The search for alien life has been going on for more than thirty years, but if you are like me you don’t think about it about it very much, except when you watch the movie Independence Day and see the SETI researchers scrambling when they hear the communications of the alien space ships making their final approach towards Earth. And yet, at some point it is possible that we will find life beyond our planet and we will be faced with the dilemma about what to do with that knowledge. It is this very question that is central to Liu’s novel, The Three Body Problem.

At first Wang Miao was not even aware that scientists were disappearing or committing suicide in vast numbers. As a scientist himself, working on nanomaterials, he was oblivious to what was going on outside of his own little world. but that all changed when Captain Shi Qiang came to visit and insisted that he help in the investigation into the disappearances.

Wang is quickly introduced to several people who are also helping the investigation and becomes acquainted with a computer scientist who is immersing himself in a virtual reality game in which the player must solve Euler’s three body problem in order to survive. After playing it several times himself, Wang begins to suspect that it is much more than just a game and may have something to do with the the disappearances. As he extends his investigation he also meets Ye Wenjie, now retired, who was the astrophysicist instrumental in developing China’s Red Coast parabolic antenna listening station up in the Greater Khingan Mountains. From her he learns how against the back drop of the Cultural Revolution she was able to surmount enormous difficulties to be one of the leading scientists at the Red Coast facility. As Wang tries to uncover what is behind the mysterious disappearances, he himself and the research he is doing on nanomaterials is threatened and slowly he becomes aware of the larger more ominous threat to all of humanity.

Liu is a celebrated Syfy author in China. This is the first of his novels to be translated into English and it is part one of a trilogy which is followed by The Dark Forest and Death’s End. Liu’s world view, is of course, Chinese centric, which offered me a new perspective from which to see the world.  And yet the questions he raises are really questions for humanity, and Liu is able to tease that apart and help us confront what it means to be human.  There is a lot of scientific material in this book that might slow some people down, but I found his explanations and discussions to be quite helpful and interesting.  Thank’s to Chris for recommending this book! I am not sure I would have found it on my own, so I am sure glad you pointed it out to me!

Brenda’s Rating:  ****( 4 Stars out of 5)

Recommend this book to: Marian, Sharon and Ken

Book Study Worthy: Yes

Read in ebook format.