The Three-Body Problem
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| Author | Liu Cixin |
|---|---|
| Original title | 三体 |
| Translator | Ken Liu |
| Country | China |
| Language | Chinese |
| Series | Remembrance of Earth’s Past |
| Genre | Chinese science fiction |
| Publisher | Chongqing Press |
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Publication date
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2008 |
| Pages | 302 |
| ISBN | |
| Followed by | The Dark Forest |
| The Three-body Problem | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 三体 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 三體 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Sān tǐ |
| Wade–Giles | San1 t'i3 |
| IPA | [sán tʰì] |
| Wu | |
| Suzhounese | Se thì |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Jyutping | Saam1 tai2 |
| Southern Min | |
| Tâi-lô | Sam thé |
The Three-Body Problem (Chinese: 三体; literally: "Three-Body") is a science fiction novel by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin. It is the first of a trilogy titled Remembrance of Earth’s Past (Chinese: 地球往事), but Chinese readers generally refer to the series by the title of the first novel. The title itself refers to the three-body problem in orbital mechanics.
The work was serialized in Science Fiction World in 2006, published as a book in 2008 and became one of the most popular science fiction novels in China. It received the Chinese Science Fiction Galaxy Award in 2006. A film adaptation of the same name is scheduled for release in 2017.
An English translation by Ken Liu was published by Tor Books in 2014. It won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel and was nominated for the 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novel.
(In this article, Chinese names are written with the family name first and given name second. Liu Cixin's family name is Liu. Ken Liu's surname is also Liu; he is American and uses the English order.)
The Trisolaran world is a stellar system with three suns, the Alpha Centauri System, whose trajectories are entirely unpredictable; because they are an example of the three-body problem from physics. The problem described in the book is actually a four body problem, since the action takes place on a planet which is also a part of the system. The gravitational forces between the suns and the planet are extremely chaotic, and have caused 11 of the original 12 planets to be consumed by the suns. The living environment on the sole remaining planet, Trisolaris, is also extremely harsh: when the planet is within the orbit range of one sun, it enters a short era of stable day-night cycle, which the native Trisolarans term as Stable Era; when the planet is trapped between the orbits of multiple suns, its day-night cycle becomes distorted, and the days may become extremely hot should the planet be too close to any of the suns, or extremely cold if otherwise, and this period is termed as a Chaotic Era.
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