Like 3 years ago, it is conceptually a good book, fascinating actually but the writing style is so robotic and don’t get me wrong, but for me at least, it was at first a little disorienting to follow Chinese names.
I had to push through to finish it.
A month and a half ago I started reading again, something light, Murderbot diaries, follow it with Project Hail Mary, then All Tomorrows. The first one very short, fast paced, PHM not that short but very entertaining, it kept me glued to the page, the All Tomorrows, not my cup of tea but short and somewhat bizarre.
People kept telling me The Dark Forest was better than TBP, with my reading slump over, I decided to give it a try.
With the 3 first books I read every second I had free, I finished them in two weeks, started TDF almost a 3 weeks ago and I’m starting to feel like I felt with The Three Body Problem made feel before, a little bored and like I have to push through.
I don’t like books that I don’t feel compelled to read and feel more like a chore. Anyways, rant over.
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it was at first a little disorienting to follow Chinese names.
This was my main challenge.
Ball lighting started out the same way for me but I stuck with it and was glad I did
You and I had very similar experiences with the Three Body Problem. What was interesting for me was I finished it and thought it was a strong middle of the road book - not amazing, but not terrible. I started the Dark Forest right after it and ended up returning it to the library and noting that I’d come back. I feel like the writing quality is the same in TDF, but now that I know the big reveal from book 1, intrigue just isn’t as satisfying.
The big reveal of book one is small potatoes to the subsequent books. If you’re expecting the trilogy to work within the paradigm of the first books ending, you might be pleasantly surprised. People’s mileage varies on how impactful the other developments are. Personally, I found the expansion of ideas to be really delightful, even if the plotting was flawed.
The writing quality never went up.
The names were a bit of a challenge and I agree on the robotic language. I still enjoyed all three of the books in the three body problem series especially because of the novel (at least novel to me) ideas they included.
Same here, I could not keep up eith the names, because… they were all the same for me :(
I had the same problem when I was reading the trilogy. I had a feeling it may have been a translation issue that makes it feel to robotic. It’s a great story, but getting through was a pain.
So don’t read it then? I’m all for giving everyone the ol’ college try, but not every book is going to work for you and life is short 🤷♀️
Not op but for me honestly it’s very hard to drop reading a book I started just because I don’t like the writing, I feel compelled to finish 😭
Abibliophobia gets us all. Compulsive disorders need to broaden symptoms appropriately.
There’s an economic principle called the sunk cost fallacy. It’s the mistake of continuing an endeavor solely because of previously invested resource Too many people apply it to their reading.
There’s nothing wrong with giving up on a book even after 200 or 300 pages—even if you liked how it started. The author didn’t keep you engaged. It’s fine to move on! This isn’t homework!
Exactly. I was in my 40’s before I figured that out
I’m a newbie with reading sadly but I may sound like a dipshit here, my first actual full read through was it by Stephen king and 4 years later I can’t get enough, when I feel disappointed and trust me I give up easy, I grab a king book or jurrasic park, after a few chapters I’m dialed right in. And if the book is a stinker I still read it mainly cause I spent money on it. Lol
The three body problem is a little tough to get started but was very interesting later on. The following books were just really good.
I know people can get quite defensive about this book on reddit. But if it is any comfort, I didn’t like it either. While many say it gets better and better, I thought every reveal just made it sillier.
I didn’t feel it was silly, but at each reveal I was like, “I suffered through all of that narrative for THAT?” I made it through to the end, but did not consider it to be worth it.
I was more like, THATS IT??? mediocre sci fi at best. overly lengthy prose that never gets to the point.
The second book is worse because the reveal doesn’t even make sense.
Spoiler below
Basically the main character established some kind of mutually assured destruction without any Sophon realizing what he was doing. Even though some of the logical steps the other people were taking were far more intricate.
The whole book was one giant cliffhanger that had me thinking ”Wait they didn’t catch that!". I never read the third book
Agreed. The writing is robotic and the characters are wooden. Many on reddit will fight you to the death saying this style is intentional or “you don’t get Eastern writing”.
Just chalk it up to the book not being your cup of tea and move on. No point in wasting time on a book you don’t enjoy reading. We’re not talking about a book being challenging or difficult. We’re talking about a book that doesn’t work for you.
Who knows. Years later you might give it another try and find that you like it. We’re allowed to change our tastes and our minds
I love sci-fi. I’ve read it for decades (I’m old). This book was a trudge. I heard so many good things about it and there were moments that were inspired, but, dear lord, there are so many other better books out there. I don’t know why the TBP series gets any attention at all.
I’m one of those people that likes to point out how differences in writing style affect people’s enjoyment of the book, but I don’t intend that as an invitation to fight. You get it and jive with it, or you don’t and go read something else.
I’ve done the math on the books I own (in my own home, physically) as a 40 something year old dude. I own more unread books than I’ll ever be able to tackle (even if I never buy another book), want to buy more, and it’s highly unlikely people will just stop writing books for 40-60 years to let me catch up. I enjoy having them because I have my own personal library that I can afford to curate.
