable suicides. Wang's investigation will lead him to a mysterious online game and immerse him in a virtual world ruled by the intractable and unpredictable interaction of its three suns.

This is the Three-Body Problem and it is the key to everything: the key to the scientists' deaths, the key to a conspiracy that spans light-years and the key to the extinction-level threat humanity now faces.

Review

A unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, politics and history, conspiracy theory and cosmology -- George R.R. Martin

Wildly imaginative, really interesting... The scope of it was immense -- Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States

A marvellous mélange of awe-inspiring scientific concepts, clever plotting and quirky yet plausible characters, all conveyed in in a plain style capable of signalling hidden depths ― The Times

A milestone in Chinese science fiction ― New York Times

Liu Cixin's impressive The Three Body Problem won the 2015 Hugo award for best novel, the first time a Chinese writer has taken that prize ― Guardian (2015 Books of the Year)


China has a lively SF scene inaccessible to western audiences until recently, so it's a great pleasure to read this book by Cixin Liu - the country's most popular SF writer - in English. Handled expertly on the terms of the genre, it is seeing this tale played out through a different cultural lens that makes the book fascinating. The translation is exemplary. The book is top-flight SF; smart, informative and engaging ― SFX

Hard science fiction at its finest, and fans will appreciate the superb attention to detail that drives this constantly evolving and impressive series ― SciFiNow

The writing is superb... The ideas are astounding, real eye-openers that expand the mind and really get the old grey matter going... A stand-out, award-worthy novel and one that deserves a place amongst the science fiction classics' ― SF Book Reviews

For a book that makes you think, and holds true to some of the traditional values of SF, this one can't be beat ― SFF World Magazine

[The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest are] the works of fiction I am most enthusiastic about ― Bloomberg

About the Author

Cixin Liu is China's #1 SF writer and author of The Three-Body Problem - the first ever translated novel to win a Hugo Award. Prior to becoming a writer, Liu worked as an engineer in a power plant in Yangquan.

Ken Liu is the author of the epic fantasy series The Dandelion Dynasty, as well as short story collections The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and other top genre awards around the world for his fiction. A programmer and lawyer, he speaks and consults on futurism, technology history, and sustainable storytelling.