-
The Three-Body Problem
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.24
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Ball Lightning
- By: Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen - translator
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of the mysterious natural phenomenon. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station. The more he learns, the more he comes to realize that ball lightning is just the tip of a new frontier in particle physics. Although Chen’s quest provides a purpose for his life, his reasons for chasing his elusive quarry come into conflict with soldiers and scientists who have motives of their own.
-
-
if you loved the three body problem . a must
- By Boaz on 10-19-18
By: Cixin Liu, and others
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
The Shrike Awaits. Enter The Time Tombs...
- By Michael on 10-13-12
By: Dan Simmons
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
-
A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
-
Project Hail Mary
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
-
-
Bazinga
- By Davidgonzalezsr on 05-04-21
By: Andy Weir
-
Drive
- An Expanse Short Story
- By: James S. A. Corey
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A short story set in the universe of James S. A. Corey's NYT best-selling Expanse series. Now a Prime Original series. This story will be available in the complete Expanse story collection, Memory’s Legion.
-
-
Fun little short story
- By Carson on 12-28-21
-
Dune
- By: Frank Herbert
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Orlagh Cassidy, Euan Morton, and others
- Length: 21 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.
-
-
This classic deserves better
- By Matthew Salvo on 07-01-21
By: Frank Herbert
-
Ball Lightning
- By: Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen - translator
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of the mysterious natural phenomenon. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station. The more he learns, the more he comes to realize that ball lightning is just the tip of a new frontier in particle physics. Although Chen’s quest provides a purpose for his life, his reasons for chasing his elusive quarry come into conflict with soldiers and scientists who have motives of their own.
-
-
if you loved the three body problem . a must
- By Boaz on 10-19-18
By: Cixin Liu, and others
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
The Shrike Awaits. Enter The Time Tombs...
- By Michael on 10-13-12
By: Dan Simmons
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
-
A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
-
Project Hail Mary
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
-
-
Bazinga
- By Davidgonzalezsr on 05-04-21
By: Andy Weir
-
Drive
- An Expanse Short Story
- By: James S. A. Corey
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A short story set in the universe of James S. A. Corey's NYT best-selling Expanse series. Now a Prime Original series. This story will be available in the complete Expanse story collection, Memory’s Legion.
-
-
Fun little short story
- By Carson on 12-28-21
-
Dune
- By: Frank Herbert
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Orlagh Cassidy, Euan Morton, and others
- Length: 21 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.
-
-
This classic deserves better
- By Matthew Salvo on 07-01-21
By: Frank Herbert
-
Artemis
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Rosario Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.
-
-
A ferrari with no motor
- By will on 11-18-17
By: Andy Weir
-
Dark Matter
- A Novel
- By: Blake Crouch
- Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Are you happy with your life?” Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the kidnapper knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man he’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.” In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife.
-
-
Another Book Where the Ratings Lie
- By Matthew on 08-05-16
By: Blake Crouch
-
The Wandering Earth
- By: Cixin Liu
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin, Greg Chun
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These 11 stories, including five Chinese Galaxy Award winners, are a blazingly original ode to planet Earth, its pasts, and its futures. Liu's fiction takes the listener to the edge of the universe and the end of time, to meet stranger fates than we could have ever imagined. With a melancholic and keen understanding of human nature, Liu's stories show humanity's attempts to reason, navigate, and above all, survive in a desolate cosmos.
-
-
Extraordinary book!
- By Yuanting Tao on 10-30-21
By: Cixin Liu
-
Contact
- By: Carl Sagan
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The future is here...in an adventure of cosmic dimension. In December, 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who - or what - is out there? In Cosmos, Carl Sagan explained the universe. In Contact, he predicts its future - and our own.
-
-
Technical problems with this recording - skips...
- By Matt on 11-28-12
By: Carl Sagan
-
Blade Runner
- Originally published as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
- By: Philip K. Dick
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill. Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there lurked several rogue androids. Deckard's assignment: find them and then..."retire" them. Trouble was, the androids all looked exactly like humans, and they didn't want to be found!
-
-
This is the original Do Androids Dream of Electric
- By D. ABIGT on 08-29-10
By: Philip K. Dick
-
The Martian
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.
-
-
I love Wil Wheaton but why not R. C. Bray?
