Three Body Problem

The Three Body Problem is a science fiction novel written by Chinese writer Cixin Liu. Originally published in Mandarin and eventually translated to English among other languages, it has received worldwide acclaim by prominent figures such as former president of the United States Barack Obama and has won several awards. It is the first installment in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, followed by The Dark Forest and Death’s End.

Plot Summary

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, mysterious suicides amongst some of Earth’s most prominent scientists occur across the globe. Gravely concerned, world governments assemble a task force to investigate. Nanotechnologist Wang Miao and police detective Shi Qiang are recruited as a part of this task force. Wang experiences paranormal phenomena such as a countdown in his vision that pauses when he stops his research. As a part of his investigations, Wang plays a sophisticated video game called Three Body, which simulates society on a planet in a solar system with three stars, which cycles through temperate ‘Stable Eras’ and harsh ‘Chaotic Eras’ containing civilisation-ending climate catastrophes. Hundreds of civilisations have risen and collapsed, but none have been able to create an accurate calendar to predict the arrival of Chaotic Eras. Chaotic orbits around stars have threatened to destroy the planet through collisions or tidal forces. 

During the Cultural Revolution in China, astrophysicist Ye Wenjie discovers a method to utilise the Sun to greatly amplify radio frequencies and secretly broadcasts a message. Eight years later, she receives a reply from a distant civilisation called Trisolaris. Ye, disillusioned with humanity and its relationship with nature, betrays humanity and invites Trisolarans to Earth, knowing that it would result in humanity being conquered, if not annihilated, by the Trisolarans. The Trisolaran planet orbits a ternary star system of Alpha Centauri, which experiences severe changes in weather and climate, due to unpredictable movements from three stars, which is also known as the three body problem. Ye eventually forms a militant organisation known as the Earth-Trisolaris Organisation to sabotage humanity from within.

Three Body’s true ending is for advanced players to realise that there is no way to predict the cycles between Eras, and it is an avenue for the ETO to recruit members. The game’s world directly mirrors the planet Trisolaris, and the game’s ending is meant to elicit sympathy from players to convince them to join the cause. Wang’s successes in Three Body, have inducted him into the ETO, where he meets Ye Wenjie who reveals the conspiracy to him. He tips off Shi and the Chinese military, who arrest Ye and kill several ETO members. An international military force ambushes an ETO oil tanker containing their communications with the Trisolarans at the Panama Canal, and humanity begins to prepare for the approaching invasion.

Themes

Survival:

The Three Body Problem delves deep into the idea of survival, through the ideological differences between humans themselves. Most of humanity is fighting to survive against the eventual Trisolaran invasion, due to their own desire to live and ensure that their descendants will do so as well, an innate desire of all species to see future generations thrive. However, the Adventists of the ETO deviated from the rest of humanity, by actively supporting the Trisolaran invasion in the hopes of annihilating humanity, as they believe that after all of humanity’s atrocities against itself and nature, it did not deserve to survive. On the other hand, while the Trisolarans are portrayed as the book’s overarching antagonists, an alien force that wishes to eradicate all of humanity, it is noted that the Trisolarans are also only doing this to survive. The Trisolarans only wish to colonise Earth in order to escape from their hellish homeworld, and their invasion against humanity is not an act of pure malice, but as a means of survival. This ‘dog eat dog’ portrayal of galactic civilisations where both sides are scrambling to survive, a theme that is perpetuated in the later installments of the series, somewhat ‘humanises’ these inhuman enemies and provides some form of insight into why one society would decide to wipe out another. Indeed, all of Trisolaran society hinges on the idea of survival, an ideal that has been cultivated in them by their unforgiving environment. Trisolarans live under the absolute dictatorship of their leader, who dictates social structure and even when his citizens are dehydrated and rehydrated, and have forsaken any form of democracy and art as they are not considered necessities in their constant fight for survival.

Trauma: 

Trauma is another prominent theme in the Three Body Problem, as it impacts how humans choose to act in the future. Ye Wenjie watched her father get bludgeoned to death by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution after her mother and sister reported him to the authorities. When she finally learned to trust again, she was reported by her friend Bai Mulin, and would have been subject to state punishment if not for her academic background. Thus, when faced with the decision to save or doom humanity to annihilation by the Trisolarans, Ye’s deeply ingrained trauma that created her despise for humanity, she chooses to destroy her entire race. Mike Evans, another prominent member of the ETO, chose to turn his back on humanity due to his trauma of seeing the extinction of countless species at the hands of humans, along with his soured relationship with his father. When both characters decide to collaborate with Trisolarans, they do so because of their personal experiences and worldview warped by trauma that has eroded and diminished their faith in humanity.

Technology:

The world of the Three Body Problem has made incredible progress in terms of technology, such as Ye Wenjie’s discovery that uses the Sun to transmit radio frequencies across the galaxy, the expansive virtual reality of the Three Body game, and Wang Miao’s research in nanotechnology that creates razor-thin, invisible threads of absurd strength. However, through Ye’s betrayal of humanity by communicating with Trisolarans, the insidious usage of the Three Body game by the ETO to recruit followers, and Wang’s nanomaterial sawing an entire ship’s crew into pieces at the end of the story, Cixin Liu points out how technology can be utilised to cause harm to humanity, to bring about violence and destruction both directly and indirectly. The book highlights the importance of technology in its role as being the potential saviour and destroyer of humanity when the Trisolarans send sophons to stop scientific progress on Earth. The sophons, as a hostile invention, put everyone on Earth under constant surveillance and interfere with experiments, leaving Earth’s technological development at a standstill so that human technology never surpasses the Trisolarans’. Here, technology is placed at the forefront of this arms race between both sides, as accelerating its growth is humanity’s only hope of defeating their would-be invaders, while technology is the Trisolarans’ form of oppression, by denying humanity the ability to arm itself and using technology to eventually conquer it.

Personal opinions

I found the Three Body Problem a refreshing take on the science fiction genre. The concepts brought to life in Cixin Liu’s writing are as complicated as they are interesting, but they are slowly brought into view, one layer after another. The three body problem was explained to the reader through the lense of a video game, which also helps to maintain the mystery behind the game’s purpose. Ideas such as the sophons and Wang’s nanomaterial are truly mind-blowing, leaving me in a sense of awe at the possibilities of scientific progress in the world of the Three Body Problem.

The book also provided an introspective look into the various ideologies that would emerge if humans came into contact with extraterrestrial civilisations. I like how the ETO was fleshed out instead of remaining as a singular entity, with its intricate branches of thought such as the Adventists and the Redemptionists that define the different ways people would interpret the emergence of extraterrestrial intelligent life in relation to their personal experiences with humanity. 

While I don’t usually enjoy cliffhangers, the ending provided the perfect mix of pessimism and dogged determination for humanity, as the might of Trisolaran technology was built up perfectly throughout the book, but not making it too advanced and leaving some vague possibility for humanity to develop a plan to survive. The cliffhanger makes you wonder how humanity would fare in the coming invasion with their remaining scientific knowledge and an overwhelmingly powerful opponent watching their every move. If you are a fan of science fiction, I highly recommend this book, for it is one of the best in its genre. 

Amber

Secondary 3 Unity

2025