Frances Buontempo ha recensito The Three-Body Problem di Cixin Liu
Lots of ideas
3 stelle
Set my imagination off, but felt like a stream of ideas.
Brossura, 432 pagine
lingua French
Pubblicato il 13 Settembre 2016 da Actes Sud.
The Three-Body Problem (Chinese: 三体; lit. 'Three-Body'; pinyin: sān tǐ) is a science fiction novel by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin. The title refers to the three-body problem in orbital mechanics. It is the first novel of the Remembrance of Earth's Past (Chinese: 地球往事) trilogy, but Chinese readers generally call the whole series The Three-Body Problem. The trilogy's second and third novels are The Dark Forest and Death's End. The Three-Body Problem was serialized in Science Fiction World in 2006 and published as a book in 2008. It became one of the most popular science fiction novels in China. It received the Chinese Science Fiction Yinhe ("Galaxy)" Award in 2006. A Chinese film adaptation of the same name was in production by 2015, but halted soon after. The English translation by Ken Liu was published by Tor Books in 2014. Thereafter, it became the first Asian novel ever to win …
The Three-Body Problem (Chinese: 三体; lit. 'Three-Body'; pinyin: sān tǐ) is a science fiction novel by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin. The title refers to the three-body problem in orbital mechanics. It is the first novel of the Remembrance of Earth's Past (Chinese: 地球往事) trilogy, but Chinese readers generally call the whole series The Three-Body Problem. The trilogy's second and third novels are The Dark Forest and Death's End. The Three-Body Problem was serialized in Science Fiction World in 2006 and published as a book in 2008. It became one of the most popular science fiction novels in China. It received the Chinese Science Fiction Yinhe ("Galaxy)" Award in 2006. A Chinese film adaptation of the same name was in production by 2015, but halted soon after. The English translation by Ken Liu was published by Tor Books in 2014. Thereafter, it became the first Asian novel ever to win a Hugo Award for Best Novel, and was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel.The series portrays a future where, in the first book, the Earth is awaiting an invasion from the closest star system, which in this universe consists of three solar-type stars orbiting each other in an unstable three-body system, with a single Earth-like planet unhappily being passed among them and suffering extremes of heat and cold, as well as the repeated destruction of its intelligent civilizations.
Set my imagination off, but felt like a stream of ideas.
Avviso sul contenuto This book is intensely political.
Everyone loves this, but I can't understand why nobody seems to be put off, or at least puzzled, but the way that every human individual or organization in the book is just relentlessly awful, ranging from suicidal to genocidal, and everything in-between, without respite.
Most of them, given any chance at all, are trying hard to selfishly save their own skins, with not a moment's regard for the fact that their plans will immediately doom the rest of the human race. Those not intent on self preservation at any cost are instead committed to bitter nihilism, such as the ultimate eco terrorists, who feel that to save the Earth's biosphere they must collaborate with alien forces to bring about humanity's defeat, and likely annhialation.
These characters and groups are not intended as outliers. They simply represent the world, as it is, in its entirety. The only thing that holds back this tide of destructive behavior is the government, who keeps everyone in line.
I can't tell how much of this bizarrely one-sided depiction of humanity is a deliberate choice by the author Liu Cixin, versus simply being an unplanned exposure of the author's worldview. Does his native Chinese immersion in authoritarianism form a subconscious backdrop to everything he wrote here, or is he making the deliberate point that strong government is absolutely necessary?
Liu Cixin has since gone on record in support of the Chinese government's internment of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang. There, people have been rounded up, because of their ethnicity, into over 400 internment camps. The camps administer cultural and religious re-education, forced labor, involuntary sterilization and abortion. This is something Liu Cixin is openly in favor of.
It makes my skin crawl to read that, and then carry on blithely with this book, which seems to be an unapologetic justification for authoritarian government imposing its will on an unwilling people. I did finish it, but have no desire to read the sequels - and not just because I don't agree with its politics. I genuinely found the behavior of all the characters to be demented and incessantly frustrating.
Spannend aufgebaut mit verschiedenen Handlungssträngen, die sich irgendwann zusammenfügen. Technische / physikalische Grundprinzipien auch für mich als Laien verständlich dargestellt. Und die Frage nach dem "First Contact" mit all ihren Implikationen wurde toll beackert. Zusätzlich erfährt von noch etwas über die jüngere chinesische Geschichte.
