Review: The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don't read much sci-fi, so I probably shouldn't be commenting too much. Also, I don't know how much of this book was obvious/known, so I'll just say "Spoilers ahead" just in case:

This sort of reminded me of "Ender's game" (which might literally be the only other scifi novel I've read in the past 10 years), in that people are playing a video game to solve a real problem. Is this a common sci-fi trope? 

Anyway, I really liked many of the ideas, like how if aliens were to come humans wouldn't "Unite" against them, but would almost certainly get divided, no matter whether the aliens were enemies or friends. Pretty much every other chapter had me thinking about some new concept (how a computer would operate with people representing the 1's and 0's? How would people (scientists) react if none of the rules of physics applied anymore? How would the world change if we knew aliens were going to invade in 450 years (so, not in any of our lifetimes)? I don't know how much is obvious to people who are more knowledgable, or if a lot of it is far-fetched. Also, I should admit that I had heard of the "three body problem" somewhere at some point, but even if I once knew what it was, I had forgotten about it long ago. 

The jumps in time were a bit confusing to me, as was the science, but there you go. All in all a unique book, and definitely worth reading, especially for people who are more scientifically-inclined than I am. 

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