8 Books Like The Three-Body Problem
Astronomer Wenjie Ye took part in the military’s top-secret project, Project Red Bank, during a period of hardship. Using the sun as an antenna, Ye made the first cries into the universe. She made a breakthrough in the search for an extraterrestrial civilisation. With three irregularly orbiting suns dominating the universe, a “three-body civilization” four light years away has been destroyed and reborn more than a hundred times. It had no choice but to flee its home planet.
And it was at that moment that they received a message from Earth. Desperate for humanity, Ye Wenjie reveals Earth’s coordinates to the Triskelion, completely changing the fate of humanity. There is an unusual disturbance in Earth’s basic science. Nano-scientist Wang Miao enters the mysterious online game The Three Bodies and begins to gradually close in on the truth of this world.
Through the Guzheng Project, the Chinese Operations Centre of the Earth Defence Organisation learns that the embattled Triumvirate has decided to invade Earth in order to obtain a stable world to survive on. After using hyper-technology to lock up the basic science of the Earthlings, the massive Trio fleet begins to march towards Earth. And the end of humanity is near.
The work follows the exchange of information, life and death struggles between the human civilization of Earth and the three-body civilization and the rise and fall of the two civilizations in the universe.
8 Books Like The Three-Body Problem
Liu Cixin’s writing style differs from most science fiction writers. He favours huge objects, complex structures, holographic layers, and large spans of time. These translate into characters who appear as heroes sacrifice themselves to save the world, stand up to the tyranny of fate, and ultimately rewrite history. So do you want to read more science fiction books like The Three-Body Problem? I know that you are here to read books similar to The Three-Body Problem. And here are 8 books like The Three-Body Problem.
1. Ubik
Joe Chip worked for Glen Runciter’s anti-supernatural consulting company, protecting people from the psychic prying eyes of psychics and seers. During a mission to the moon, Roncit’s ops team was ambushed and Roncit was killed. The members of the operation quickly took Roncit’s body to the Zurich Necropolis for freezing and refrigeration and attempted to make contact with his brain. However, not only were they unsuccessful in contacting Roncet, the team also discovered that the coins, cigarettes and other items were receding and time seemed to be turning backwards. What exactly is happening?
This book has ups and downs and often surprises the reader. The writing is mysterious and full of darkness, grotesqueness, fear, absurdity, often dreamy dialogue, the protagonist also seems to be living in someone else’s dream, the world can turn upside down at any moment, there is also mystery and dislocation, the narrative is often incoherent. There is a religious or cult-like ontological complex, it is a mixture of fragments of Eastern and Western cultures. There are philosophical or quasi-philosophical musings or convulsions throughout.
Dick’s style is very evident, with its exploration of the supernatural, serialization, imagination, magical and interesting settings, sense of fantasy characters, and pie-in-the-sky inspiring events. All elements that cause this book to be wonderful.
2. Frankenstein
Through countless explorations, the scientist Frankenstein finally creates a humanoid creature with a repulsive and strangely ugly face by splicing together limbs and resurrecting them with electric shocks. The humanoid creature is good by nature, full of kindness and curiosity about the world, and tries to learn to be a real human being. Yet the discrimination he encounters in reality makes him feel confused and miserable. The lack of love and discipline has allowed many unfulfilled desires to grow into a fire of hatred in the humanoid’s mind. And Frankenstein tries to stop his destructive power, but it is too late…
Throughout the story, the Monster is in a state of innocence and chaos at the beginning of his life. He has good hopes for humanity and a desire to be accepted and loved. He is so eager to fit into the world that his love and hate are easily driven by his circumstances, with irreversible consequences.
As science fiction, Frankenstein has a high degree of care for people and the world, humanity and science. Mary Shelley’s intellectual reach, narrative ability and empathy give the novel extraordinary aesthetic and ethical value. The novel is full of the beauty of the universe, of life, of ideas and of freedom.
3. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
The story takes place after humans have inhabited the Moon, but the Moon has gradually become a place of exile for prisoners due to its barren habitat. The prisoners on the Moon slowly multiplied and grew in numbers, forming a race with a unique cultural identity. This race had a unique system of marriage, its own organisation, its own sects. The prisoners and their descendants have worked hard to turn the Moon into a food base, but the Earth exploites it. In order to ensure that the Moon’s limited resources are not depleted, the Lunarians have begun a rebellion.
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a work in the genre of science fiction satire. It is fantasy and science fiction from a political perspective. The moon is just a vehicle, technology is just a tool. And at the centre of everything are people – where there are people there is humanity, freedom, democracy. In terms of structure alone, it’s a rather old-fashioned revolutionary story. While it contains some settings that are relatively new both then and now, it can’t hide the far-fetched parts of some of the counter-intuitive imagery within.
There is nothing more to this novel than the complex and solid sociological setting. The author’s own words about politics and the human heart. And the depth of family and friendship that the characters in the story speak. These things, beyond the simple telling of the story, are what this story is really about.
