The Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, better known by the name The Three-Body Problem, is a series of three books (The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End) written by Chinese author Liu Cixin. Widely regarded as one of the greatest modern works of science fiction, the trilogy recently saw a surge in popularity as the Netflix series based upon the novels released in March 2024. While I had heard of the books before the debut of the Netflix show, it took watching it to get me interested in reading the books. I must say, it was a really good decision.
It’s a truly amazing work of sci-fi and one of my favorite reads ever. For those who don’t know, Remembrance of Earth’s Past is a story in three parts about humanity contacting an extraterrestrial civilization from the planet of Trisolaris, who threaten to invade Earth within the next few hundred years to escape their impending extinction. As humanity’s scientific advancement is crippled by the Trisolarans’ incredibly advanced technology, they must work together to fight off the impending invasion. Viewed through the eyes of many different characters over a time span of millions of years, the full story involves devastating defeats, a pinch of existential horror, and a few major revelations.
I highly recommend reading this if you’re a fan of science fiction, as it has quite a lot of fantastical devices and gadgets, but the concept of the dark forest is a great way to throw cosmic horror into the mix, and I think it’s written very well. Liu also masterfully writes the various plotlines of the story from the perspectives of characters all across the universe, and this makes it quite fun to read for anyone who likes complex, interconnected stories.
The Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy can probably be found at your local bookstore and is available at most libraries. Additionally, Season 1 of the show “3 Body Problem,” based upon Liu’s works, is available on Netflix and puts the story of the first book, The Three-Body Problem, into a live-action adaptation that I quite enjoyed watching. Season 2 is also on the way and will be coming to Netflix in the next couple of years. I hope you have a similarly pleasant experience reading and watching this series.