- By L. Newman on 01-11-20
By: Andy Weir
-
Solaris
- The Definitive Edition
- By: Stanislaw Lem, Bill Johnston - translator
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it. To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation - complete for the first time, and the first ever directly from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani ( Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.
-
-
A comment on negative reviews
- By Burns on 09-20-11
By: Stanislaw Lem, and others
-
Quicksilver
- Book One of The Baroque Cycle
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Neal Stephenson (introduction), Kevin Pariseau, Simon Prebble
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In which Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and courageous Puritan, pursues knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe -- in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight.
-
-
Be aware of what you're getting into
- By David on 12-16-11
By: Neal Stephenson
-
Stranger in a Strange Land
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stranger in a Strange Land is the epic saga of an earthling, Valentine Michael Smith, born and educated on Mars, who arrives on our planet with “psi” powers—telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, telekinesis, teleportation, pyrolysis, and the ability to take control of the minds of others—and complete innocence regarding the mores of man. After his tutelage under a surrogate father figure, Valentine begins his transformation into a kind of messiah.
-
-
We live in the world this book made
- By W. Seligman on 02-26-04
-
Anathem
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Tavia Gilbert, William Dufris, and others
- Length: 32 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fraa Erasmus is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the "Saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities, and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs, bloody violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community.
-
-
I love Neal, but Good lord... ugh!
- By SpiderGrrl on 10-08-19
By: Neal Stephenson
-
Ender's Game
- Special 20th Anniversary Edition
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, Gabrielle de Cuir
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: It’s easy to say that when it comes to sci-fi you either love it or you hate it. But with Ender’s Game, it seems to be you either love it or you love it.... The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Enter Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, the result of decades of genetic experimentation.
-
-
6 titles in the series so far
- By Kapila Wimalaratne on 01-29-03
By: Orson Scott Card
-
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister, Ray Porter, Jonathan Davis
- Length: 51 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From early work like "Rescue Party" and "The Lion of Comarre", through classic stories including "The Star", "Earthlight", "The Nine Billion Names of God", and "The Sentinel" (kernel of the later novel and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey), all the way to later work like "A Meeting with Medusa" and "The Hammer of God", this comprehensive short story collection encapsulates one of the great science fiction careers of all time.
-
-
List of stories from
- By KW Charlie on 09-15-16
By: Arthur C. Clarke
Interview: Ken Liu on the performance of translation
Publisher's summary
Soon to be a Netflix Original series!
“War of the Worlds for the 21st century.” (Wall Street Journal)
The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking listeners to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.
Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.
The Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy:
The Three-Body Problem
The Dark Forest
Death's End
Other books:
Ball Lightning Supernova Era
To Hold Up The Sky (forthcoming)
Featured Article: Best Book Trilogies to Listen to Right Now
Here's why good things come in threes! Everyone knows the famous expression "Three's a crowd!"—but that sentiment doesn't ring true when it comes to books. But what are the best trilogies of all time? With thousands of amazing trilogies out there, it's hard to narrow it down. We’ve compiled some book trilogies that represent the best of the best—and don’t worry about spoilers; we’ve only described the first book of the series in each entry.
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
The Enceladus Mission
- Ice Moon 1
- By: Brandon Q. Morris
- Narrated by: Doug Tisdale Jr.
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the year 2031, a robot probe detects traces of biological activity on Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons. This sensational discovery shows that there is indeed evidence of extraterrestrial life. Fifteen years later, a hurriedly built spacecraft sets out on the long journey to the ringed planet and its moon. The international crew is not just facing a difficult twenty-seven months: if the spacecraft manages to make it to Enceladus without incident it must use a drillship to penetrate the kilometer-thick sheet of ice that entombs the moon.
-
-
Robotic performance, potentially interesting story
- By Opa on 02-21-19
-
The Fountains of Paradise
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vannemar Morgan's dream is to link Earth to the stars with the greatest engineering feat of all time: a 24,000-mile-high space elevator. But first he must solve a million technical, political, and economic problems while allaying the wrath of God. For the only possible site on the planet for Morgans Orbital Tower is the monastery atop the Sacred Mountain of Sri Kanda.