4. The Left Hand Of Darkness
On the cold winter planet, there lives a group of asexual people who are free to choose their gender. On a special day of the month, they are free to become men or women. An Intergalactic Alliance envoy, is sent to Winterstar on a secret mission. However, everything on Winterstar – the strange customs, the ancient legends, the chaotic political situation – shocks the envoy’s inherent perceptions. How can he face what is right or wrong in the face of all that is unfamiliar to him?
Two very distinctive hallmarks of Le Guin’s work are feminism and Taoism. Feminism is accompanied by a devaluation of whiteness and an emphasis on darker races, while Taoism is the core and essence of her work. The “asexual” body state she portrays in this book is not only an awakening of body consciousness, but also an examination of the space for women in the present day, expressing a critique of the patriarchal society.
5. Klara and the Sun
Klara is a solar-powered artificial intelligence robot (AF) designed to accompany children, with a high level of observation, reasoning and empathy. She sits in a shop display window, watching the movements of passers-by on the street and the children who come to browse the windows. She always expects that someone will soon pick her. But when the possibility of this permanently changing situation arises, someone warned Klara not to trust too much in the promises of humans.
Kazuo Ishiguro is never a hard science fiction writer. He lightly avoids setting up a grand worldview, glossing over the logic of how robots work and how human genetic modification “enhances” them. He maks this story closer to a family story that is accessible to the average reader, less hardcore, less tense, and so warm that it feels surreal.
Klara and the Sun blurs many things that are rarely mentioned in human nature. It is precisely because of the coexistence of selfish desires and the desire for sublimity that human hearts are full of contradictions, uncertainty and pain. But the robots are different. In the face of life and death or the human tendency to avoid harm, Klara chooses to transcend herself. Moreover, to transcend the human understanding of love as a creator: love, never a condition or a bargaining chip, but a natural faith like sunlight, a shield against loneliness and death.
6. Exhalation
Exhalation, a new collection of Ted Kang’s work, contains nine titles. The Alchemist’s Gate, Freedom to Travel Through Time, How does a science fiction version of One Thousand and One Nights unfold? My nanny is a machine, what does that mean for a newborn? Memory tricks us all the time, we just don’t notice it ourselves. How would civilisation change if everyone started keeping a continuous life log? If parallel dimensions did exist and conversations could take place, in what way would you exhaust the possibilities of life?
In contrast to looking at the universe as a whole, Ted Ginger’s work is more often focused on human beings themselves, and more often ponders philosophical questions about ourselves. Many science fiction novels are a combination of science and literature. But his novels are more like a combination of science and philosophy.
Each short story provokes the reader to think about humanity and reflect on values through the simple “high technology”. The eulogy of noble humanity, the acceptance of the inevitability of tragedy, the understanding of uncontrollable destiny and the reconciliation of time are the unchanging themes of his decades-long creative journey.
7. Brave New World
The story takes place in a human society in the year 632 of the Ford era. It is a world state, known as a “civilised society”, and beyond that there are “barbarian reservations”, inhabited by Indian tribes. On a visit to the reservation, Bernard and Lenina meet John and his mother Linda, a former inhabitant of the New World who has fallen off a cliff and given birth to John. He soon dies of an overdose of marijuana, and John’s admiration for the New World turns to disgust. He hangs himself after a violent confrontation with it.
The world portrayed in the book is a world of absolute comfort, absolute beauty and absolute happiness for human life. But its back side is absolute absurdity, absolute bondage, absolute escape. Humans have always imagined a beautiful utopia, but is absolute happiness true happiness?
Happiness is salvation from nothing. Without the process of waiting and striving, happiness would be dimmed. And happiness is never the only choice in life. Everyone deserves the right to choose their life, now and in the future.
8. Solaris
Solaris is a planet orbiting a binary star with a surface covered by a gelatinous ocean. According to established human knowledge, the orbit of such a planet should be unstable. But after only a decade or so, it became clear that Solaris’ orbit did not show the expected variations. This sparked endless human interest in the planet. When psychologist Kelvin lands on Solaris, he is greeted not by a warm welcome from his companions, but by a cluttered space station, crazy researchers and a stark, dark atmosphere as he tries to figure out what is going on. Until he runs into his wife of ten years in the midst of all the confusion…
With his brilliant imagination, Lem attempts to construct a planet outside of the total human order and to envisage this form of “interaction” as a way of reflecting on “anthropocentrism” or what the book calls “geocentrism “. Nevertheless, we cannot escape from this anthropocentrism. All the emotions we are aroused by this book stem precisely from the fact that we are human.
Many science fiction books put mankind in the first place, highlighting his fearlessness in conquering nature. But Lem tells us that there are still many things in the universe that humans cannot understand, and that if they cannot understand them now, they may not necessarily do so in the future. The only way to get out of a difficult situation is to accept it and try to understand it.
Enjoyed this 8 books like The Three-Body Problem review? Then be sure to check out our other book review of 8 Books like The Poppy War.