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[eBook] The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Hugo Award Winner) Kindle Daily Deal - $1.49 @ Amazon AU

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[eBook] The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Hugo Award Winner) Kindle Daily Deal - $1.49 @ Amazon AUAffiliate
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Ori0n on 21/02/2022 - 12:04 amazon.com.au (1230 clicks)
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Kindle Daily Deal

Read the award-winning, critically acclaimed, multi-million-copy-selling science-fiction phenomenon – soon to be a Netflix Original Series from the creators of Game of Thrones.

1967: Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China's Cultural Revolution. This singular event will shape not only the rest of her life but also the future of mankind.

Four decades later, Beijing police ask nanotech engineer Wang Miao to infiltrate a secretive cabal of scientists after a spate of inexplicable suicides. Wang's investigation will lead him to a mysterious online game and immerse him in a virtual world ruled by the intractable and unpredictable interaction of its three suns.

This is the Three-Body Problem and it is the key to everything: the key to the scientists' deaths, the key to a conspiracy that spans light-years and the key to the extinction-level threat humanity now faces.

Praise for The Three-Body Problem:
'Your next favourite sci-fi novel' Wired
'Immense' Barack Obama
'Unique' George R.R. Martin
'SF in the grand style' Guardian
'Mind-altering and immersive' Daily Mail

Winner of the Hugo and Galaxy Awards for Best Novel

Book 2 (The Dark Forest) and Book 3 (Death's End) in the series are not currently on special and are $8.79 each.

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closed Comments

  • Loracks on 21/02/2022 - 12:19
    +3

    Can any Chinese Australians answer a question for me. Does the translation do a good job?
    It's an interesting SciFi story but the English translation isn't the most well-written book. Is this because it's not faithful to the source or too faithful?
    Is the Chinese version considered a great literary work?

    • Ori0n on 21/02/2022 - 12:24
      +18

      I do not know the answer to your question but note that it was the translation that won the Hugo Award (the first to do so), if that means anything.

      • Ozbargainasaurus on 21/02/2022 - 14:04
        -8

        Tokenism?

        • robothat on 21/02/2022 - 22:30
          +1

          No; the story is utterly fantastic.

          • Ozbargainasaurus on 21/02/2022 - 22:57
            -4

            @robothat: Utterly something alright ;)

            • robothat on 22/02/2022 - 00:19
              +2

              @Ozbargainasaurus: Have you read it, or do you just have a problem with China?

              Edit: OK, I just went and read your other comments. It’s slow, if you tapped out after a couple of chapters then you’re missing out. Maybe the Netflix show will be faster!

    • sanrs on 21/02/2022 - 12:25
      +7

      only read the original Chinese version. a good story, and the opening story of the trilogy.
      the translator is Ken Liu
      According to Wiki, Ken's work should be OK. and without reading this you will be lost in Book2 and Book3, so this book1 is a must-have :)
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Liu
      Ken Liu is a multiple Hugo Award-winning American author of science fiction and fantasy. His epic fantasy series The Dandelion Dynasty, the first work in the "silkpunk" genre, is published by Simon & Schuster. Wikipedia
      Born: 1976 (age 46 years), Lanzhou, China
      Spouse: Lisa Tang Liu
      Education: Waterford High School
      Genre: Science fiction, fantasy

    • edisonAU on 21/02/2022 - 12:47
      +8

      I have read both Chinese and English version. The translation is pretty good. In fact, for understanding scientific theories in the book, I would recommend reading the English version, especially if you study high school/university science subjects in English, as it is hard to understand it in Chinese.

    • happychap on 21/02/2022 - 12:51
      +7

      Can't vouch for the Chinese version but the English one is great. Like edisonAU said, there are a lot of very technical scientific terms/explanations so I guess you should read it in the language your scientific vocab is better in.

      • Loracks on 21/02/2022 - 12:56
        +1

        I guess this might be a SciFi thing then. Sure, it's great imagination and the technical explanations are believable but as a work of fiction it's just not well written. I get that world building sometimes trumps prose in popular fiction, but thought maybe the Chinese version was better.

    • BlkForest on 21/02/2022 - 13:54

      read the first book in English version years ago. agree that the translation could be improved more a bit, but no problem for understanding the scientific items

    • noided on 21/02/2022 - 14:05
      +1

      Personally I was super surprised with how elegant the ideas come across in English, the structure is really good. This is one of my favourite books and the theory presented in the second one really changes your perspective on space.