-
-
Hard
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-30-11
By: Arthur C. Clarke
-
Tell Me What You See
- Remote Viewing Cases from the World’s Premier Psychic Spy
- By: Major Ed Dames, Joel Harry Newman
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Decorated army officer Major Ed Dames tells the shocking true story of his time asoperations and training officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency's top-secret Psychic Intelligence Unit. Together with his PSI Spyteam, Dames used the practice of remote viewing to uncover accurate and verifiable military intelligence by going where no intel operatives on the ground could go - into the very mind of the enemy.
-
-
Interesting, but...spend your credit elsewhere
- By Karen on 11-28-10
By: Major Ed Dames, and others
-
The Hercules Text
- By: Jack McDevitt
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a remote corner of the galaxy, a message is being sent. The continuous beats of a pulsar have become odd, irregular, and artificial. It can only be a code. Frantically, a research team struggles to decipher the alien communication. And what the scientists discover is destined to shake the foundations of empires around this world - from Wall Street to the Vatican.
-
-
Lots to recommend here!
- By Matthew on 10-19-18
By: Jack McDevitt
-
Legacy
- A Prequel to Eon
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this prequel to Eon, Greg Bear continues to explore the possibilities presented by the asteroid Thistledown, a remnant of a lost human civilization. The Way is a tunnel through space and time that leads to other worlds, some more like planet Earth than Earth itself. It is perhaps the most formidable discovery in Thistledown and with it come disputes as to the nature of the Way and how it should be used. The Way can be reached only through Axis City, the only space station of Thistledown.
-
-
Barely related to Eon and Eternity
- By David A. Kingston on 02-21-15
By: Greg Bear
-
The Star Diaries
- Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ijon Tichy, Lem's Candide of the Cosmos, encounters bizarre civilizations and creatures in space that serve to satirize science, the rational mind, theology, and other icons of human pride.
-
-
Gulliver in Space
- By Joe Kraus on 12-29-18
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
The Enceladus Mission
- Ice Moon 1
- By: Brandon Q. Morris
- Narrated by: Doug Tisdale Jr.
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the year 2031, a robot probe detects traces of biological activity on Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons. This sensational discovery shows that there is indeed evidence of extraterrestrial life. Fifteen years later, a hurriedly built spacecraft sets out on the long journey to the ringed planet and its moon. The international crew is not just facing a difficult twenty-seven months: if the spacecraft manages to make it to Enceladus without incident it must use a drillship to penetrate the kilometer-thick sheet of ice that entombs the moon.
-
-
Robotic performance, potentially interesting story
- By Opa on 02-21-19
-
The Fountains of Paradise
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vannemar Morgan's dream is to link Earth to the stars with the greatest engineering feat of all time: a 24,000-mile-high space elevator. But first he must solve a million technical, political, and economic problems while allaying the wrath of God. For the only possible site on the planet for Morgans Orbital Tower is the monastery atop the Sacred Mountain of Sri Kanda.
-
-
Hard
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-30-11
By: Arthur C. Clarke
-
Tell Me What You See
- Remote Viewing Cases from the World’s Premier Psychic Spy
- By: Major Ed Dames, Joel Harry Newman
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Decorated army officer Major Ed Dames tells the shocking true story of his time asoperations and training officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency's top-secret Psychic Intelligence Unit. Together with his PSI Spyteam, Dames used the practice of remote viewing to uncover accurate and verifiable military intelligence by going where no intel operatives on the ground could go - into the very mind of the enemy.
-
-
Interesting, but...spend your credit elsewhere
- By Karen on 11-28-10
By: Major Ed Dames, and others
-
The Hercules Text
- By: Jack McDevitt
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a remote corner of the galaxy, a message is being sent. The continuous beats of a pulsar have become odd, irregular, and artificial. It can only be a code. Frantically, a research team struggles to decipher the alien communication. And what the scientists discover is destined to shake the foundations of empires around this world - from Wall Street to the Vatican.
-
-
Lots to recommend here!
- By Matthew on 10-19-18
By: Jack McDevitt
-
Legacy
- A Prequel to Eon
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this prequel to Eon, Greg Bear continues to explore the possibilities presented by the asteroid Thistledown, a remnant of a lost human civilization. The Way is a tunnel through space and time that leads to other worlds, some more like planet Earth than Earth itself. It is perhaps the most formidable discovery in Thistledown and with it come disputes as to the nature of the Way and how it should be used. The Way can be reached only through Axis City, the only space station of Thistledown.
