The Challenge Factory discussion

Sandy & Colleen - The Three-Body Problem

Hi Sandy!! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! :D


I already have a copy of this, so for the most part am ready whenever you are. I'm also in no particular rush.

Hi Colleen! Would it be ok if we start Nov. 7? Im doing the Tower Team challenge and you can't count books started before then. Also I am moving on Nov. 7 so this week is going to be a little crazy!

That sounds fine. Good luck with the move!

Colleen wrote: "That sounds fine. Good luck with the move!"

Thank you!
Feel free to go ahead and start if you want, and we can just use spoiler brackets for our comments.

I'm starting this novel this evening. Not sure how far I'll get, but I'm going to dive in.

Hope your move went well!

Hi! Moving is exhausting!
I will start tomorrow. Let me know how you like it.

I bet! I hate moving, but being in a new place must be exciting

I didn't get too far. I'm just 22 pages in and barely into chapter 2.

(view spoiler)[ The first chapter is pretty heavy with the impact of the Cultural Revolution on a particular family and doesn't paint it in a very good light. Hard to imagine it's been published in China! Maybe I have to rethink China.

Have you ever read ?

Anyway, I think (hope?) the tone for meeting-aliens is being set up a bit differently than the usual fare. Ye (the daughter) reads Rachel Carson's environmental book and comes away with the though that "to achieve moral awakening required a force outside the human race". In fact, I like that whole bit she has about the ocean/iceberg and humanity/evil.

Now maybe that's going to be her position and she'll be proven wrong and the aliens aren't benevolent, but I'm hopeful. (hide spoiler)]

end of chapter 6, page 75 (view spoiler)[ So we jumped 40 years into the future and the interesting character, Ye, isn't around - maybe she'll come back.

Anyway, the bit about the countdown showing up first in photographs that Wang took and then constantly in his vision was interesting. I can't decide if this Shen woman is behind something or merely observing/reporting on something. In any case, the entire premise is interesting and the countdown thing feels slightly menacing.

Benevolently menacing? Hmm... (hide spoiler)]

I'm a third of the way through the book - page 112, end of chapter 10 (view spoiler)[ I admit to being confused by the game and found it underwhelming. I like Shi more than I did initially - his way of connecting things together was illuminating and I am curious as to where this is all going.
And Ye showed back up! I figured she would but I'm glad to confirm she's still around. (hide spoiler)]

Way to go Colleen!
Last night I read up to the point where the Professor is beaten to death by 14 year olds. The image is brutal!

Yeah, it was pretty disturbing.

I'm through chapter 17, page 177 (view spoiler)[

The human computer in the game was pretty rather fun, I liked them "inventing" virtual memory and a CPU out of soldiers.

This book has an odd tone, but I find I'm curious about what's going on and enjoying it. (hide spoiler)]

Colleen wrote: "end of chapter 6, page 75 So we jumped 40 years into the future and the interesting character, Ye, isn't around - maybe she'll come back.

Anyway, the bit about the countdown showing up first in ..."

I don't understand the countdown visions. Hoping it becomes apparent.

About 25% done. I am still waiting for Ye to return to the story.

I finished the book.
(view spoiler)[
It took a long time for the purpose of the countdown visions to become apparent, but the cause was chilling. Infected smart proton thingies made scientists about to achieve breakthroughs go crazy.

Speaking of the thingies... there was a lot of technical descriptions that I found hard to get through. Any time I read space opera I tend to gloss over the author's explanations of how they envision stuff working because I don't find it all that interesting. I know some scifi fans really enjoy that part of it though. Me? I remember the thingies had something to do with it. ;)

Anyway, poor Ye. Talk about some undiagnosed PTSD impacting a person. Oh, I think I'll destroy humanity! Maybe kill my husband while I'm at it. Yikes! She was still a fascinating character.

It's terrifying to think that this other society has infected ours with technology to prevent us from making scientific achievements. And that they're listening all the time. So creepy.

