Added this series to my list a few months back. Read book 1 about a month ago and I’m about 70% through book 2.
I’m struggling to understand why this book is so recommended here and on Amazon. Perhaps the English translation version is just bad?
The pacing is terrible and the plot is meandering (to put it nicely). And overall the character arcs and storyline is confusing. It has a ton of filler content that doesn’t add much and feels like it needs an editor to chop it down / tighten it up.
Every once in a while there are some novelties, like droplets (book 2). But last night while reading I was just skipping pages hoping to get it over with.
Was hoping for Alastair Reynolds but this is more Ayn Rand.
I hate quitting a book but I’m just about there. Throwing out a lifeline in case I’m missing something…
joke: Psht. I read Stephen King. There is almost no filler content in this book by comparison.
Outside of that, it is the concept that works so very well. Even the translation can’t do much about them, but what goes on in the Game is really quite interesting, a form of explaining the situation of the Trisolarans.
What follows is sarcasm based on the first book: You watch the intellectual elites, both the horrifically traumatized one and the rich slimeball, decide that they’d rather humanity be wiped out or dominated than be left to the whims of the lower classes, who will cut down entire forests and destroy ecosystems in order to get enough money to survive right now.
It’s hard sci-fi in an old style, the characters are not central like they are in almost all modern sci-fi. Instead it’s a book of concepts. The series created a novel solution to the Fermi paradox, that’s just cool as hell. Book 3 has a timeline scope that’s bonkers. In some ways it might make more sense to think of it as almost cosmic horror than regular sci-fi. It’s definitely not for everyone. And it’s not a translation issue.
I didn’t enjoy book 2 as much as 1 and 3 and I think it has to do with the different translator. The ideas in book 2 are still pretty mind bending so overall I still liked it. But this series is more about the science and ideas. It’s a not a character driven story which a lot don’t like.
I don’t know about the English translation as I read it in Spanish but I love the series. Tho I can understand why others may find it boring and a little all over the place.
That’s unfortunate but it seems like it just might not be for you. I absolutely loved the series and I read the English translations. The middle book is by a different translator. I think for me I found the ideas neat.
IMO the books get worse the longer they go, book 1 was great, book 2 and book 3 umm now what is this ? But having said that the way the author talks about space the time it takes and its vastness was the most captivating part to me.
From an idea perspective it was one of the best sci-fi books I have ever read. It’s a book that makes you think about its concepts and you have to be willing to put in that time to simply think oh what is the consequences of this or that idea, or would people do this or that. It’s not a here’s a clear cut story start middle finish.
I read the book years ago and I still think about it sometimes specially at night looking at the sky.
I gave up less than 30 pages from the end of book 2. It just seemed like a group of clever ideas and cute physics strung together around a weak plot. You’re not alone in the head scratching re the reviews.
I struggled through the first one and never even considered moving on to the next one.
I am a big science fiction fan but I also had a problem with the very stiff language of Book 2 (The Dark Forest) - which had a different translator than Book 1. I also made it about halfway through and was fed up with it. For Book 3 they went back to the translator from the first book, so I really wanted to make it through, but just couldn’t do it.
Nope, you’re not missing anything. It’s probably the most overrated/overhyped series I’ve ever read.
I love that series but the first book is rough. Looking back I’m surprised I finished it. The 2nd and 3rd are some of my favorites but I understand the series as a whole is extremely divisive.
IMO It is because there hasn’t been an epic hard sci-fi series of this scale in a while. After the first book, the quality of the plot and characters drop precipitously. The first half of the second book is a big slog. The pacing picks up in the third, but the characters are absurd and there are major plot contrivances. What kept me going was unwrapping the mystery box and the far out sci-fi concepts. But if you’re judging the books in terms of literature, the second two books aren’t very good.
I’m curious as to what “a while” means to you, because The Expanse is pretty hard Sci Fi, and the last book Leviathan Falls only came out in 2021 (plus the authors are almost done with the first book in a new series!). I agree, with your sentiments on Book 2 of Three Body Problem and haven’t gotten around to 3 yet, but it doesn’t sound like I’ll be putting that high up on my list anytime soon.
I thought book 1 was good. I’m having a really hard time getting through even the first 100 pages of book 2 that I might just drop it.
The resolution of The Dark Forest was its strongest portion IMO, so if you can stick through it I don’t think you’ll regret it.
Imo ||a lot of sci-fi concepts were dumped on the reader in the last 20% of the third book, which at least for me made it harder to enjoy. On the other hand for book two there’s just one big concept which is revealed, and it’s the pay off of the entire book, which makes it worth it.||
People attach to the technology and I think for some it becomes an intro to hard-scifi which its really not because the tech is just gibberish and poorly implemented. You will hear routinely “interesting ideas” “interesting concepts.”
For some I think the implementation of the technology and all the gibberish that lead up to it, including how they arrived at that tech and still can’t solve their problem creatively, tanks the book even more. For others the tech carries even if its badly implemented and the lead up to it is trash and the characters have no personality and make no sense.
One thing is because it is “fresh”. We very rarely get Sci-Fi from cultures so different from our own, and a Chinese take on the genre that is free of many of the tropes that we are used to excited many people.
Personally, I hated it and didn’t finish the first book. I thought it was poorly written and the plot so over the top ridiculous that no amount of suspension of disbelief could make me enjoy it. I liked the beginning of the book, but a certain scene which I have talked about previously here made me put down the book and never pick it back up.
You are not alone in not liking it. I read it as part of a book club and out of 5 members I got the furthest.
I actually really enjoyed the first book. Thought it was a unique approach to an alien invasion story. I was excited to start the second book but I’ve had to stop twice because I just couldn’t get into it and the storylines were way less interesting than the first. I’ll probably try again in a few months but i definitely hear you on this