-
-
Barely related to Eon and Eternity
- By David A. Kingston on 02-21-15
By: Greg Bear
-
The Star Diaries
- Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ijon Tichy, Lem's Candide of the Cosmos, encounters bizarre civilizations and creatures in space that serve to satirize science, the rational mind, theology, and other icons of human pride.
-
-
Gulliver in Space
- By Joe Kraus on 12-29-18
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
The Medusa Chronicles
- By: Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Howard Falcon almost lost his life in an accident as the first human astronaut to explore the atmosphere of Jupiter - and a combination of human ingenuity and technical expertise brought him back. But he is no longer himself. Instead he has been changed into an augmented human: part man, part machine, and exceptionally capable.
-
-
Almost stopped listening. Glad I didn't.
- By cek on 08-21-16
By: Stephen Baxter, and others
-
Seeing in the Dark
- How Backyard Stargazers Are Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril
- By: Timothy Ferris
- Narrated by: Timothy Ferris
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anyone can get started in astronomy, just by going outside on a dark night with a star chart and learning their way around. Timothy Ferris tells us what's been seen out there - the Ring nebula, the Silver Coin galaxy, the Virgo supercluster, and how to find them.
-
-
About astronomy as well as astronomers
- By Gary on 04-09-03
By: Timothy Ferris
-
The Skylark of Space
- Skylark Series #1
- By: E. E. "Doc" Smith
- Narrated by: Reed McColm
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brilliant government scientist Richard Seaton discovers a remarkable faster-than-light fuel that will power his interstellar spaceship, The Skylark. His ruthless rival, Marc DuQuesne, and the sinister World Steel Corporation will do anything to get their hands on the fuel. They kidnap Seaton's fiancée and friends, unleashing a furious pursuit and igniting a burning desire for revenge that will propel The Skylark across the galaxy and back.
-
-
Space Operas - Good Story telling!
- By Madge on 01-27-10
-
Seveneves
- A Novel
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal, Will Damron
- Length: 31 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.
-
-
Odd narrator choice
- By Josh Mitchell on 05-30-15
By: Neal Stephenson
-
2001
- A Space Odyssey
- By: Arthur C. Clarke
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It has been 40 years since the publication of this classic science-fiction novel that changed the way we look at the stars and ourselves. From the savannas of Africa at the dawn of mankind to the rings of Saturn as man adventures to the outer rim of our solar system, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a journey unlike any other.
-
-
The Movie Makes More Sense Now
- By Douglas on 12-10-08
By: Arthur C. Clarke
-
The Age of Entanglement
- When Quantum Physics was Reborn
- By: Louisa Gilder
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A brilliantly original and richly illuminating exploration of entanglement, the seemingly telepathic communication between two separated particles - one of the fundamental concepts of quantum physics.
-
-
Quite nice
- By Michael on 02-14-10
By: Louisa Gilder
-
Immortality
- By: Kevin Bohacz
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 26 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Without warning, something has gone terribly awry. In the remote and unnoticed places of the world, small pockets of death begin occurring. As the initially isolated extinctions spread, the world's eyes focus on this unimaginable horror and chaos. Out of the ecological imbalance, something new and extraordinary is evolving and surviving to fill the voids left by these extinctions. Evolution is operating in ways no one could have expected, and environmental damage may be the catalyst.
-
-
Good End of World Thriller
- By John S on 11-04-14
By: Kevin Bohacz
-
The Ascension Mysteries
- Revealing the Cosmic Battle Between Good and Evil
- By: David Wilcock
- Narrated by: David Wilcock
- Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Wilcock's previous New York Times best sellers, The Source Field Investigations and The Synchronicity Key, used cutting-edge alternative science to reveal oft-hidden truths about our universe. In The Ascension Mysteries, David takes us on a gripping personal journey that describes the secret cosmic battle between positive and negative happening every day, hidden in both the traumas of our own lives and the world's headlines.
-
-
mentally agonizing, embarrassing, awkward, tedious
- By Diana on 09-01-16
By: David Wilcock
-
The Atlantis Gene
- The Origin Mystery, Book 1
- By: A.G. Riddle
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seventy thousand years ago, the human race almost went extinct. We survived, but no one knows how.
