As I've mentioned previously (I think), I am currently reading a novel entitled Trisurya (English title The Three Body Problem) by Chinese author Liu Cixin. The novel is very much wrapped up in physics and quantum physics. The three body problem, in brief, is the problem in physics of computing the trajectory of three bodies interacting with one another. Whatever that means. These calculations are of little importance or meaning to the general reader, and in fact I still had no idea what the meaning or significance of the three body problem was until I was nearly halfway into the novel. Then one night I had a dream about it, and I awoke with a sudden awareness of what was being addressed. Not that I can convey the idea to anyone else.
The novel is wildly popular in China, and is part one of a trilogy. Still, I have found it disappointing, and have basically had to force myself to read it. As a fictional narrative, it seems very clumsy indeed, often confusing, often downright silly. There is no character development whatsoever, and in fact the characters sort of melt into one another such that one is not quite sure who this or that character is each time he or she reappears in this disjointed narrative. There is really no tension in the novel, no striving forward of events to keep the reader engaged.
I bought this novel because of the highly positive blurb from Barack Obama on the back cover. We seem to have been reading two different novels. The subject of quantum physics tends to fascinate most bookish types (like me) given the romantic-seeming poetic side of that discipline, the metaphysical nature of quantum equations, and it should have carried this novel through despite the novelistic weaknesses of the narrative, but Cixin simply has not shown a talent, at least in my opinion, for conveying these complex ideas in an interesting or accessible way or in a way that clearly furthers the plot. What I found most compelling in the novel were those portions dealing with the Red Revolution, but if one wants to read fiction on that subject, he is much better off with any one of Yu Hua's most popular novels.
So yeah, I cannot recommend Trisurya, despite what Barack says. Maybe it's just a matter of taste, or a matter of what one seeks in a novel. I have always found that a good novel is one that is regularly quotable, one that contains jewels of style or thought that resonate in the mind and simply must be repeated. None of that here.
The novel is wildly popular in China, and is part one of a trilogy. Still, I have found it disappointing, and have basically had to force myself to read it. As a fictional narrative, it seems very clumsy indeed, often confusing, often downright silly. There is no character development whatsoever, and in fact the characters sort of melt into one another such that one is not quite sure who this or that character is each time he or she reappears in this disjointed narrative. There is really no tension in the novel, no striving forward of events to keep the reader engaged.
I bought this novel because of the highly positive blurb from Barack Obama on the back cover. We seem to have been reading two different novels. The subject of quantum physics tends to fascinate most bookish types (like me) given the romantic-seeming poetic side of that discipline, the metaphysical nature of quantum equations, and it should have carried this novel through despite the novelistic weaknesses of the narrative, but Cixin simply has not shown a talent, at least in my opinion, for conveying these complex ideas in an interesting or accessible way or in a way that clearly furthers the plot. What I found most compelling in the novel were those portions dealing with the Red Revolution, but if one wants to read fiction on that subject, he is much better off with any one of Yu Hua's most popular novels.
So yeah, I cannot recommend Trisurya, despite what Barack says. Maybe it's just a matter of taste, or a matter of what one seeks in a novel. I have always found that a good novel is one that is regularly quotable, one that contains jewels of style or thought that resonate in the mind and simply must be repeated. None of that here.
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