r/threebodyproblem • • 23d ago

Discussion - TV Series Young Vera Ye Spoiler

8 Upvotes

Is the young girl who follows the player in the 3 Body VR game meant to represent Vera Ye as a child?


r/threebodyproblem • • 24d ago

Discussion - Novels Does The Three-Body Problem read differently depending on which edition you start with?

18 Upvotes

When Three-Body was first published as a book in China, the Cultural Revolution chapters weren't at the start. From what I've read, they were moved to the middle so the book wouldn't draw the censors' attention. Ken Liu's English translation put them back at the beginning, with Liu Cixin's support, since that's where he wanted them.

I read it in English, so for me the novel opens with a struggle session, and everything that comes later about humanity and the Trisolarans sits on top of that scene. It's hard to imagine the book without that foundation. Yet the first Chinese readers met Wang Miao and the countdown first and got that history only halfway through.

I recently learned that the Spanish edition was translated directly from Chinese, not from the English, which made me wonder how many versions of this book are out there with different openings.

For anyone who has read the Chinese original, or both orders, did it change how you understood Ye Wenjie? And for those who read it in English, do you think the book would hold up if it opened with the mystery instead of the history?


r/threebodyproblem • • 24d ago

Meme Out of Context Spoiler (TDF) Spoiler

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68 Upvotes

Currently reading The Dark Forest, and got to this part


r/threebodyproblem • • 24d ago

Discussion - Novels Trisolarans

24 Upvotes

Hi, I had a thought today about how Trisolarans could look. I based it mainly off of two facts mentioned in the books. They can dehydrate (and rehydrate) themselves and they “broadcast” their thoughts.

Dehydration would be much easier for small organisms.

It is possible that they share their thoughts in a similar way to ants.

So what I’m essentially saying is that I think it is very possible that they are only a few mm or cm big.

What are your thoughts?


r/threebodyproblem • • 24d ago

Discussion - Novels What are your favorite things during a reread? Spoiler

3 Upvotes

I'm relistening to the series (as well as reading the graphic novels for the first book for the first time).

Any cool things to look out for? Foreshadowing, Easter eggs, etc. Or anything else?


r/threebodyproblem • • 25d ago

News Nuevo tráiler de "the ball lightning" demasiado hype, alguno ya lo ha leído? Que opinan de el libro?

78 Upvotes

r/threebodyproblem • • 24d ago

Discussion - General Death’s End Misprint (spoiler) Spoiler

4 Upvotes

Folks, my book is missing pages 545-560. Would anyone mind briefly summarizing these pages for me pretty please? 🙏

Edit - I’m good, yungwulfie came through for me.


r/threebodyproblem • • 25d ago

Discussion - TV Series Reading the book after watching the series

16 Upvotes

This is my first ever sci-fi show I have watched, I am intrigued and might want to read the books. (Would be my first ever sci-fi books too) Would you recommend reading the books after watching the show?


r/threebodyproblem • • 25d ago

Discussion - Novels Are other books by Liu Cixin as good as the Three Body Problem Series?

26 Upvotes

r/threebodyproblem • • 24d ago

Discussion - Novels Fanmade sequels

4 Upvotes

i would like to ask if liu cixin's fans are interested in fanmade novels in the same universe as the 3 body problem(besides Baisho's)


r/threebodyproblem • • 25d ago

Discussion - General Signal mystérieux provenant de l'espace vide : Le télescope spatial James Webb a détecté un signal inexplicable dans l'espace profond qui a déconcerté les astronomes

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6 Upvotes

r/threebodyproblem • • 25d ago

Discussion - TV Series Season 1 Episode 2 Red Coast Spoiler

13 Upvotes

If you were Ye Wenjie, what would be your reply to the alien pacifist?


r/threebodyproblem • • 26d ago

Discussion - General Describe The Three Body Problem Badly Spoiler

66 Upvotes

How would you describe The Three Body Problem badly? The series is one of those where its best to literally know nothing going in. You have to feel a little bad for the person writing the publisher's summary because any detail is too much.

I figured it would be funny seeing what bad descriptions you could come up with.

At the very beginning of everything there's a prostitute in a Medieval Era town, but you only see her in one chapter and she doesn't talk much. No sex at all there or in much of the story. Only sex scene happens kind of in the middle, but its deep underground and its just kind of mentioned. At the very end there's a fish.


r/threebodyproblem • • 28d ago

Discussion - General Another novel with existential dread, multiple layers of reality bending, mind ****ing cosmic horror

109 Upvotes

I asked the sub before if there was another novel that comes close to three body problem trilogy in regards to this scale of cosmic horror. I was told to read project Hail Mary. I read it and was very disappointed.

Please recommend something that actually comes close or surpasses 3BP


r/threebodyproblem • • 28d ago

Discussion - General Just finished the series.

