Cixin Liu
Author of The Three-Body Problem
About the Author
Cixin Liu is the author of The Three Body Problem, which won Best Novel at the Hugo Awards 2015. (Bowker Author Biography)
Series
Works by Cixin Liu
Sun of China {story} — Author — 11 copies
The Wandering Earth, Part 2 of 2 — Author — 4 copies
The Wages of Humanity {story} — Author — 4 copies
O fim da morte: 3 3 copies
La vista desde las estrellas: Relatos y ensayos del autor de El problema de los tres cuerpos (Spanish Edition) (2024) 2 copies
THREE-BODY PROBLEM 2 copies
Cannonball 2 copies
For the Benefit of Mankind 2 copies
Cloud of Poems {short story} — Author — 2 copies
Sea of Dreams {short story} 2 copies
2016 1 copy
O mrówkach i dinozaurach 1 copy
Sostener el Cielo 1 copy
O problema dos três corpos 1 copy
Moonlight 1 copy
(54) 三体III：死神永生 1 copy
三体 1 copy
Trilogía de los Tres Cuerpos (estuche con: El problema de los tres cuerpos | El bosque oscuro | El fin de la muerte) (2024) 1 copy
Ode to Joy {short story} 1 copy
Three Body Mystery 1 copy
The Circle {short story} — Author — 1 copy
Contraction {short story} 1 copy
2018-04-01 {short story} 1 copy
Associated Works
Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation (2016) — Contributor — 557 copies
The Reincarnated Giant: An Anthology of Twenty-First-Century Chinese Science Fiction (2018) — Contributor — 42 copies
Asimov's Science Fiction: Vol. 42, No. 1 & 2 [January/February 2018] (1960) — Contributor — 11 copies
SFが読みたい! 2020年版 — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Cixin Liu
- Legal name
- 劉慈欣
- Other names
- 刘慈欣
- Birthdate
- 1963-06-23
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- China
- Country (for map)
- China
- Birthplace
- Henan, China
- Places of residence
- Beijing, China
Shanxi, China - Education
- North China University of Water Conservancy and Electric Power
- Occupations
- science fiction writer
power plant computer engineer - Organizations
- Beijing Guomi Digital Technology
- Short biography
- Liu Cixin, born in June 1963, is a representative of the new generation of Chinese science fiction authors and recognized as a leading voice in Chinese science fiction. He was awarded the China Galaxy Science Fiction Award for eight consecutive years, from 1999 to 2006 and again in 2010. His representative work The Three-body Problem is the BEST STORY of 2015 Hugo Awards, the 3rd of 2015 Campbell Award finalists, and nominee of 2015 Nebulas Award.
His works have received wide acclaim on account of their powerful atmosphere and brilliant imagination. Liu Cixin's stories successfully combine the exceedingly ephemeral with hard reality, all the while focussing on revealing the essence and aesthetics of science. He has endeavoured to create a distinctly Chinese style of science fiction. Liu Cixin is a member of the China Writers' Association and the Shanxi Writers' Association.
Members
Discussions
Jeff's 2019 Reads in The Green Dragon (April 2021)
Reviews
The Three-Body Problem (The Three-Body Problem… by Cixin Liu
Cixin Liu is clearly a real smart guy. The "Three Body Problem" is an interesting book which is a bit of a difficult read because of the characters' names (e.g. Yang, Ye, Ye, Ye, Wei, Ding, Lei and Chang, etc.) and because of the science. Keeping track of the characters was a chore for me especially if I laid the book down for 3 or 4 days and then went back to it. It is a translation so it does not really flow like, say, an Arthur C. Clarke or an Isaac Asimov book, but, still, it has a fascinating premise - contact with an other-world civilization. It is remarkable how well informed the author is about Western science and Western heroes (Bach, Aristotle, da Vinci, Leibniz, Madame Curie, Copernicus, Euler and Kepler, and many others are noted). It is not an exciting book, its characters do not draw you to them, but it is an intellectual feat based upon what appears to be a sound science education. More human interaction and less 400-course level science would have made for a more compelling book. Nonetheless, the premise and the science are very interesting and the existence of the book reveals the progress and depth of Chinese scientific investigation. I doubt that I will read the other two books in the trilogy.… (more)
½The Trisolarians live on a planet that has 3 suns, and therefore a chaotic climate. They covet earth for its stable environment.
