[lmm]

But the science was pure nonsense too. And not interesting nonsense. The videogame works by magic. The alien "protons" work by magic. The alien biology works by magic. It's not "what would the logical consequences be if the universe worked like this", it's just a bunch of stuff, tedious nonsense that means nothing.

I hate the book (and while the people who told me it got better fooled me once, I'm certainly not going to read the other two and let them fool me twice) and can't understand where all the praise comes from.

[dobladov]

In my opinion the first book is a mere introduction to what happens in the second one were really many opened questions and strategies take place.

[EdwardDiego]

Aye, Liu Cixin's biggest impact on speculative fiction thought was the Dark Forest's answer to Fermi's Paradox.

[rsynnott]

I'm not sure that it was that original. Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space had a pretty similar answer (everyone's staying quiet because Bad Things happen if you don't) and he acknowledges influence from Gregory Benford's stuff, say. The explicit game theory approach in the Three Body Problem was kind of new, I suppose.

[hhmc]

The ideas are far from complex enough to require people to suffer through the first book, just to get the necessary context.

I think there's probably a decent short story to be extracted from the key idea in the second book.

[dobladov]

Is not a science book, what is the level of complexity needed for a book to be interesting?, In my opinion, just with the first book that is quite simple since the title gives you the main topic, made my mind wonder about many of the topics, like how another civilization adapts to the hardships of their environment, the naivety of humanity on contacting aliens, the cult behaviour that comes from it.

At no point it felt for me like a waste of time, I agree most of the characters are bland, but the questions opened in the book are all societal, not about the individuals themselves.

[Lewton]

The FTL communication the aliens used in the first book left a really sour taste in my mouth, especially because the plot could easily have worked without it

[TeMPOraL]

> can't understand where all the praise comes from.

Probably from the other two. I've read them all one after the other, so when I talk about 3BP, I have trouble separating the book from the larger trilogy.

> The videogame works by magic.

What was magical about it? I don't remember anything especially weird here.

> The alien "protons" work by magic.

This was explained in detail (modulo sci-fi magic in the explanation), but I'm not sure if in 3BP or in Dark Forest. Other major tech advantages of the aliens were also explained in the latter books.

[lmm]

> What was magical about it? I don't remember anything especially weird here.

IIRC the general tech level was essentially the recent past, but the technology to support this full-body VR game existed with no other consequences. And I think there was also an implication that it was multiplayer with another star system? (again, through unexplained technology with no other consequences).

[TeMPOraL]

As far as I remember (might be wrong, I don't have the book handy), the game was written by humans from the cult that formed around the first, lightspeed-bound, communication with aliens, and it was essentially "artist's impression" of the Trisolarians. The game was, IIRC, a recruiting tool for the cult.

[ptx]

The videogame parts were tedious (I can't see the point of describing in detail the appearance and behavior of virtual worlds, since they can be programmed to behave in arbitrary ways that are most likely meaningless) - but the second book is amazing, IMHO.