The Three-Body Problem (novel)
The Three-Body Problem (Chinese: 三体; lit. 'Three-Body') is a novel by Chinese science fiction author Liu Cixin, the first in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy—though the series as a whole is often referred to as The Three-Body Problem, or simply as Three-Body. The series portrays a fictional past, present and future wherein Earth encounters an alien civilization from a nearby system of three sun-like stars orbiting one another, in an example of the three-body problem in orbital mechanics.
| Author | Liu Cixin |
|---|---|
| Original title | 三体 |
| Translator | Ken Liu |
| Country | China |
| Language | Chinese |
| Series | Remembrance of Earth's Past |
| Genre | Science fiction (alien invasion) |
| Publisher | Chongqing Press |
Publication date | 2008 |
Published in English | 2014 by |
| Pages | 302 |
| Awards | Hugo Award for Best Novel (2015) Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis for Best Foreign Work (2017) |
| ISBN | 978-7-5366-9293-0 |
| Followed by | The Dark Forest |
| The Three-Body Problem | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 三体 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 三體 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | three body | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
It was originally serialized in Science Fiction World in 2006, and published as a standalone book in 2008. In 2006 it received the Yinhe [Galaxy] Award for Chinese science fiction, and in 2012 was described as one of the genre's most successful novels of the previous two decades. By 2015, a Chinese film adaptation of the same name was in production. The English translation by Ken Liu was published by Tor Books in 2014. The translation became the first Asian novel ever to win a Hugo Award for Best Novel, and was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel.