Yeah I couldn't stand Three Body Problem - far too slow and uninteresting - and don't get the popularity of it at all.
Re:Greetings, E.T. (Please Don’t Murder Us.)
by psadri on Thursday June 29, 2017 @06:31AM
(#14662110)
You should really give "Three Body Problem" another chance. There are a lot of diversions and off shoots but the main story really comes together 1/3 of the way through the first book and really picks up in "Dark Forest".
Re:Greetings, E.T. (Please Don’t Murder Us.)
by andyjohnson0 on Thursday June 29, 2017 @07:41AM
(#14662384)
Having read summaries of the books, I thought the complexity of the overall storyline was excessive for what is a fairly straightforward take on the Fermi paradox and game theory [1]. Maybe I'm being unfair, but having slogged through Seveneves a few months ago I'm kind of grumpy and lacking patience with long, complicated SF epics right now.
(Possible mild spoiler ahead)
[1] Basically: "the forest is full of hunters of unknown strength, so either stay quiet or kill all the hunters." I thought that Greg Bear's Forge of God and Anvil of Stars did a much better job on this aspect of Fermi.
Re:Greetings, E.T. (Please Don’t Murder Us.)
by extra88 on Thursday June 29, 2017 @07:32AM
(#14662333)
I just finished the trilogy. I enjoyed the first book well enough. The other two have some interesting world-building but I found the plot too slow moving. They're also depressing in a way I can't get into, not just the Dark Forest theory but the prevalence of the "if I can't survive, no one should" attitude. I wonder if the latter actually is more prevalent in Chinese culture or if it's just coming from the author. I did like how things wrapped up at the end of Death's End.
Much of Seveneves was depressing too but it all seemed very plausible. It was in what came next that seemed off.
And I really, really tried hard with The Three Body Problem. I get that the English version is a translation, but in the end the flowery language and slow plot just wore me down. Did anyone else have the same experience?
(Off topic, but I find that the problem with fiction based on SETI / first contact is that the subject often ends up being used as a metaphor for the human condition and the difficulty of really communicating with other people. Which is fine, but doesn't make for satisfying SF in my experience.)