Book: The Three Body Problem

July 30, 2025 Max book, three body problem 5 min read

The Three-Body Problem — Overview

Who Wrote it and Why?

The Three-Body Problem was written by Liu Cixin, a Chinese sci-fi author who used to be a power plant engineer. He grew up during China’s Cultural Revolution, and that trauma shaped the dark tone of his work. He started writing fiction for local magazines in the ’90s and dropped Three-Body Problem in 2006 as a serialized story. It was released as a full novel in China in 2008.

The book didn’t hit Western readers until 2014, when Chinese-American author Ken Liu translated it into English for Tor Books. That version blew up—sci-fi nerds and critics worldwide were hooked. It won the 2015 Hugo Award, and Barack Obama even called it “wildly imaginative.”

Liu said he wrote it because he wanted to bring Chinese science fiction onto the world stage and explore deep space, big questions, and the collapse of civilization. He was inspired by Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and the cold terror of thinking that humans might not be ready for the universe.

What’s the Book Actually About?

At the core, it’s a first-contact alien story—but not the usual Hollywood version. This one’s brutal, mathematical, philosophical, and rooted in real-world physics.

The story kicks off during Mao’s Cultural Revolution in the ’60s. A young physicist named Ye Wenjie watches her father get beaten to death by Red Guards. Disillusioned and bitter, she eventually ends up at a top-secret military science base called Red Coast, where she figures out how to bounce a radio signal off the sun and contact aliens.

The aliens she reaches live on a hell planet in a three-star system—hence the title. Their planet’s climate is chaotic, swinging wildly between frozen chaos and burning heat. These aliens, called Trisolarans, are super advanced but desperate to escape their dying home. When Ye Wenjie hears back from them, she basically tells them, Come on over. Humanity sucks anyway.

Fast Forward

Decades later, weird shit starts happening. Physicists around the world are committing suicide. Reality itself seems unstable. Enter Wang Miao, a nanotech scientist, who stumbles into a global conspiracy while investigating a suicide. He finds a strange virtual reality game called Three Body, where players try to survive in a physics-breaking, unpredictable world.

Turns out, the game is a recruitment tool for a group of Earth-based Trisolaran sympathizers. The aliens are already on their way to Earth—traveling at sublight speed, so they’ll arrive in 400 years—and their followers on Earth are preparing the planet for their arrival by sabotaging human science and tech.

That’s the twist. It’s not a “what if aliens come” story. It’s “what happens when aliens are already en route, and some humans are helping them.”

Big Ideas and Themes in the Three Body Problem

This book doesn’t pull punches. It’s packed with heavy stuff.

First contact and trust issues — Can we really trust another species not to wipe us out? Can we trust our own species not to sell us out first?
Cultural trauma — The Cultural Revolution wasn’t just a backdrop. It’s the reason Ye loses faith in humanity. That personal pain fuels a global catastrophe.
Science as a weapon — The Trisolarans don’t use nukes or lasers. They destroy our ability to do science. That’s next-level warfare.
Game theory — It’s not just about tactics. The story plays with the Prisoner’s Dilemma, deterrence, and survival strategy on a cosmic scale.
Cosmic pessimism — It questions whether intelligent civilizations are inherently dangerous. Maybe the dark forest of the universe is quiet because everyone’s too scared to speak.

Controversy

Liu Cixin’s Political Comments

In a 2019 New Yorker interview, Liu defended China’s treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang, calling the re-education camps a kind of peacekeeping measure. He said something like, “Would you rather they be hacking people at train stations?” That set off a shitstorm.

Western readers and human rights groups slammed him. When Netflix picked up the rights to adapt the books, US senators even called them out for “partnering with someone who supports genocide.”

Liu responded saying his views don’t reflect the adaptation. And Ken Liu (the translator) publicly said he didn’t agree with Liu’s political stance.

Netflix Adaptation Drama

Netflix dropped its 3 Body Problem series in 2024. It was made by the same guys behind Game of Thrones, so expectations were sky high.

What did people say?

Western fans — Liked the visuals, found the story fascinating but complicated.
Chinese viewers — Some hated it. They said the show whitewashed Chinese culture, changed key characters, and made the setting feel “too Western.”
Sci-fi fans — Some thought it oversimplified the science and made it more about action than thought.

There was already a Chinese TV version in 2023 that was more faithful to the book, and a lot of fans actually preferred that.

Takeaways

The Three-Body Problem is not just a great sci-fi novel. It’s a wake-up call. It asks what happens when humanity isn’t the top dog anymore, when physics breaks, when faith in our species collapses. It’s dark, bold, and totally unlike anything from the West.

It launched Chinese sci-fi into the global spotlight, inspired millions, and triggered major debates about art vs. the artist.

If you want something that twists your brain and punches your gut, this book does both. Just be ready—it ain’t light reading.