Liu, Cixin - The three-body problem

How does one review a book?

I had been wanting to read the three-body problem since long. I just was not able to get my hands on it, at the library. I got it on 27th Jan, but I was reading Murakami then. I was also reading 'The seven basic plots' in parallel. But that is not a book you read in parallel. And it is a seven hundred page book. I realised then, that some books are better read digitally, on the Kindle for example.

I started reading the three-body problem on 11th Feb and finished it today.

I loved this book.

That seems like a running theme for all the reviews I publish here. That is to be expected. Any book that I do eventually finish will be because I loved reading it. Otherwise, I would not finish it. There are a few such books in my Inbox folder.

That brings me back to my original question. How does one review a book? How much of the plot do you reveal? Do you talk about the characters?

And do I do any of that?

I have not done that by now.

What I do instead is talk about the book, not as a review, mind you, but rather just some things I thought of while reading it, or after reading it. Like with the Murakami book, I talked about the physical thing that the book was.

These are notes to me, in a way. And I am happy with that.

Anyway.

Three-body problem is about a few things.

Its about a woman hurt by cruelty, by the murder of her father.

Its also about imagining how life would be on a planet being tossed about in a company of three stars.

It is an excellent, expansive sort of science-fiction. I also enjoyed reading Liu Cixin's notes at the end. Science-fiction is stories about science, and they belong to the world. This is how science gets to the world.

The protagonist seems to be just there, because the plot needs him to be there. I did not find him interesting. The inspector Da Shi was a far more interesting character to me. As was Ye, the scientist who makes the first contact with the tri-solans.

I knew about the story because I had watched Netflix's 3-body problem before reading this novel. I preferred reading the novel.

I read a paperback. The cover was suitably sci-fi.

I am looking forward to reading the next one.