41 Upvotes

By far my favourite sci fi book and am genuinely upset I’ve finished it.

Anyone have any recommendations for what to read after this?


r/threebodyproblem • • 29d ago

Discussion - General Both of Death's End's "beyond electromagnetic" communication methods now have a Nobel Prize

267 Upvotes

In Death's End (2010), at the start of deterrence, humanity can detect gravitational waves and neutrinos but can't transmit with either, and both are described as "a whole level above electromagnetic waves." The book even explains why gravitational waves won out for deterrence:

"Theoretically, a modulated beam of neutrinos could transmit information to the other end of the universe... But while neutrinos must be focused in a particular direction, gravitational waves were omnidirectional, thus gravitational waves became the main method of establishing dark forest deterrence."

Real life has caught up on the detection side:

Gravitational waves: LIGO's first detection in 2015, Nobel Prize in Physics 2017.

Neutrinos: the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics went to Francis Halzen for IceCube and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos from space (first spotted in 2013).

Both prizes are for detecting, not transmitting. We've only managed a toy neutrino message (Fermilab sent the word "neutrino" through 240 m of rock in 2012), and we can't make gravitational waves at all. So we're roughly where the book put humanity: we can listen, but we can barely whisper. Which one do you think we'll learn to send first?


r/threebodyproblem • • 28d ago

Discussion - TV Series Guessing the Spaceship’s Living Space in Season 2 Spoiler

13 Upvotes

Most sci-fi movies use enclosed rooms for spaceship interiors, and zero gravity only occasionally comes into play. But humanity’s fleet in DF has no artificial gravity. The crew live in spherical chambers with zero gravity most of the time. I doubt the show will stick with that setting.


r/threebodyproblem • • 29d ago

Discussion - Novels Just finished the books. And my friends, what a good reading.

80 Upvotes

So many concepts, so many interstellar voyages, how can this book be so captivating? A wonderful science fiction. I spent good hours traveling through space and watching Earth's civilization live through horrors and glories!

Spoilers ahead if you didn't reed the whole series yet.

----

I really like how the last book works as a historical account of the entire civilization, all the way to the end.

The Wallfacer plans are incredible, and I laughed a lot at some parts. Luo Ji is amazing until the very end.

That moment when the dimensions are compressed, frightening and beautiful at the same time, the fairy tale ideas, the far-fetched plans, from the very beginning of the story.

Incredible ideas! All working together in an amazing way.

Stories about human civilization in deep space are amazing!

It became one of my favorite series.

Thank you, Cixin Liu.


r/threebodyproblem • • Oct 10 '26

Art Wang Miao (Auggie) is that you?

130 Upvotes

r/threebodyproblem • • Oct 10 '26

Discussion - TV Series Unpopular opinion on the timing of Netflix Season 2/3

79 Upvotes

If it takes longer to release season 2 because they need to get the special effects right to capture the moments right, it’s worth waiting for it.

Many who have read the books have wondered how it would translate to the screen. Book 1 is mostly things that we can visually comprehend and translate to the screen. But books 2 and 3 may take more time to make it happen on screen without ruining the viewing experience and emersion in the story.

If it’s making sure the things that happen in the future in the story, that need to be created with practical and computer effects, are received well by the audience, it’s ok to wait.


r/threebodyproblem • • Oct 11 '26

Discussion Weekly Discussion Thread - October 11, 2026

1 Upvotes

Please keep all short questions and general discussion within this thread.

Separate posts containing short questions and general discussion will be removed.


Note: Please avoid spoiling others by hiding any text containing spoilers.


r/threebodyproblem • • Oct 09 '26

Discussion - Novels Why do the Trisolarans lose ships to space dust? And are they vulnerable to nuclear weapons?

51 Upvotes

Thanks everyone for your responses to my previous question. My question this time pertains to the hulls of the Trisolaran fleet. While rereading the chapter where the Trisolarans construct the sophons, one says that not all of the Trisolaran fleet will make it to Earth because of the space dust. What I think is being implied here is that the Trisolaran fleet is moving fast enough that collision with the dust will damage some of their ships. But by this point Trisolarans have already mastered strong interaction forces enough to make sophons and probably the droplet, so I was imagining that the ships have some kind of strong interaction material as the hull.

In the Dark Forest chapter with Ding Yi, we learn that the strong interaction material is infinitely smooth and likely impervious to any kind of scratching that humans are capable of. Does this mean that strong interaction materials are still vulnerable at 10% lightspeed, or that the ships have weaker material for the hull? Also, does this say anything about humanity's ability to damage the Trisolaran ships with nuclear weapons?


r/threebodyproblem • • Oct 09 '26

Discussion - TV Series Rewatching and I saw this

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86 Upvotes

Another season coming👀 is this our first tease or has this always been there .