The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)

This book reminds me of an exponential graph.

It starts with a shocking scene from the Cultural Revolution but then builds slowly. Even mundanely paced at times. Several questions are left hanging but they are answered later. And my god, are they answered!

There are several shocking turns that dramatically raise the stakes and totally blew my mind. By the end of the book and top of the curve it is hard to think back to the simpler times at the start. Though the links are poignant and well thought out.

I recently read (and raved!) about Hyperion, sci-fi set in the deep human future. There writers are free to go wild with technology and future history. This book is set in the present, with deviations to the near past. For me this grounds the work and sci-fi elements in our world, and the writer does an amazing job of creating realistic yet at times fantastic technological and engineering feats. Pushing the very limits of what we think we know and may be able to achieve in the future as of today.

I think some readers may not relate to the misanthropic characters who play a central role, but I am completely onboard with the program! Haha.

Without giving much away, the parts inside the computer game act as a microcosm of the book as a whole, slow at first, but brilliant, complex, weird, smart, and even very funny! Watch out for Issac Newton!

This is smart, modern sci-fi and I can't wait to read the sequels.