Everything Other World discussion

The winner for this month is Abaddon's Gate, winner of the 2014 Locus Science fiction Award.

The Three-Body Problem contained some interesting concepts. An Alien Race is coming to conquer Earth (in 450 years). Normally it wouldn't be a problem, but scientists are committing suicide. Wang Miao is an applied physicist that is called upon by an international force to find out why. Wang slowly unlocks the secret mission of a mysterious society: to help aliens invade Earth.

I found the astrophysical puzzles the hero had to solve interesting. However, Lui Cixin had a tendency to fall back on telling rather than showing.

All in all, it is interesting to see what kind of science fiction China puts out. What did everyone else think?

I absolutely loved the book. It's a breath of exotic originality coming from a region under a totalitarian government. The work represents a different culture and a different mindset.

I found the characters to be mostly one dimensional, which rather ironic considering the author has touched on the subject of higher dimensions. But again, to me that is the product of the culture from which Liu Cixin hails. China surpresses individuality. Words like 'democracy' are banned, and there is a strong government arm acting effectively as a thought police online. Given that context, I wouldn't be surprised if to a Chinese reader the characters displayed so much individuality that it was naughty.

It's true that this is a story told, not showed, but I doubt it would've worked if showed. Cixin Liu places playing in concepts higher than character development.

I read all three of the series, and was humbled by the guy's imagination.

Three Body Problem is a strange breed of science fiction. It reminds me of what got published (and read a lot) during 70s and 80s in Eastern Europe. When one couldn't criticize the state openly, the authors invented worlds filled with malfunctioning fictional societies. Always some scientific concept stood behind their work, like a runaway genetic engineering problem that led to creation of castes, or a cataclys that caused mass starvation, but at the core those popular communist-sci-fi books were the expression of the angst people felt about being downtrodden, or hungry, or alone.

As I age, I often find myself really appreciating a story that explores the depths of the imagination, and I believe that this story fits the bill.

I also love it when someone's cultural orientation is thrown into the mix, and mmmm, we have a recipe for a delectable tale.

When I studied Chinese in college, on top of it being really difficult, I also really appreciated how different the culture is.

I would see the totalitarian government as a representation for China's government. I have read works that criticize how constrictive the society is, so it is often explored in works like this. If it were too realistic, this could have gotten banned.

Do you agree?

I once tried to read Soviet science fiction. I don't remember it holding my attention long. This one did pretty well, all things considered.

Could you perhaps elaborate more on the things that made you not enjoy this book so much? I'm curious as for the details.

I've had "show don't tell" beaten into my head. Don't get me wrong, it was interesting, and long exposition has its place.

The back and forth jumping in the timeline wasn't something that I enjoy. I'm too much an action adventure person and long exposition and jumping back and forth puts an unnecessary damper on the action.

I should also say that I would read the next book in the series. I'm intrigued enough to want to know how humanity gets out of this mess if they ever do.

It reminded me a bit of Philip K. Dick’s bizarre stories until the author went elsewhere. I especially like the colossal pendulum intended to hypnotize God and the hypothetical “could there be some religion whose god needs worshipers to pray to the gods of other religions to save it?”