The Three Body Problem is an award winning sci-fi novel written by Chinese computer engineer and writer Liu Cixin.
I was in the middle of reading it when I came across comments around the internet from folks who confessed that they couldn’t finish the book. As a result, I feel pretty smug and satisfied that I did.
It’s only about 400 pages, but it does get technical. At times, I felt like I was reading science homework. It took me about six weeks to read it because Three Body could be quite dense at times. So, I’d read what felt like a couple of pages before hitting the sheets. Now, this isn’t to say that it was boring — no, far from it. I read in the evenings, and sometimes, challenging material needs to be read in short bursts.
There was never a time that I wanted to give up or stop reading along.
And no, I haven’t watched the Netflix adaptation yet.
The three creators (Benioff, Weiss, and Woo) spoke to author Cixin Liu on Zoom early in their creative process and received the novelist’s blessing to adapt his work — and he encouraged them to make necessary narrative changes. Some of those key changes include chronological shifts, character tweaks, expansions, additions, and setting the present-day story primarily in the UK.
https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/3-body-problem-teaser-release-date
I’m not a fan of giving away the plot, which is why I read (and sometimes watch) without knowing very much about the story. So, I hesitate to give too much away, even though, by now, since it’s hit mainstream, many already know it. But in case you don’t know, the main story centers around Ye Wenjie, an astrophysics graduate during the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
Yeah. it’s pretty intense and throughout her journey you’re introduced to a variety of fascinating characters connected in some way to Ye Wenjie — because aliens.
This the first in a trilogy that I’m not sure I’ll continue reading because the first book felt complete, kind of like the first Matrix movie. What I am interested in is the English translator, Ken Liu’s, work because “Liu’s short story “The Paper Menagerie” is the first work of fiction, of any length, to win all of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards.“
Plus, as if that wasn’t crazy impressive enough, his translation of The Three Body Problem “won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, making it the first translated novel to have won the award”.
At the end of the book, both writers have penned a letter to the reader, which I enjoyed, and this further prompted me to get a hold of The Paper Menagerie.
Regardless, I needed a break from science fiction, so I decided to go in the other direction and read Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth — a 1100 page tome centered around the building of a cathedral in Medieval England.
So, that’s why I’m writing a Spring Reading Roundup! Too many pages and no benchmarks of having completed a book month to month.
Substack update
Because, as I mentioned, Substack is flooded with new content, my subscribers has flatlined, but my followers continue to climb. But since I don’t use the Notes feature very much, I’d rather it was reversed.
Nevertheless, I’ve recently found my “Asian sisters” after I published Bananarama: I’m your Asian.
I’m tickled over how the voice recording turned out, and I’m thrilled folks got my sense of humor. But I’ve got homework! I need to continue to stretch out and explore new content.
Another essay that I’m happy with is That time I cried a lot in class because I took a new look at something that had happened and realized how much it changed my fears towards death.
This weekend I’ve got something else fresh and new that I’d like to publish, but these things are always risky, and we never know whether or not it will pay off. I also keep fiddling with my author bio and page description.
Thank you for reading along. Hope your Spring is going great!
Until next time, xo
Life, the Universe, and Lani 
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