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The Three-Body Problem: Book summary and reviews of The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem Series #1

by Cixin Liu

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu X
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
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About this book

Book Summary

The Three-Body Problem is the first novel in the groundbreaking, Hugo Award-winning series from China's most beloved science fiction author, Cixin Liu.

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.

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Book Awards

  • award image Hugo Awards, 2015

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Remarkable, revelatory, and not to be missed." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Fans of hard SF will revel in this intricate and imaginative novel." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A mind-bending epic." ―The New York Times

"Liu's picture of humanity's place in the cosmos is among the biggest, boldest and most disturbing we've seen." ―Los Angeles Times

This information about The Three-Body Problem was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Cixin Liu

Cixin Liu is the most prolific and popular science fiction writer in the People's Republic of China. Liu is a winner of the Hugo Award, an eight-time winner of the Galaxy Award (the Chinese Hugo) and a winner of the Chinese Nebula Award. Prior to becoming a writer, he worked as an engineer in a power plant. His novels include The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End.

Ken Liu is an award-winning author of speculative fiction. His books include the Dandelion Dynasty series (The Grace of Kings), The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, and the Star Wars tie-in novel, The Legends of Luke Skywalker. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on topics like futurism, machine-augmented creativity, the mathematics of origami, and more. He lives near Boston with his family.

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