The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu. Tom Doherty Books. 2006.

I grew up reading science fiction and fantasy. I’d like to think I’ve read most of classics, but I haven’t. I have several authors I haven’t read, like Ursula K. Le Guin and Roger Zelazny. Money I made mowing yards and doing odd jobs I spent subscribing to Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine and Analog Science Fiction. These magazines allowed me to sample their writings and I honestly didn’t get drawn into their stories. So, I didn’t invest in their books. Instead, I elected to read most of Isaac Asimov’s writings, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Greg Bear, David Brin, Gordan R. Dickson, and Frank Herbert.

In nearly all of the associated works by these authors, space travel is fairly commonplace. Clarke may be the exception as he had several works dealing with slower-than-light space travel. Slower-than-light space travel is fairly mundane, I guess; unless you want to read the nine book series by James S. A. Corey (Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham writing under the pseudonym of). Those books and the associated Amazon Prime series, “The Expanse,” are some fantastic story-telling at subluminal speeds.

Science in the United States supports a small effort, SETI, “Search for Extraterrestrial Life.” Perhaps the best known face of SETI is Seth Shostak. He appears on many science programs, videos, and documentaries about space and the universe. Neil de Grasse Tyson often speaks on aliens and what it would be like to meet them, and what they might think about us. However, the biggest stumbling block is traversing the vast distances between star systems. I’m not simply referring to traveling from Star System 1: planet 3 to Star System 2: planet 4 and vice-versa. Let’s begin simple.

Think about this: How many star systems are within 10-light years of Earth? (Answer: 10) How many are within 20-light years? (Answer: 100+) or 50-light years? (Answer: 1800, and there is a map!) Now, what if Seth at SETI finally had his dreams come true and he was listening to his radio telescope one evening and he receives a message from a star system 15-light years away? Seth gets excited and he fires up his radio and sends a reply. Fifteen years go by for the message to arrive at Planet X. Planet X aliens decide to reply and fifteen years elapse before Seth gets his reply. For Earthlings, 30 years have gone by and all we’ve done is send one message.

The aliens on Planet X are not advanced enough for FTL travel. However, they are more advanced than us in a couple serious ways. They want to come visit us and are very enthusiastic about their journey to Earth. They then decide to build a fleet of starships which have to travel at subluminal speeds like everyone else so we can expect their arrival in a few centuries. No joke.

In the meantime, the residents of this other planet, the Trisolarans, knowing their physical arrive is going to take about 400 years, dispatch two sophons. A sophon is a particle, like a proton, which can travel at light speed. Sophons do not exist in nature; these particles have been manufactured. The Trisolarans have built a particle accelerator large enough to compress a supercomputer down to the particle level by folding the space in which the supercomputer exists. The sophon is then ‘bound’ to another identical particle, a process referred to as ‘quantum entanglement.’ Quantum entanglement (Def: Space.com) allows two particles to share experiences, i.e. information in spite of being light-years apart. Einstein famously referred to QE as “spooking action at a distance.” In Cixin’s tale, two pairs of sophons are created, one pair is sent to Earth to gather information, and one pair remains on Trisolarus to reveal Earth information to the Trosolarans. The idea is pretty bananas but Cixin is using current cosmological physics to tell a compelling story.

I found the first book in Liu’s trilogy really interesting and I didn’t want to. I had read some Amazon reviews and the reviewers trashed the science involved. There is some very interesting science involved, and the book’s title is emblematic of the science. For some reason, lately I get really miffed about bad science in science fiction books and the reviews put me off. My neighbor down the street pushed me over the edge so I credit Mark for being the tipping point.

The other aspect of Cixin’s story involves the Chinese Cultural Revolution and many of the social upheavals at work within Chinese society post-World War Two. As a person who also enjoys history, I found the intertwining of real events in Chinese modern history and this story of First Contact very intriguing. China has experienced insular times, and has experienced periods when no visitors, at least no American visitors were allowed. Opportunities to share science and research was very limited to non-existent. The purging of scientists, of academics, in favor of a return to rural cultural values stymied communication with extraterrestrials and interfered with the allocation of resources towards research and scientific activities. So often, science fiction has been based upon the interaction of Western society with aliens. What happens when and if this is not the case? What if, for some reason, Russia accidentally stumbles upon alien communication? Or, India? The Three Body Problem stages First Contact as occurring during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the enormous challenges a person would face managing the realization an alien civilization is ‘out there,’ and the challenge to the Chinese Communist Party this civilization would present (let alone the entire planet).

The Three-Body Problem involves augmented reality (AR) in the form of a video game. One of our protagonists, Wang Miao, jumps into an AR suit connected a simulation depicting another planet, and a civilization upon this planet. The civilization goes through horrific sequences of burning to death, freezing to death, and a few periods actually fairly temperate. The problem posed by this simulation is to determine what celestial events, or combination of celestial events give rise to such crazy climate events. The game, interestingly enough, is connected to our distant alien friends. The players of the ‘game’ are able to communicate in real-time with the Trisolarans, in avatar form. The Trisolarans avatars engage the players with the history and obstacles the Trisolarans continue to live through in their unique planetary environment.

The Three-Body Problem folds together so many themes and sciences. The idea of multidimensional space, folding space to hold a supercomputer. We have quantum entanglement which seems to allow for faster-than-light communication. Trisolarans are in-transit at sublight speeds, meaning the Human Race must prepare for an arrival of an intelligent cosmic neighbor albeit in 400 years. We have the recognition of the Human Race to the fact we are not alone in the universe, and a subset of people who have elevated the Trisolarans to beings of religious significance, and the sophons have become the voice of the Lord. Many themes and ideas are being woven to create a story, and the complicated nature of the these themes and ideas may be off-putting to people. The Three-Body Problem carries a lot of weight a few pages but Lixin has tossed out several ideas which get explored in the second book, The Dark Forest.

The Netflix series is absolutely worth watching. People unfamiliar with the books may be turned-off; the series sets the stage for First Contact (first physical contact). I’ve read complaints the story makes no sense, the technology seems unnecessary, the characters are bland. Science fiction, in general, is not know for deep, well-developed characters. Sure, we have Paul Atreides (Dune, Frank Herbert), and Hari Seldon (Foundation, Isaac Asimov), but science fiction usually develops characters well enough to communicate the fiction of the science, or the fantasy of the science. Some of the characters are drawn only as precise as needed, in the book. In the Netflix adaptation, the main character from the book (Professor Wang Miao) has been split into five unique characters (Jin, Saul, Jack, Auggie, and Will). We will need the other two books to completely fulfill the message contained in The Three-Body Problem, though. Definitely worth the wait.