Table of Contents
My jaw actually dropped, like something out of a cheesy cartoon, when I read this news Tuesday morning: Netflix is adapting Liu Cixin’s Three-Body Problem book trilogy as a series, led by Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Just as Thrones inspired a whole wave of new inventive fantasy shows, a Three-Body Problem show, if done well, could do the same for science fiction. Liu doesn’t skimp on the science in his science fiction.
“This is a science fantasy that most of us have heard about,” the agricultural consul said. Science isn’t the only potentially challenging adaptive element, either. A crucial component of the second book is that the main character cannot talk about his thoughts or plans because the enemy might be spying on him at all times.
We at The Ringer adore space movies and space TV shows like The Expanse, and Three-Body fits right into that genre. Thrones was at its best when it used its fantasy world to comment on the characters who lived there. Three-Body could do the same.
“I did so for love of science.” I talked to a coworker and fellow fan of the books about the Netflix announcement, and he admitted he couldn’t remember the name of the first book’s putative protagonist. — Gita Jackson: Destiny 2 Bail Compilation (@xoxogossipgita) September 1, 2020 Pro: Benioff and Weiss are writers and executive producers The final, disastrous season or two of Thrones should not sully the accomplishment of the rest of the run. Liu already did all that work for them.
Almost every important character is Chinese. (This 2019 New Yorker profile of Liu provides excellent insight into this aspect of the story, though be warned that it contains some spoilers.) And it better be an all Chinese cast….. why not go with a Chinese show runner, given that the series is so highly dependent on knowledge of Chinese culture and history that the translation has footnotes?
What Is The Name Of The Best-Selling Author Living In China?
If you’re a sci-fi reader living in China, you’ve long known about Liu Cixin, the best-selling author that The New Yorker once called the country’s Arthur C. Clarke. No matter how you’ve come to know about Liu’s career, it’s time you get familiar with his novels. That’s why this month the WIRED Book Club is picking up the author’s Three-Body Problem, which not only won that Hugo but also became the first-ever English translation to nab the award.
And the story, the first part of the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, begins during the Cultural Revolution at a time when scientists and academics were persecuted for their work. Read along with us, won’t you? We’ll be finishing Chapter 10 next week—let’s discuss then!
How Many Major New Translations Did Liu Publish This Year?
This year alone, Liu published three major new translations: “Broken Stars,” an anthology of short fiction by 14 Chinese sci-fi writers; a translation of “The Redemption of Time,” by Li Jun, who writes under the pen name Baoshu, which takes place in the aftermath of an interstellar war; and a translation of Chen Qiufan’s “Waste Tide,” a grim dystopian novel that unfolds on a polluted peninsula on the coast of China, where impoverished migrant workers recycle the world’s electronic trash. Next year, Saga Press will publish Liu’s 624-page translation of Hao Jingfang’s novel “Vagabonds,” a meandering philosophical parable about an ideological rift between a communalistic human colony on Mars and an increasingly capitalistic Earth. Some of the most thought-provoking science-fiction writers in China aren’t being published through traditional channels, so Liu searches internet forums and social-media messaging sites like Weibo, WeChat and the self-publishing platform Douban.
As an emissary for some of China’s most provocative and boundary-breaking writers, Liu has become much more than a scout and a translator. He’s now a fixer, an editor and a curator — a savvy interpreter who has done more than anyone to bridge the imagination gap between the world’s current, fading superpower and its ascendant one. In an odd inversion, some of the stories he has translated into English have not been officially published in China, at times because of their politically sensitive nature.
“A lot of Chinese writers are very skilled at writing something ambiguously, such that there are multiple meanings in the text. I have to ask them, how explicit do you want me to be in terms of making a certain point here, because in the original it’s very constrained, so how much do you want me to tease out the implications you’re making? And sometimes we have a discussion about exactly what that means and how they want it to be done.”
Economic growth has lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens out of poverty, and brought extreme wealth to the upper and political class, but technology has also become a tool of state oppression. Some Chinese factories have outfitted workers with devices that measure brain-wave activity to monitor their emotional fluctuations and alertness. Bird-shaped drones have been used to surreptitiously spy on citizens, and surveillance through facial-recognition technology is widespread.