Until now. The countdown to the next stage of human evolution is about to begin, and humanity might not survive this time. The Immari are good at keeping secrets. For 2,000 years, they've hidden the truth about human evolution. They've also searched for an ancient enemy - a threat that could wipe out the human race. Now the search is over.
-
-
Pretty bad, but not the worst I've ever read
- By january on 03-20-14
By: A.G. Riddle
-
Dragon's Egg
- Cheela, Book 1
- By: Robert L. Forward
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a moving story of sacrifice and triumph, human scientists establish a relationship with intelligent lifeforms - the cheela-living on Dragon's Egg, a neutron star where one Earth hour is equivalent to hundreds of their years. The cheela culturally evolve from savagery to the discovery of science, and for a brief time, men are their diligent teachers.
-
-
Classic Hard Science Fiction
- By Daniel Cascaddan on 01-12-18
-
The Engines of God
- By: Jack McDevitt
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Humans call them Monument-Makers. An unknown race, they left stunning alien statues scattered on distant planets throughout the galaxy, encoded with strange inscriptions that defy translation. Searching for clues about the Monument-Makers, teams of 23rd century linguists, historians, engineers and archaeologists have been excavating the enigmatic alien ruins on a number of planets, uncovering strange, massive false cities made of solid rock. But their time is running out.
-
-
Conceptually intriguing, but uneven writing style
- By Michael G Kurilla on 05-12-11
By: Jack McDevitt
-
Distress
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Adam Epstein
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Investigative reporter Andrew Worth turns down a documentary on a mysterious new mental illness - "Distress," or acute clinical anxiety syndrome, for another assignment. He's on his way to the artificial island of Stateless, where the world's top physicists are gathering to decide on a new TOE, or Theory of Everything, to replace Einstein's outmoded legacy.
-
-
A good book ruined by a poor (and strange) reading
- By David on 12-06-13
By: Greg Egan
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Ball Lightning
- By: Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen - translator
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of the mysterious natural phenomenon. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station. The more he learns, the more he comes to realize that ball lightning is just the tip of a new frontier in particle physics. Although Chen’s quest provides a purpose for his life, his reasons for chasing his elusive quarry come into conflict with soldiers and scientists who have motives of their own.
-
-
if you loved the three body problem . a must
- By Boaz on 10-19-18
By: Cixin Liu, and others
-
The Wandering Earth
- By: Cixin Liu
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin, Greg Chun
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These 11 stories, including five Chinese Galaxy Award winners, are a blazingly original ode to planet Earth, its pasts, and its futures. Liu's fiction takes the listener to the edge of the universe and the end of time, to meet stranger fates than we could have ever imagined. With a melancholic and keen understanding of human nature, Liu's stories show humanity's attempts to reason, navigate, and above all, survive in a desolate cosmos.
-
-
Extraordinary book!
- By Yuanting Tao on 10-30-21
By: Cixin Liu
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
-
A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
The Shrike Awaits. Enter The Time Tombs...
- By Michael on 10-13-12
By: Dan Simmons
-
To Hold Up the Sky
- By: Cixin Liu
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii, Catherine Cho, Emily Woo Zeller, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Cixin Liu, the New York Times best-selling author of The Three-Body Problem, To Hold Up the Sky is a breathtaking collection of imaginative science fiction.
-
-
Superlatives all around!
- By restless consumer on 02-15-21
By: Cixin Liu
-
Supernova Era
- By: Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen - translator
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eight light years away, a star has died, creating a supernova event that showers Earth in deadly levels of radiation. Within a year, everyone over the age of 13 will die. And so the countdown begins. Parents apprentice their children and try to pass on the knowledge needed to keep the world running. But when the world is theirs, the last generation may not want to continue the legacy left to them. And in shaping the future however they want, will the children usher in an era of bright beginnings or final mistakes?
-
-
A little torn by this one
- By Daniel G on 10-25-19
By: Cixin Liu, and others
-
Ball Lightning
- By: Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen - translator
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of the mysterious natural phenomenon. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station. The more he learns, the more he comes to realize that ball lightning is just the tip of a new frontier in particle physics. Although Chen’s quest provides a purpose for his life, his reasons for chasing his elusive quarry come into conflict with soldiers and scientists who have motives of their own.
