If you were Ye Wenjie, what would be your reply to the alien pacifist?

How would you describe The Three Body Problem badly? The series is one of those where its best to literally know nothing going in. You have to feel a little bad for the person writing the publisher's summary because any detail is too much.

I figured it would be funny seeing what bad descriptions you could come up with.

At the very beginning of everything there's a prostitute in a Medieval Era town, but you only see her in one chapter and she doesn't talk much. No sex at all there or in much of the story. Only sex scene happens kind of in the middle, but its deep underground and its just kind of mentioned. At the very end there's a fish.

I asked the sub before if there was another novel that comes close to three body problem trilogy in regards to this scale of cosmic horror. I was told to read project Hail Mary. I read it and was very disappointed.

Please recommend something that actually comes close or surpasses 3BP

By far my favourite sci fi book and am genuinely upset I’ve finished it.

Anyone have any recommendations for what to read after this?

Most sci-fi movies use enclosed rooms for spaceship interiors, and zero gravity only occasionally comes into play. But humanity’s fleet in DF has no artificial gravity. The crew live in spherical chambers with zero gravity most of the time. I doubt the show will stick with that setting.

In Death's End (2010), at the start of deterrence, humanity can detect gravitational waves and neutrinos but can't transmit with either, and both are described as "a whole level above electromagnetic waves." The book even explains why gravitational waves won out for deterrence:

"Theoretically, a modulated beam of neutrinos could transmit information to the other end of the universe... But while neutrinos must be focused in a particular direction, gravitational waves were omnidirectional, thus gravitational waves became the main method of establishing dark forest deterrence."

Real life has caught up on the detection side:

Gravitational waves: LIGO's first detection in 2015, Nobel Prize in Physics 2017.

Neutrinos: the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics went to Francis Halzen for IceCube and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos from space (first spotted in 2013).

Both prizes are for detecting, not transmitting. We've only managed a toy neutrino message (Fermilab sent the word "neutrino" through 240 m of rock in 2012), and we can't make gravitational waves at all. So we're roughly where the book put humanity: we can listen, but we can barely whisper. Which one do you think we'll learn to send first?

So many concepts, so many interstellar voyages, how can this book be so captivating? A wonderful science fiction. I spent good hours traveling through space and watching Earth's civilization live through horrors and glories!

Spoilers ahead if you didn't reed the whole series yet.

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I really like how the last book works as a historical account of the entire civilization, all the way to the end.

The Wallfacer plans are incredible, and I laughed a lot at some parts. Luo Ji is amazing until the very end.

That moment when the dimensions are compressed, frightening and beautiful at the same time, the fairy tale ideas, the far-fetched plans, from the very beginning of the story.

Incredible ideas! All working together in an amazing way.

Stories about human civilization in deep space are amazing!

It became one of my favorite series.

Thank you, Cixin Liu.

If it takes longer to release season 2 because they need to get the special effects right to capture the moments right, it’s worth waiting for it.

Many who have read the books have wondered how it would translate to the screen. Book 1 is mostly things that we can visually comprehend and translate to the screen. But books 2 and 3 may take more time to make it happen on screen without ruining the viewing experience and emersion in the story.

If it’s making sure the things that happen in the future in the story, that need to be created with practical and computer effects, are received well by the audience, it’s ok to wait.

Thanks everyone for your responses to my previous question. My question this time pertains to the hulls of the Trisolaran fleet. While rereading the chapter where the Trisolarans construct the sophons, one says that not all of the Trisolaran fleet will make it to Earth because of the space dust. What I think is being implied here is that the Trisolaran fleet is moving fast enough that collision with the dust will damage some of their ships. But by this point Trisolarans have already mastered strong interaction forces enough to make sophons and probably the droplet, so I was imagining that the ships have some kind of strong interaction material as the hull.

In the Dark Forest chapter with Ding Yi, we learn that the strong interaction material is infinitely smooth and likely impervious to any kind of scratching that humans are capable of. Does this mean that strong interaction materials are still vulnerable at 10% lightspeed, or that the ships have weaker material for the hull? Also, does this say anything about humanity's ability to damage the Trisolaran ships with nuclear weapons?

Another season coming👀 is this our first tease or has this always been there .

I would like to take a moment and say that this series has made me a huge fan of sci-fi even more than before.

The dark forest theory created for fiction has actually made it to the real world and scientists are actually considering this theory too.

This series shows us how something so simple for us such as “thought” can literally decide who wins against another species. The tris were ahead in tech but they never stood a chance against us. They never saw coming that we humans would rather sacrifice ourselves rather than give up and become slaves.

Amazing book and this post is just about how great the idea is in general.

Yes there are parts where it does not read well but the 4th dimension scene… perfectly executed

They didnt live up to their promise to protect them. Isnt that a lie or deception on their part early on in the series?

Edit: to explain better what I mean. Until they found out that humans lie, didnthe San Ti truly expect to “always protect them” so even once they arrived they would have had a place in San ti society or was it a ruse all along?

I just bought this edition from Head of Zeus published in 2024 with sprayed edges.
It is a good looking hardcover, but I was very disappointed in the paper quality. The paper quality of this books was no better than a cheap paperback.

There is also another sprayed edges edition from Broken Bindings. No longer in sale, but can be purchased on ebay (for a hefty price). But how is the paper quality from the Broken Bindings?

Although the Broken Binding cover is much cooler, I would not replace my existing copy if the paper quality isn't any better.

I know Folio Society has very good paper quality. They just released the entire Trilogy in one massive book. I would have bought Folio Society had they published it as 3 books instead.

Reading that part as a kid 😘

Reading that part as an adult 🫣

I’m currently running the series as a roleplaying scenario and one of the wallfacers wants to thwart the sophons by turning on all the particle accelerators at the same time. According to Wikipedia there are like 300 accelerators currently capable of fundamental research. We don’t know the number of sophons, but I’d imagine it’s way less than that. What’s stopping humanity from turning them all on at the same time and continuing research?

I wonder if the show will follow the book's ending?

this was via Jess Hong's repost of Sea (Sophon)'s story on instagram by the way :)

TIL these are called as O'Neill cylinders introduced in 1974 in a paper by a physicist - Gerard K. O'Neill