![]() | |
Author | Liu Cixin |
---|---|
Original title | 三体 |
Translator | Ken Liu |
Language | Chinese |
Series | Remembrance of Earth's Past |
Genre | Science fiction |
Publisher | Chongqing Press |
Publication date | 2008 |
Publication place | China |
Published in English | 2014 by |
Pages | 302 |
Awards |
|
ISBN | 978-7-536-69293-0 |
Followed by | The Dark Forest |
The Three-Body Problem | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Simplified Chinese | 三体 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 三體 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | "Three Body" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Three-Body Problem (Chinese: 三体; lit. 'three body') is a 2008 novel by the Chinese science fiction author Liu Cixin. It is the first novel in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy.[1] 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, a representative example of the three-body problem in orbital mechanics.
The story was originally serialized in Science Fiction World in 2006 before it was published as a standalone book in 2008.[2] In 2006, it received the Galaxy Award for Chinese science fiction.[3] In 2012, it was described as one of China's most successful full-length novels of the past two decades.[4] The English translation by Ken Liu was published by Tor Books in 2014.[5] That translation was the first novel by an Asian writer to win a Hugo Award for Best Novel;[6][7] it was also nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel.[8]
The book has been adapted into other media. In 2015, a Chinese film adaptation of the same name was in production, but it was never released. A Chinese TV series, Three-Body, released in early 2023 to critical success locally. An English-language Netflix series adaptation, 3 Body Problem, was released in March 2024.