China is now also leveraging its technology to conquer the solar system: After lagging behind in the space race for decades, the nation recently made a historic landing on the far side of the moon, where it has plans to build a permanent research base, and aims to have a rover exploring Mars next year. “In China, there’s this official propaganda position that science fiction is about imagination and this is what the future is all about,” Liu told an audience in New York in April, when he appeared on a panel with Chen Qiufan at the Museum of Chinese in America and spoke about the growing popularity of Chinese science fiction. “In reality, much of the most interesting science fiction is much more subversive,” he continued.
And because so many things are changing in China so rapidly, science fiction feels like oftentimes the most realistic way to describe what’s happening.” Ken Liu was born in 1976 in Lanzhou, an industrial city in Gansu Province in Northwest China.
What Is One Of The Most Popular Sci-Fi Novels Ever Published In China?
Share Tweet Pin The phrase “difficult book” is such a loaded one, it’s hard to even say it without feeling weighed down. There’s an implication that this won’t be fun but that if you can’t get through it, then the problem is with you as a reader. One of the most popular science fiction novels ever published in China, it was translated into English by American author Ken Liu.
As I started reading The Three-Body Problem, I could tell that it wasn’t popular for its accessibility. The Chinese context adds to the challenge for a western reader. Then there’s the science.
This book has earned great prestige within western sci-fi circles but will be challenging for most western sci-fi readers. The more I’m challenged by the book, the less I’m engaged with the characters. But I certainly wasn’t feeling the thrill of reading, wanting to dive straight into each new chapter.
Sometimes it can be good to read the difficult books. I had to set aside my comfort-seeking brain to read this one, and that’s not something I want for all my reading.
What Does Three Body Refer To?
Three Body (and the book’s title) refers to the Problème des Trois-Corps of classical mechanics: given three large bodies of specified masses, initial velocities, and positions, what will their mutual orbits be under Newton’s law of gravity? The answer is pretty shocking: there is no general solution to the three-body problem. In certain cases, if you set initial conditions just so, the three planets (or whatever) will fall into a repeating, predictable mutual orbit, but in general, their interactions will be non-periodic and, to the naked eye, bewilderingly random.
This was one of the first glimmers of chaos theory. This is kind of insane, isn’t it? How can something so fundamental as a sun, a planet, and a moon resist a classical solution?
Quarks, branes, God particles, Big Bangs and supermassive black holes—no one short of a Ph.D. can understand what’s going on, but it sounds interesting. In this progression, Newtonian physics should be able to solve Newtonian problems, but there is the three-body problem, right at the beginning, pointing to a lawlessness within our science we should have seen coming.
What Is The Name Of Npr’S Guide To 2014’S Great Reads?
NPR’s Book Concierge: Our Guide To 2014’s Great Reads Enlarge this image toggle caption NPR NPR Introducing NPR’s Book Concierge, your personal guide to the great books published in 2014. NPR staff and critics selected some 250 of their favorite titles. You can find a list of all our recommended titles below or …
1 by Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips Firebird by Misty Copeland and Christopher Myers Flashlight by Lizi Boyd Florence Gordon by Brian Morton Foreign Gods, Inc. by Okey Ndibe Found by Salina Yoon Fourth Of July Creek: A Novel by Smith Henderson Fresh From The Farm: A Year Of Recipes And Stories by Susie Middleton Friendswood: A Novel by René Steinke Gaston by Kelly DiPucchio and Christian Robinson Geek Sublime: The Beauty Of Code, The Code Of Beauty by Vikram Chandra Girl In Reverse by Barbara Stuber Gottland: Mostly True Stories From Half Of Czechoslovakia by Mariusz Szczygiel, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones Gray Mountain: A Novel by John Grisham Half a World Away by Cynthia Kadohata Heap House: The Iremonger Trilogy: Book One by Edward Carey Here by Richard McGuire Heroes Are My Weakness: A Novel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips Hijacking The Runway: How Celebrities Are Stealing The Spotlight From Fashion Designers by Teri Agins Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, And The Battlefield Of AIDS by Martin Duberman Hooray For Hat! by Brian Won Horrorstör: A Novel by Grady Hendrix How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson How The World Was: A California Childhood by Emmanuel Guibert How To Be A Victorian: A Dawn-To-Dusk Guide To Victorian Life by Ruth Goodman How To Be Both: A Novel by Ali Smith How To Be Happy by Eleanor Davis How To Build A Girl: A Novel by Caitlin Moran I Am China: A Novel by Xiaolu Guo I Don’t Know Do You by Roberto Montes I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson Icon by Amy Scholder (editor) In The Light Of What We Know: A Novel by Zia Haider Rahman In The Wolf’s Mouth: A Novel by Adam Foulds J Dilla’s Donuts by Jordan Ferguson Josephine: The Dazzling Life Of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell and Christian Robinson Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction And Fantasy Stories by Edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios Kinda Like Brothers by Coe Booth Land Of Love And Drowning: A Novel by Tiphanie Yanique Let Me Be Frank With You: A Frank Bascombe Book by Richard Ford Life Drawing: A Novel by Robin Black Lightspeed: Women Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue by Christie Yant (editor) Lila: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson Lion, Lion by Miriam Busch and Larry Day Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream by Josh O’Neill, Andrew Carl and Chris Stevens (editors) Loitering: New And Collected Essays by Charles D’Ambrosio Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen Lovers At The Chameleon Club, Paris 1932: A Novel by Francine Prose Malaria, Poems by Cameron Conaway Man Alive: A True Story Of Violence, Forgiveness And Becoming A Man by Thomas Page McBee Mastering My Mistakes In The Kitchen: Learning To Cook With 65 Great Chefs And Over 100 Delicious Recipes by Dana Cowin McSweeney’s Issue 46: Thirteen Crime Stories From Latin America by Daniel Galera Mexico: The Cookbook by Margarita Carrillo Arronte My Beautiful Enemy by Sherry Thomas My Perfect Pantry: 150 Easy Recipes From 50 Essential Ingredients by Geoffrey Zakarian, Amy Stevenson and Margaret Zakarian My Pet Book by Bob Staake Nazis In The Metro by Didier Daeninckx Night Heron by Adam Brookes Ninja! by Arree Chung Nora Webster: A Novel by Colm Tóibín Nothing More To Lose by Najwan Darwish, translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid On Such A Full Sea: A Novel by Chang-rae Lee One Kick: A Novel by Chelsea Cain Orfeo: A Novel by Richard Powers Our Secret Life In The Movies by Michael McGriff and J.M. Tyree Ovenly: Sweet And Salty Recipes From New York’s Most Creative Bakery by Erin Patinkin and Agatha Kulaga Overwhelmed: Work, Love, And Play When No One Has The Time by Brigid Schulte Panic In A Suitcase: A Novel by Yelena Akhtiorskaya Perfidia: A Novel by James Ellroy Philip Larkin: Life, Art And Love by James Booth Plenty More: Vibrant Vegetable Cooking From London’s Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi Poking A Dead Frog: Conversations With Today’s Top Comedy Writers by Mike Sacks Prelude to Bruise by Saeed Jones Pretty Deadly Volume 1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Emma Rios Quest by Aaron Becker Rat Queens Volume 1: Sass & Sorcery by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch Red Or Dead: A Novel by David Peace Redeployment by Phil Klay Rules Of Summer by Shaun Tan Sex Criminals Volume 1 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky Shoe Dog by Megan McDonald and Katherine Tillotson Showa 1944-1953: A History Of Japan by Shigeru Mizuki Simple Thai Food: Classic Recipes From The Thai Home Kitchen by Leela Punyaratabandhu Sisters by Raina Telgemeier Soldier Girls: The Battles Of Three Women At Home And At War by Helen Thorpe Some Dead Genius by Lenny Kleinfeld Some Luck: A Novel by Jane Smiley Station Eleven: A Novel by Emily St. John Mandel Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret Atwood Strike! : The Farm Workers’ Fight For Their Rights by Larry Dane Brimner Thank You, Octopus by Darren Farrell The Adventures Of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat The American Mission by Matthew Palmer The Apex Book Of World SF 3 by Lavie Tidhar (editor) The Ballad Of A Small Player: A Novel by Lawrence Osborne The Banh Mi Handbook: Recipes For Crazy-Delicious Vietnamese Sandwiches by Andrea Nguyen The Bees: A Novel by Laline Paull The Blazing World: A Novel by Siri Hustvedt The Bone Clocks: A Novel by David Mitchell The Book Of Strange New Things: A Novel by Michel Faber The Book Of Unknown Americans: A Novel by Cristina Henríquez The Broken Road: From The Iron Gates To Mount Athos by Patrick Leigh Fermor The Children Act by Ian McEwan The Complete Zap Comix Boxed Set by R. Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, Gilbert Shelton, Spain Rodriguez, Robert Williams, Victor Moscoso, Paul Mavrides and Rick Griffin The Dead Lake by Hamid Ismailov The Distance: A Thriller by Helen Giltrow The Divide: American Injustice In The Age Of The Wealth Gap by Matt Taibbi The Empathy Exams: Essays by Leslie Jamison The Empire Of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, And Deception In The New World by Greg Grandin The End of the Sentence by Maria Dahvana Headley and Kat Howard The Farm by Tom Rob Smith The Farmer And The Clown by Marla Frazee The Fever: A Novel by Megan Abbott The Girl Next Door: A Novel by Ruth Rendell The Girl Who Saved The King Of Sweden: A Novel by Jonas Jonasson, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles The Girls At The Kingfisher Club: A Novel by Genevieve Valentine The Good Spy: The Life And Death Of Robert Ames by Kai Bird The Haight: Love, Rock, And Revolution by Jim Marshall and Joel Selvin The Hawley Book Of The Dead: A Novel by Chrysler Szarlan The Hilltop: A Novel by Assaf Gavron, translated by Steven Cohen The History Of Rock ‘N’ Roll In Ten Songs by Greil Marcus The Homesick Texan’s Family Table: Lone Star Cooking From My Kitchen To Yours by Lisa Fain The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin The Invisible Bridge: The Fall Of Nixon And The Rise Of Reagan by Rick Perlstein The King’s Curse by Philippa Gregory The Last Illusion: A Novel by Porochista Khakpour The Loudest Voice In The Room: How The Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News — And Divided A Country by Gabriel Sherman The Man With The Compound Eyes: A Novel by Wu Ming-Yi The Map Thief: The Gripping Story Of An Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps by Michael Blanding The Martian: A Novel by Andy Weir The Memory Garden by Mary Rickert The Misadventures Of The Family Fletcher by Dana Alison Levy The Moor’s Account: A Novel by Laila Lalami The Narrow Road To The Deep North: A Novel by Richard Flanagan The New Greenmarket Cookbook: Recipes And Tips From Today’s Finest Chefs — And The Stories Behind The Farms That Inspire Them by Gabrielle Langholtz The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, And Death by Colson Whitehead The Odd One Out by Britta Teckentrup The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power And Culture In The Digital Age by Astra Taylor The Peripheral: A Novel by William Gibson The Ploughmen: A Novel by Kim Zupan The Republic Of Imagination: America In Three Books by Azar Nafisi The Rise & Fall Of Great Powers: A Novel by Tom Rachman The Secret History Of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore The Secret Place: A Novel by Tana French The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew The Short And Tragic Life Of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark For The Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert The Slanted Door: Modern Vietnamese Food by Charles Phan The Soda Fountain: Floats, Sundaes, Egg Creams & More — Stories And Flavors Of An American Original by Gia Giasullo and Peter Freeman The Splendid Things We Planned: A Family Portrait by Blake Bailey The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu The Tropic Of Serpents: A Memoir By Lady Trent by Marie Brennan The True American: Murder And Mercy In Texas by Anand Giridharadas The UnAmericans: Stories by Molly Antopol The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story To Light by Carlos Santana The Usagi Yojimbo Saga Volume 1 by Stan Sakai The Witch: And Other Tales Re-Told by Jean Thompson The Wrenchies by Farel Dalrymple The Year She Left Us: A Novel by Kathryn Ma The Zone Of Interest: A Novel by Martin Amis Things I’ve Learned From Dying: A Book About Life by David R. Dow Thirteen Days In September: Carter, Begin, And Sadat At Camp David by Lawrence Wright Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein Three Minutes In Poland: Discovering A Lost World In A 1938 Family Film by Glenn Kurtz Through The Woods by Emily Carroll Thrown by Kerry Howley Tigerman: A Novel by Nick Harkaway Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, And Madness At The Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann To Rise Again At A Decent Hour: A Novel by Joshua Ferris Unexpected Stories by Octavia E. Butler Us Conductors: A Novel by Sean Michaels Valour And Vanity by Mary Robinette Kowal Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales and Tim O’Meara Walt Before Skeezix by Frank King We Were Liars by E. Lockhart Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by David Shafer With My Dog-Eyes: A Novel by Hilda Hilst Wolf In White Van: A Novel by John Darnielle Wonderland: A Novel by Stacey D’Erasmo Words Will Break Cement: The Passion Of Pussy Riot by Masha Gessen World Spice At Home: New Flavors For 75 Favorite Dishes by Amanda Bevill and Julie Kramis Hearne You Are (Not) Small by Anna Kang and Christopher Weyant Your Illustrated Guide To Becoming One With The Universe by Yumi Sakugawa
