The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (2006)
Emotionless writing
Book cover blurb
Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens.
An alien civilisation on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth.
Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion.
My Review
Unfortunately, I'm having to call it a day at page 208 for this one.
I'll be quite honest, I really don't understand the high ratings this book received. Is it possibly people wanting to appear intelligent by giving false appreciation for quite a highly technical book, or because it's a Hugo winner? Or maybe it's all down to me, maybe I'm just incredibly dense and have no taste. Either way, I just don't get it and I'm not afraid to admit it.
To me, this book just doesn't seem to have a soul, there's no emotion to the prose at all. It's almost 2 dimensional. There's no life or energy to its voice. Maybe this is an eastern writing trait or possibly something was lost in translation, I really don't know. And it's a shame too, because I really wanted to like this book. I'm striving to push myself to read books outside my comfort zone and it grieves me when I have to admit defeat. But there's no point in torturing yourself by reading something that's just not doing it for you when there are so many other books out there just waiting to give you the buzz you deserve.
My copy of this novel
Tor hardback edition.
Published in 2014
472 pages
ISBN 9780765382030