A Slightly Uneven but Thoroughly Haunting Hypothetical!
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| Liu Cixin, Ken Liu trans. The Three-Body Problem. Tor Books: 2014. |
Buy it here starting in October 2014.
There's been plenty of science fiction written about the
terrifying—but monolithic—menace of warlike alien civilizations, as well as
some trapped within the fallacy that any technologically superior civilization
must also be morally superior. Liu Cixin's Three
Body, ably translated by Ken Liu, is one of the few treatments of this
question that goes beyond these simplistic ideas of first contact to explore
the effect knowledge of the existence of extraterrestrial life might have on
humans. In particular (and I can say this without giving much away in terms of
spoilers, since the ultimate topic of this book is very clear right from the
beginning), is it not conceivable that some, even some very intelligent and
passionate people, might welcome an invasion with open arms?
The story moves chronologically, or I should say
diachronically, through several eras in twentieth-century Chinese and world
history, beginning during China's Cultural Revolution. At first, before the
ultimate trajectory of the plot is entirely clear, the sizable portion devoted
to Cultural Revolution may seem too long, or even needless and without any
obvious connection to what follows, most of which is set in the contemporary
twenty-first century. But all I can say with impunity is: the Cultural
Revolution could (and should) make anyone despair for the human race. In any
case, Three Body is a lot more
convincing in this respect, say, Patrick "McDreamy" Dempsey's
Faustian deal with the Decepticons in Transformers:
Dark of the Moon.
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| Dempsey's better as a lover (Grey's Anatomy!) than a 'traitor to the human race', so he failed to convince... |
Sometimes confusing is the author's tendency to shift
protagonists, for it seems that just as we are growing used to observing the
strange events of the world from the perspective of the nanotechnologist Dr.
Wang, off we jump into someone else's skin. But on the whole, this sort of
perspectival shift is less distracting than the narrative-freezing expository
sections in which characters tend to relate, rather impersonally (that is,
without any polite fiction of being in dialogue with someone, but instead long,
often italicized block passages), key exposition that is vital to advance the
plot but (it seems) the author could often find no more clever way to bring to
the reader's attention than what amounts to a written confession. I was
reminded of Natsume Sōseki's rhetorical device of the letter in Kokoro: the final third of the book is
simply the text of a poignant letter, and something similar (though less
appealing) is going on here, albeit in bits and pieces rather than in one giant
chunk. The most jarring such section was when Ye explains the truth about the
Red Coast base to Wang (but with only the barest hint that this information was
delivered in conversation with Wang); more successful was the interrogation
device used for Ye's later confessions.
Nonetheless, portions of the book glimmer with haunting
force (now that's a strange metaphor!). In particular, the sections devoted to
Wang's explorations of the video game "Three Body" are quite
intriguing, piquing the reader's interest and provoking us to search, with
Wang, for the truth behind this bizarre game. In fact, it was only in sections
like this, where we see Wang himself actively struggling towards these key
discoveries, that characters like Wang began to take on the solidity of 'real'
(that is, fully fleshed out) individuals rather than archetypes. Liu (which
coincidentally is also the last name of the unrelated translator!) shows
considerable talent at presenting characters as rather stereotypical, only to
surprise readers with their hidden depths later on in the story.
Despite it ending on something of a cliffhanger, or at least
without any 'solution' to the problem facing the main characters, I felt the
story to be complete, so I was astonished to find that this volume is actually
just the first in a trilogy. But needless to say, Three Body was certainly
interesting enough to arouse my interest in what will befall the characters—and
humankind itself—in books two and three. I'll be eagerly awaiting the English
translation of these volumes, since in fact book one was *almost* good enough
to motivate me to try to read it in the original—and between you and me, that's
powerful evidence that it was good indeed!
The Math
Objective Assessment: 6/10
Bonuses: +1 for a speculative fiction approach to the
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle-like effect 'knowledge of being observed by an
Other' might have on humankind; + 1 for the haunting treatment of the video
game Three Body and the slow reveal of the mystery at its core
Penalties: -1 for trying for the Natsume Sōseki 'letter from
Sensei' angle but not doing it quite as well
Nerd coefficient: 7/10 "An enjoyable experience, but
not without its flaws"
[What does a 7 mean here at NOAF?
It means that this book was really, really good!]
This review courtesy of sf/f fan and medium-time NOAF
contributor Zhaoyun, Chinese in nothing but name and thus uniquely positioned
to evaluate a story that may have elements specific to China (and Chinese) but
also strives to ask more universal questions...
