The Three-Body Problem

Cixin Liu, China’s preeminent science fiction writer for more than twenty years, first came to the attention of English speaking readers with the 2014 publication of The Three-Body Problem, the opening movement of a dazzling, dizzying trilogy called The Remembrance of Earth’s Past. Its appearance here was an immediate cultural event, and it became the first work in translation ever to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel. It isn’t hard to understand why.

The book takes its title from a classical physics problem involving the effects – gravitational and climatic – of three celestial bodies occupying a limited space. It also refers to an immensely sophisticated “game” in which players enter a world (Trisolaris) dominated by three different suns. Under the shifting influence of these suns, Trisolaris cycles repeatedly between “Chaotic Eras” and “Stable Eras” as their planet moves inexorably toward destruction. When a signal from Earth—a compatible planet—reaches them, the Trisolarians initiate an extremely long-range plan to vacate their dying planet and make Earth their new home.

This is the central element in an enormously erudite narrative that ranges from the Cultural Revolution of 1967 to the imperiled present, illuminating events from the alternating perspectives of its human and non-human protagonists. Seamlessly combining politics, social history, and rigorous hard science, The Three-Body Problem is an alien invasion story unlike any you have ever read. It offers the sort of speculative pleasures only science fiction can provide, and leaves us waiting, satisfied and anxious, for the unpredictable pleasures still to come.

The Subterranean Press edition of The Three-Body Problem will be oversize, printed in two colors throughout on 80# Finch, and feature a number of full-page full-color interior illustrations.