3 Body Problem

A long time ago, I found a list of Barack Obama’s favourite books, and the 3 Body Problem books, by Liu Cixin, were on it. I got the first book of the trilogy and tried to read it, but I got bored extremely quickly. I am not a huge fan of science fiction, to say the least. OK, I liked some of Ted Chiang’s short stories a lot, and I, Robot, too. But they didn’t contain « little green men » and were were about a wide range of topics. But I really don’t like little green men stories, and I couldn’t get into 3 Body Problem.

Many years later, I was talking with a woman who used to be a male general in the Canadian military. She is funny and smart, and she highly recommended the 3 Body Problem books! So I tried again, but nope, I just couldn’t get into it, I was bored to tears after the first few pages.

So when I saw the Netflix was going to come up with a 3 Body Problem mini-series, I thought « That’ll be perfect for idiots like me who have never been able to read these (apparently) amazing books! » And I watched it. And here are a few thoughts about it.

First, I am annoyed that the actual 3-body problem is only a short part of the story. I thought the entire show would be about this problem and it wasn’t. Second, the whole thing is very much focused on the difference between religious beliefs and science, and that was semi-interesting. What’s weird is that at no point did these people say « mmm… we’ve already gone through all this with God/Allah/Buddha, do we really need to go through the same exact stuff again? » Maybe that’s the whole point of the story, that mankind is stupid and asks the same questions over and over and over. Third, the conclusion was a bit preachy but pretty decent, not Hollywood cheesy, at least. Fourth, the actors were good and the story well-paced. I was never bored. Fourth, I was sometimes confused, especially at the beginning, and I’m still not sure who the guy who planted trees in China became: the psycho guy on the boat, or the obnoxious chief scientist dude?

So here’s my question: did this TV series make me want to read the books? I’m still not sure. People who have read the books and then watched the TV show are not impressed, because a number of characters are mashed together, and it seems like books 2 and 3 get just a couple of episodes, with book 1 getting the most attention. Also, pretty much everyone is Chinese in the books, and the story takes place entirely in China, whereas the TV show takes place mostly in England. So I’m not sure. Maybe some day, just so I haven’t wasted my money (I think I bought only the first book of the trilogy, in electronic format). But for now, I have too many exciting audio books to listen to!