But it really drives the point home when you track all the books you want to read vs what you’re doing reading a book that isn’t clicking. My rule of thumb is if I’m interested enough to crack it open, I’ll do a third of the book or 200 pages, whatever’s shorter. Put a bookmark at the stopping point before you begin reading. When you get to the bookmark, it’s a ‘hell yes’ (keep reading) or just close the book and get something else off the shelf.
I get through ~50 books/year, a pace I’ve maintained since ~25 years old, which means life is very literally too short to waste on bad books. 2,750 max (assuming 80 year lifespan and a constant 50 books/yr between 25-80) are in the hopper and shocker - people keep writing. Read what you want!
If TBP doesn’t resonate with you, literally go read anything else that does. You don’t need permission to not like something a lot of other people do, nor should it bother you.
I don’t think it is necessary eastern writing, but rather how refreshingly mundane science thriller can be. No faux dramatic hooks, no hyper personalized personal traits to guide the story.
But yes, no point on beating yourself over what you are not enjoying. You can’t read or like them all, after all.
Oh…come on. I really liked the trilogy on the whole. But that’s due to the strength of its ideas and despite the weakness of its dramatic structure. Gilding the lurching pace of the plot with the phrase “no dramatic hooks” is generous at best. Saying these paper thin characters benefit from “no hyper personalized traits” makes me almost think you’re being tongue in cheek.
You’re right that those elements didn’t guide the story. Instead, “get from idea A to B to C to…” guided the story. Fortunately, the ideas are good! But if I were to reread, I’d probably skip the first book (maybe save a chapter to refresh my memory) and half the rest.
I get it. I do actually think the “paper thin characters” can be a positive for some (me included). If you only like strong characters and character driven stories, it of course isn’t, and that’s fair.
However, part of the reason I like science fiction is the idea-drivenness and oftentimes strong characters get in the way of that. I genuinely don’t see how Trisolaris could have worked with more of a character-focused writing without becoming an entirely different book.And, well, a lot of people would probably have preferred that version, but I wouldn’t have, personally.
I think some character tropes that guide some stories are exaggerated and reused to extend of being more outlandish than the ideas/concepts behind the worldbuilding. It’s like not being able to get behind the idea that not everyone “thinks in words”. Sometimes story does not need a character that refuses to consider that their feelings do not matter.
Anywhoo, I coincidentally started reading trilogy from the third book and liked it the best. First two are just not that fun.
I’m so used to reading actual bland technical content that reading TBP was so fascinating because it presented kind of like that but with supernatural shenanigans. And like, despite the criticism in this thread, there is still a lot of characterization and plot elements that wouldn’t be in actual technical content.
Well…the author did have the Trisolarans make everyone gay and feminine so that they were incapable of stopping them. Kinda hard to ignore that.
Plenty of Chinese readers strongly dislike the writing as well as the values of the three body problem
The Three Body problem was a poorly written book with cool concepts. You can blame translation, eastern writing style, etc. But the character motivation was nonsensical. The novel is bad.
Don’t forget the female characters on par with a $5 paperback crime thriller/romantic comedy.
This is why I’m excited for the show - I think the concept is interesting and if the show writers can work their Hollywood magic then this could be great.
The whole series feels like a powerpoint presentation, not a novel.
Thank you, this is exactly how I felt. The translation makes the dialogue a total snooze fest but even if that wasn’t the case every character is either
- Their motivations don’t make sense
- Extremely 1 dimensional with no character growth
- Or they exist solely as some kind of plot device.
I read it around two years ago. To me, the worst problem was that the characters seemed to have zero importance, the protagonist was almost nonexistent as a character, and the one I found more interesting and charismatic (Da Shi, the policeman) didn’t amount to much in the end. I’ve read even the novel’s most ardent defenders here in Reddit agree to that.
I found three body problem to be winding and underwhelming. There were some fascinating ideas but narratively it was just drudgery.
If you’re taking recommendations, maybe check out Exhalation by Ted Chiang. It seems like you’re looking for thought-provoking sci-fi that won’t bore you, and I think Exhalation accomplishes that really well!
I’m always taking suggestions. Thank you!
I feel like Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds reminded me of TBP but better, more concise, and a really fun read. (I read A LOT of sci-fi and this was one of the better books I’ve read in the last few years.)
Exhalation and Stories of Your Life And Others are amazing.
From someone who also found Three Body Problem wooden and hard to get through. I gave up on the second one and then read Ted Chiang instead.
Stories of your life sounds so familiar… It’s a short story, right? Will you remind me what it’s about?
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I had Stories of Your Life in my head since I watched just before bed a video on YT about sci-fi books, I didn´t take note of it trusting my memory. Thanks to uoy, I have it now on my Kindle.
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
Sounds like my reaction to Cryptonomicon after reading Seveneves. I tried reading Crypto years ago and didn’t like it. Had such high hopes for a second try after enjoying Seveneves.
Nope, that book just ain’t for me. It’s one of my husband’s favorites, though.
What do you think about Seveneves? It has been on my TR list for years and haven’t gotten around to start yet.
You didn’t ask me, but it’s a great read. You get two books in one!
Thanks!
Hated it
I tried The Three Body Problem. I kept thinking I should like this but it was a slog and I gave up.
The Dark Forest is definitely worse than The Body Problem. Skip it, love is too short to spend in books you don’t like!