The first few chapters had me darting to and from Wikipedia to help add some context to a story that is deeply set in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It',s a triviality to call the story complex, a mystery than unfolds through the book. Be warned this is the first in a trilogy and a very much sets itself up this way, which was a little frustrating in the last few chapters.
Es el primero de una trilogía. Me ha gustado, aunque hay algunas cosas "científicas" que me han parecido muy simplonas. De cualquier forma, estoy leyendo el segundo, y creo que también leeré el tercero. Lo recomiendo.
A good hard fiction novel that explores the question of making first contact. It's a quick read that has decent character development, a smooth flowing plot, and asks deep philosophical science questions.
Empecé con muchas ganas este ganador del Premio Hugo de 2015. Ciencia ficción "hard", de una cultura un tanto exótica para mí como la china, y con aplauso unánime de la crítica, prometía mucho. Y no es que sea una mala lectura ni mucho menos, pero me ha acabado decepcionando bastante.
Se dice que el autor está muy influido por Asimov, Clarke y similares, y la verdad es que sí: la trama contiene muchos elementos que podían haber sido originales en los años 60, pero que desde luego hoy en día no lo son, al menos en Occidente. El personaje principal es bastante plano; los secundarios, que tenían mimbres para ser interesantes, acaban resultando estereotípicos; el hecho de que la novela acabe en un "continuará" (es el primer libro de una trilogía) no ayuda tampoco a la redondez de la trama.
En otros aspectos donde se ven influencias de otros …
Empecé con muchas ganas este ganador del Premio Hugo de 2015. Ciencia ficción "hard", de una cultura un tanto exótica para mí como la china, y con aplauso unánime de la crítica, prometía mucho. Y no es que sea una mala lectura ni mucho menos, pero me ha acabado decepcionando bastante.
Se dice que el autor está muy influido por Asimov, Clarke y similares, y la verdad es que sí: la trama contiene muchos elementos que podían haber sido originales en los años 60, pero que desde luego hoy en día no lo son, al menos en Occidente. El personaje principal es bastante plano; los secundarios, que tenían mimbres para ser interesantes, acaban resultando estereotípicos; el hecho de que la novela acabe en un "continuará" (es el primer libro de una trilogía) no ayuda tampoco a la redondez de la trama.
En otros aspectos donde se ven influencias de otros autores, los extraterrestres, lejanos y enigmáticos pero a la vez muy humanos, me recuerdan poderosamente a los de Los Propios Dioses; el juego de realidad virtual no puede menos de sonarnos a Ender... Pero todo ello con menos fuerza que las referencias originales.
Curiosamente, donde me parece que el libro se vuelve más vivo y brillante es en sus regresiones sobre China, la Revolución Cultural y su evolución posterior. Quizás es simplemente por mi desconocimiento sobre el tema, pero los capítulos centrados en ese tema se me hicieron mucho más interesantes.
El libro se lee bien, entretiene y es de lectura ágil, pero esperaba algo más. No sé si continuaré con los otros dos libros de la trilogía, tocará pensarlo.
This was a good read, but with more than a few flaws.
It has plenty of intellectually stimulating ideas, which I cannot list here to avoid spoilers. Let's just Say that sci-fi has a new interpretation for the "Human computer" term, other than Herbert's mentats.
Plot Is also rather good and well paced.
So, what are the flaws?
First of all, the writing style. It's unbearably stiff and formal. I don't know of it's a cultural thing or it's translation-related, but still.
And characters are extremely monodimensional.
Ok, it's a hard sci-fi novel, but come on. There's very little to distinguish them.
These flaws would normally be more than enough for me to abandon a book, but in this case the plot was so well crafted that I had to know how It ended. Alas, It does not, since it's a trilogy. Seems like i'll have to endure cixin stiff …
This was a good read, but with more than a few flaws.
It has plenty of intellectually stimulating ideas, which I cannot list here to avoid spoilers. Let's just Say that sci-fi has a new interpretation for the "Human computer" term, other than Herbert's mentats.
Plot Is also rather good and well paced.
So, what are the flaws?
First of all, the writing style. It's unbearably stiff and formal. I don't know of it's a cultural thing or it's translation-related, but still.
And characters are extremely monodimensional.
Ok, it's a hard sci-fi novel, but come on. There's very little to distinguish them.
These flaws would normally be more than enough for me to abandon a book, but in this case the plot was so well crafted that I had to know how It ended. Alas, It does not, since it's a trilogy. Seems like i'll have to endure cixin stiff formality for another 2 books.