The Three-Body Problem

I was really looking forward to this book and I think I just … don’t get it.

I talked to my father-in-law, who is Serbian, a while back about how he enjoys reading Russian/slavic authors, even in English, because their thoughts are structured in a familiar way to him – I felt the opposite here, wondering if what was being said would click more with me if I had grown up in China. That’s not a criticism, really, just an observation. Much of the book felt like it was told as an allegory that I just wasn’t getting, or a fable with a moral that went over my head. The characters all seem motivated by some emotional resonance with the Three Body game that I feel expected to understand, but I definitely don’t.

The surface story, beyond any attempt at finding a deeper meaning, was intriguing but ultimately underwhelming. Like I said, I feel like there’s more meaning beneath it all but I don’t feel particularly compelled to continue the trilogy because I suspect it would be similarly lost on me.