After reading the translator's notes, I think some of the strangeness of tone has to do with the translation. Keeping a balance between Chinese and Chinese literary references and English must've been hard and I think the translator did a good job. The strangeness just made it even more alien to me.

There are three in the series, the 3rd translation due out next spring I think. What do you think? Will you continue with the series?

I'm torn between rating it 3 and 4 stars, but will probably go with 4. I think for what it is, it's an important cross-cultural book and the premise felt like nostalgic scifi yet modern at the same time. I did find some of the technical passages tedious to get through at times though. And with all the information dumps, some characters weren't as fleshed out as they could've been (hide spoiler)]

Good job!
I'll finish this week, at least that's my goal! :-)

I'm a little more than halfway done. I confess it's not holding my attention and I keep getting sidetracked by other books. Are there actual aliens in this book? Lol

Meanwhile is sitting on my shelf mocking me...

I had trouble with it, too. I had to push myself through and ended up scanning over some technical bits. I do think the second half moved more swiftly, if that's any help. Could've been the scanning thing I did though.

And... do you really want me to answer the aliens question? (haha) I felt there was some resolution, but it wasn't really what I was expecting at all.

At the end there's a note from the translator - which gave me a good perspective on how difficult it must be to translate such vastly different languages with different literary norms. The foreign feel made the alien thing kind of... creepy? Maybe read that and then go back and see if it changes your view at all?

It's definitely not one of the most enjoyable or entertaining books I've read, but it did make me think. Both about the story and about Chinese popular literature.

I guess they can't all be winners, eh?


I'm up for a December/January buddy read for that (or January/February) - because it's totally mocking me, too. It's the oldest TBR on my goodreads shelf and it just sits there and stares at me, slowly blinking, every time I add something else.

Thanks for the encouragement! I just need to have more patience. It's a lot more technical than I expected and I am probably not absorbing those parts, but that's ok (same when I read the Martian. So much was over my head!) I like some of the philosophical discussions. I am thinking there are no aliens, but we'll see!

Yes, I am up for Dec/Jan if you are. I need to resist other buddy reads and challenges (lol right!) Can you believe Thanksgiving is next week??

Sandy wrote: "Thanks for the encouragement! I just need to have more patience. It's a lot more technical than I expected and I am probably not absorbing those parts, but that's ok (same when I read the Martian. ..."

(right?! lol) I see the December buddy read list is up. I'm going to see if anyone wants to join us - the more the merrier motivation, right?
And I might have already joined a couple others *facepalm

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Are you having it in your new place or going to somewhere else? I'm heading to my mom's (she's about 30 min away) and taking a couple dishes and a pie.

We are staying home and having just a small family dinner for the 4 of us. All of our relatives live in other states. We invited several friends and family but I guess no one wants to travel!

I hope others join us. I really want to push through it this time!

I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving too!

OK, so I just read where Ye gets the message from the Trisolarans. So...I guess there really are aliens? Unless someone is posing as the alien? I'll keep reading! :-)

I'm still not commenting on the alien thing (I'm so mean!) ;)

Her response to receiving the message was pretty interesting. Rather than sharing, she uses it as an opportunity for retaliation against 'the institution' or society. She's so damaged. *sigh

I finally finished!
I'm glad there were aliens...I would have felt ripped off otherwise. LOL

It's funny because as I was reading I kept thinking that the author was really making critical statements about society, then in the author's commentary he says he does not do that. Um, really??

The last 40% of the book, and the first 20%, are definitely the strongest parts. Despite the technical jargon and physics problems that were completely over my head, I enjoyed the story. I think it's interesting that the aliens are "faking" their technological superiority. I think further books will be interesting to read, but I"m not in a hurry.

On to Jonathan Strange!

I'm still not entirely convinced there are aliens. (jk)

The end was definitely stronger, and the narration picked up. It was an odd book, for sure. I'm glad I read it though.


So far, no one else seems to want to jump on the bandwagon. Maybe I shouldn't have noted the ridiculous page count. haha! I guess I could go get us signed up anyway.

Yeah, it's a little intimidating. Also, December can be a busy month. I need to read a list a little bit every day to get through it.