This novel has been around since 2006, and is set in China. The first section occurs during the cultural revolution. Ye Wenjie, an astophysicist, has been sent to a Construction Corps cutting wood in the countryside, branded a counterrevolutionary, after her father, a physicist, was beaten to death by the Red Guards. She is stationed near a mysterious radio telescope base, Red Coast, and when she refuses to sign an accusatory statement, she is is rescued by an acquaintance who runs the secret instrument, and needs someone with her training to help at the base. The radio telescope is searching for aliens, and occasionally broadcasts a powerful signal to attract them, with the idea that contacting aliens first would be an advantage for the Chinese. The base receives a signal from an alien watcher, (who is disillusioned by his race) saying don't respond, but Ye Wenjie, by now bitter and disillusioned, sends a signal.
The book changes to the present. Many people in China and the world are playing the trisolarian game that had been designed by a few individuals who are aware that the trisolarian fleet has left its unsolvable problem of a planet with 3 suns, and is heading to earth for conquest. There are warring factions in the society, and eventually a murder. A wily police detective becomes involved, and eventually is the hero who motivates physicist to continue planning for the invasion.
The author is familiar with quantum physics and has convincing solutions to problems of spacetime and communication, and the plot is complicated, with some detective novel twists. It is a little slow in spots, and it is hard to keep track of the many characters with unfamiliar Chinese names. I read it in the evenings over about four days.… (more)
This novel has been around since 2006, and is set in China. The first section occurs during the cultural revolution. Ye Wenjie, an astophysicist, has been sent to a Construction Corps cutting wood in the countryside, branded a counterrevolutionary, after her father, a physicist, was beaten to death by the Red Guards. She is stationed near a mysterious radio telescope base, Red Coast, and when she refuses to sign an accusatory statement, she is is rescued by an acquaintance who runs the secret instrument, and needs someone with her training to help at the base. The radio telescope is searching for aliens, and occasionally broadcasts a powerful signal to attract them, with the idea that contacting aliens first would be an advantage for the Chinese. The base receives a signal from an alien watcher, (who is disillusioned by his race) saying don't respond, but Ye Wenjie, by now bitter and disillusioned, sends a signal.
The book changes to the present. Many people in China and the world are playing the trisolarian game that had been designed by a few individuals who are aware that the trisolarian fleet has left its unsolvable problem of a planet with 3 suns, and is heading to earth for conquest. There are warring factions in the society, and eventually a murder. A wily police detective becomes involved, and eventually is the hero who motivates physicist to continue planning for the invasion.
The author is familiar with quantum physics and has convincing solutions to problems of spacetime and communication, and the plot is complicated, with some detective novel twists. It is a little slow in spots, and it is hard to keep track of the many characters with unfamiliar Chinese names. I read it in the evenings over about four days.… (more)
Very clever first contact story. Plausible story of first contact and communication. Interesting physics including the unfolding and refolding of a protons dimensions. Use of a video game to present the alien world clever if not entirely original.
Really rather good. As you might expect coming from such a different culture, the characterizations, the pacing, the prose are rather different, but the book is none the worse for that. The premise is intriguing and tit certainly holds your attention. A rather fine and slightly different high-science piece of Sci-Fi. I will go straight on to the next book!
Lists
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io9 Book Club (1)
2010s (2)
Five star books (1)
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2023 (1)
um actually (1)
Overdue Podcast (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 92
- Also by
- 16
- Members
- 17,933
- Popularity
- #1,226
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 738
- ISBNs
- 371
- Languages
- 21
- Favorited
- 13