    • OrderedChaos on 21/02/2022 - 15:34
      +2

      I'm a serious SciFi and Fantasy reader and I did not like this. Couldn't get past the 1st few chapters. Very poor characterization. Story simply did not draw me in. Might have been the translation, might have been the author… dunno which. It's clearly a novel that's been pumped by the mainstream. Was absolutely not for me. By the way from the list of reviewers shared, George R. R. Martin is the only one who understands SciFi (to a degree), and he's called it "Unique". Nice way of putting it George :).

      • danwylie on 21/02/2022 - 17:49

        I agree, I finished it and I was totally indifferent. Wasn't bad, wasn't great. 2.5 stars. Good price though.

      • Ozbargainasaurus on 21/02/2022 - 18:02

        Agreed, the only way it makes best seller lists is by heavily discounting. Just in time for the movie.

        • OrderedChaos on 21/02/2022 - 19:06
          +1

          Might watch that movie… if they ever make it. :D

      • Jamesx on 21/02/2022 - 18:23

        If you are not into it, of course you won't rate it well.
        However, looking at the number of readers who love it, you might think you are far superior than all these average Joe.
        If you don't get it after reading it, just rate it 0 out of 5. You deserve it.

        • OrderedChaos on 21/02/2022 - 19:04
          +1

          However, looking at the number of readers who love it, you might think you are far superior than all these average Joe.

          Look it didn't appeal to me for the reasons stated. There are TONS of self published LitRPG works, with 1000's of ratings averaging close to 5/5. Clearly those who rated it loved it. Does it mean it's good or will appeal to all. No. Winning a Hugo, as with winning an Emmy, doesn't making something good - just popular. To my mind, Cixin Liu failed on the Characterization and Personality fronts, and without those, it was bland and a chore to read.

          For those who are interested - you want to know what else I found overrated and a chore? To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini. I tried. I really did try. Couldn't do it :).

          • Ozbargainasaurus on 21/02/2022 - 23:46

            @OrderedChaos: Anything you would recommend?

            • OrderedChaos on 22/02/2022 - 11:24
              +1

              @Ozbargainasaurus: Off the top of my mind… some old fav's and some more recently published ones.
              The Gap Series by Stephen R Donaldson (fairly gritty stuff); The Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F Hamilton (it's lengthy and his style might not appeal to all, but it's a great space opera); The Hyperion series by Dan Simmons; Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card; Alastair Reynolds (need to get back to his stuff). Have read all the usual suspects - a lot on this list. At the serious risk of upsetting Asimov fans :D - his writing style (in Foundation) was grating. He needed a better editor :D. There are some pretty decent reads on this list.

              Two more recently published SciFi works - Old Man's War by John Scalzi (the 1st trilogy was great fun. The 2nd less so); The Bobbiverse by Dennis E Taylor (self published and pretty good).

              Struggled to find new authors of note. Feel free to make suggestions :).

              Will be looking to read the following authors in the coming months - Ann Leckie; Adrian Tchaikovsky (when the trilogy is complete); Richard K Morgan (really dug the Altered Carbon Season 1); … geez the list is long incl. going back to works I read as a teenager and have forgotten.

              Have been focusing on Fantasy. Note worthy reads off late - Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson; Cradle series by Will Wight (self published, seriously fun!.. and so are his other works); re-read the 10 book Thomas Covenant series by Stephen R Donaldson (…The Last Chronicles was tedious. Could have been 2.5, rather than 4 books. Became "The elucidations of Thomas Covenant".. hehehe. Pushed though and was worth wrapping the serious up); need to get back to Stephen Erikson. Haven't finished his Malazan series.

              • Ozbargainasaurus on 22/02/2022 - 11:45
                +1

                @OrderedChaos: Thanks for detailed answer. Couldn't agree more with the ender game series. Will check out some of the others on your list (btw, I'm one of those Asimov fans 🤣🤣. just finished Nemesis, personally it's one of the only ones I didn't like, bit too repetitive in the themes, would have been better being a short story).

    • Munki on 21/02/2022 - 15:52
      +1

      I haven't read the original in Chinese (probably will be far beyond my understanding anyway given how scientific it gets sometimes), but the translator Ken Liu did it quite fantastically.

      Book 2 was translated by someone else, so might feel different. Ken comes back to translate the 3rd book.

    • OMGJL on 23/02/2022 - 04:04

      I have only read the Original Chinese version, so honestly I am not eligible to answer your question. Though I still want to put a few point out (I will try not to spoil any real content of the book)

      story of Book 1 was based on Cultural Revolution (196x~197x) in China, which is a very dark age for most Chinese people, even the government is somewhat trying to hide what have happened. This book have presented the history in realistic manner, which might caught some judge's attention because of "political correctness" (some loves to hear Communist party suffers). Hugo was known to have some judges believe in political correctness for a long time, to read more search "Sad Puppies Hugo".

      What make this matter interesting is that, including me, there are a lot of people who think 3Body Book 2, or 3, deserves the award more than Book1, yet not having Hugo awards (again, this is based on the Chinese version).

      I'd strongly recommend this book (based on the Chinese version) to any readers who's hardcore Sci-Fi fan, I reckon even if the translation isn't as good as original, I'd still recommend the book as long as it's understand-able. Book 1 might be a bit boring at beginning, but it was extracting all the required knowledge to its readers, it only get better and better as story goes on.

  • jv on 21/02/2022 - 12:19
    -1

    Any good deals on the physical copy?

    • Naigrabzo on 21/02/2022 - 12:44
      +1

      You like three bodies getting physical?

      • jv on 21/02/2022 - 12:57
        +2

        You like three bodies getting physical?

        Let me hear your body talk…

        • Naigrabzo on 21/02/2022 - 13:44

          LMAO! Nice one.

        • Naigrabzo on 21/02/2022 - 13:45

          Obama said that this one is 'immense'. Imagine the size of that thing.

      • Munki on 22/02/2022 - 10:40

        Let's get physical! Physical!

    • Crashdown on 21/02/2022 - 12:47
      +2

      Don’t pirate books, authors earn so little…. https://www.asauthors.org/news/asa-survey-results-author-ear…

      • Hsinking on 21/02/2022 - 12:48
        -2

        I bought the kindle version years ago…

        • Crashdown on 21/02/2022 - 13:58
          +1

          So why does that mean you can share a link to a pirating site on a public forum?

    • Spacexyz on 21/02/2022 - 13:17
      +3

      Only $1.49 for the genuine version… We aren't living in such a poor country, right?

      • Hsinking on 21/02/2022 - 13:17
        -4

        As I said, I paid for this trilogy.

    • Hsinking on 21/02/2022 - 13:29
      -6

      For people who can't help opening this collapsed reply to lecture/neg me:

      I am one of the first who paid for this trilogy ( kindle version), a few years before it won hugo award;

      I didn't put a pistol to anyone's forehead, ask him/her to download this book for free, if you think you want to pay, then pay for it.

    • Blitzfx on 21/02/2022 - 14:24

      Great site for uni text books who charge you $100 for 6th edition, when the difference between 5th edition is a few spelling mistakes and swapping two chapters around.

  • Naigrabzo on 21/02/2022 - 12:44
    -4

    Some would think that three bodies do not pose a problem rather, a fun time to had by all three bodies. :)

  • Trippelsewe on 21/02/2022 - 12:50
    +5

    Great trilogy with some very interesting concepts. First book is okay but story picks up significantly in the 2nd and 3rd books.

    • kapone on 21/02/2022 - 12:54
      +4

      Good to know. I struggled with the first, gave up half way through

      • belongsinforums on 21/02/2022 - 17:46

        Worth it all just for book 3, although i loved the characters in book 2 the most

  • itbargainhunter on 21/02/2022 - 12:57
    +2

    Dark forest theory

  • Saruname on 21/02/2022 - 13:04

    Like a lot of SciFi books, first book is good but as series progresses it drops in quality.

    Still a worthwhile read but the 3rd books pretty weak.

    • mountaineer on 21/02/2022 - 13:44
      +2

      My personal experience is the other way around, the 2nd and the 3rd are really the gist and the highlight of the series. For me, this is more like a hybrid of Sci-Philosophy-History fiction…and lucky the CCP didn't kill it.

      • Saruname on 21/02/2022 - 13:58

        Each to their own. I generally enjoyed the first book being adjacent to Chinese modern history, the slow development of "communication".

        I generally find with hard SciFi when it steps into the "hard" par of SciFi, I find it less relatable. Which is the progression with book 2 and 3.

        Either way still a good series, and a heck of a lot better than the movie adaptation of The Wandering Earth.

        • mountaineer on 21/02/2022 - 15:00
          +2

          Book 1 is more focusing on Ye's personal struggle .. people without much background knowledge about the infamous CCP 'cultural revolution" will be benefiting from doing a little bit pre-reading of that period of contemporary Chinese history. Book 2 and 3 are more on what I believe Liu's core messages…but if you can, read them all! They are truly a masterpiece.

    • Naigrabzo on 21/02/2022 - 13:45

      Sort of like the RAMA trilogy?

  • axlfan on 21/02/2022 - 13:06
    +4

    I have to say, what a mind blowing trilogy of Sci-Fi and that too from an Asian author. That made me scour for authors all over the world.
    Sci-fi is truly an universal concept.

    • freefall101 on 21/02/2022 - 13:58
      +4

      Reading scifi from a Chinese perspective was fascinating to me. I read Project Hail Mary recently and found the various nationalities were all very tropey (still a good book) but the Three Body Problem definitely had a different, non-Western feel to it that I enjoyed.

      For a buck fifty, it's hard to pass up for any sci-fi fan. There's a sample and a return policy too (not sure what Amazon's return policy is like, I think so long as you haven't read the whole book you have 7 days)

    • Azro on 21/02/2022 - 14:09
      +2

      Russians are very talented in sci-fi. No Hugo awards though due to Iron Curtain.

  • radiohead720 on 21/02/2022 - 13:12
    +1

    great deal, definitely one of if not the best read or sci-fi books in recent years

  • Mouse123 on 21/02/2022 - 14:05
    +1

    second story was the best

  • bertusaurus on 21/02/2022 - 14:26
    +1

    I just finished reading this series (and now onto the "fan fiction" published fourth book) and they were fantastic!

  • OzBargainerr on 21/02/2022 - 16:49
    +1

    Thanks for sharing, I am reading it tonight!

  • belongsinforums on 21/02/2022 - 17:47

    Know that this book is mostly context for the first half before the real interesting stuff happens, especially if you know nothing about the cultural revolution

  • Maltopia on 21/02/2022 - 18:57
    +2

    Book one can be hard reading at first because for English readers, the story was re-ordered to be more chronological and to have the entire cultural revolution background in the front.

    In the original Chinese version, that whole front section is split up into several call back chapters throughout the book as a slow reveal.

    I listened to all three books via Audible. The hardest thing for me was remembering who was who with some of the side characters when they are first introduced with the Chinese-Mandarin names - I and Chinese-Cantonese!

    Excellent books, very different ideas.

    SPOILER ALERT

    Only two criticisms from me is

    a) he assumes/divides the world responses to just a couple of positions, when there would be much more diversity in reactions. I can understand that for story-telling purposes though.

    b) small plot hole where there is insufficient explanation re the Sophon robot in book 3, re how such an advanced and powerful unit could be built on Earth when the Trisolarins don’t have any infrastructure on the planet.

    Anyway, happily recommend this series to anyone who likes sci-fi.

    • Bren20 on 22/02/2022 - 11:35

      I also enjoyed the books, but another criticism I'll lob in is sexism, I'm really surprised I don't see this said more frequently about the series. It's been a while since I read it, but once the idea took hold in the second book (Luo Ji's long drive with his imaginary girlfriend and subsequent interactions with women), I couldn't help but see a deep misogyny throughout the whole series.

  • axlfan on 21/02/2022 - 22:18
    +1

    Thanks you reminded me of this and I got a used paperback book today from gumtree for $5. The cost of print edition is quite high. Shows how much in demand this is.
    Will also get this so I can read on my tablet as well!

  • spychiatrist on 21/02/2022 - 23:01
    -3

    Hugo award is like the Logies…worth nothing

    • Grey 13 on 21/02/2022 - 23:22
      +1

      I’d love to see you win a Hugo award as it’s only as easy as getting Logies right?

  • Grey 13 on 21/02/2022 - 23:22
    +1

    Heard great things about this series through my Chinese girlfriend. Will buy it and stock it on my Kindle to read later.

  • nikuis on 22/02/2022 - 00:52

    For those have US Amazon account, and thinking to get all 3 books of the series, this 3 in 1 bundle will be better purchase
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0731L7LMJ

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