-
-
if you loved the three body problem . a must
- By Boaz on 10-19-18
By: Cixin Liu, and others
-
The Wandering Earth
- By: Cixin Liu
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin, Greg Chun
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These 11 stories, including five Chinese Galaxy Award winners, are a blazingly original ode to planet Earth, its pasts, and its futures. Liu's fiction takes the listener to the edge of the universe and the end of time, to meet stranger fates than we could have ever imagined. With a melancholic and keen understanding of human nature, Liu's stories show humanity's attempts to reason, navigate, and above all, survive in a desolate cosmos.
-
-
Extraordinary book!
- By Yuanting Tao on 10-30-21
By: Cixin Liu
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
-
A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
-
Hyperion
- By: Dan Simmons
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Allyson Johnson, Kevin Pariseau, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the world called Hyperion, beyond the law of the Hegemony of Man, there waits the creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.
-
-
The Shrike Awaits. Enter The Time Tombs...
- By Michael on 10-13-12
By: Dan Simmons
-
To Hold Up the Sky
- By: Cixin Liu
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii, Catherine Cho, Emily Woo Zeller, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Cixin Liu, the New York Times best-selling author of The Three-Body Problem, To Hold Up the Sky is a breathtaking collection of imaginative science fiction.
-
-
Superlatives all around!
- By restless consumer on 02-15-21
By: Cixin Liu
-
Supernova Era
- By: Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen - translator
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eight light years away, a star has died, creating a supernova event that showers Earth in deadly levels of radiation. Within a year, everyone over the age of 13 will die. And so the countdown begins. Parents apprentice their children and try to pass on the knowledge needed to keep the world running. But when the world is theirs, the last generation may not want to continue the legacy left to them. And in shaping the future however they want, will the children usher in an era of bright beginnings or final mistakes?
-
-
A little torn by this one
- By Daniel G on 10-25-19
By: Cixin Liu, and others
-
Mickey7
- A Novel
- By: Edward Ashton
- Narrated by: John Pirhalla, Katharine Chin
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mickey7 is an Expendable: a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Whenever there’s a mission that’s too dangerous—even suicidal—the crew turns to Mickey. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. After six deaths, Mickey7 understands the terms of his deal…and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it.
-
-
Just when it was getting good…
- By The Carolina Dude on 05-27-22
By: Edward Ashton
-
The Cretaceous Past
- By: Cixin Liu
- Narrated by: BJ Harrison
- Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a Tyrannosaurus rex suffers pain from meat trapped between its enormous teeth, a nearby colony of ants risks entering the great creature's maw to make their own repast from the remains of the dinosaur's most recent meal. From this humble beginning, over the course of millennia, a symbiotic civilization achieves amazing advances, facing dangers and exploiting opportunities at every turn.
-
-
Maddeningly Accessible
- By Makelessnoise on 01-07-22
By: Cixin Liu
-
Project Hail Mary
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
-
-
Bazinga
- By Davidgonzalezsr on 05-04-21
By: Andy Weir
-
We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
- Bobiverse, Book 1
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's a reason We Are Legion was named Audible's Best Science Fiction Book of 2016: Its irresistibly irreverent wit! Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: Spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself.
-
-
Ignore the Publisher's Summary! This is Amazing!
- By PW on 04-12-17
By: Dennis E. Taylor
-
Dark Matter
- A Novel
- By: Blake Crouch
- Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Are you happy with your life?” Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the kidnapper knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man he’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.” In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife.
-
-
Another Book Where the Ratings Lie
- By Matthew on 08-05-16
By: Blake Crouch
-
All Systems Red
- By: Martha Wells
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All Systems Red is the tense first science fiction adventure novella in Martha Wells' series The Murderbot Diaries. For fans of Westworld, Ex Machina, Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch series, or Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. The main character is a deadly security droid that has bucked its restrictive programming and is balanced between contemplative self-discovery and an idle instinct to kill all humans.
-
-
I just wish all four stories were one book...
- By Garrett Stone on 11-05-18
By: Martha Wells
-
Artemis
- By: Andy Weir
- Narrated by: Rosario Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.
-
-
A ferrari with no motor
- By will on 11-18-17
By: Andy Weir
-
Snow Crash
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Neal Stephenson is a blazing new force on the sci-fi scene. With the groundbreaking cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, he has "vaulted onto the literary stage." It weaves virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility - in short, it is the gigathriller of the information age.
-
-
A solid sci-fi novel
- By Brent on 02-05-03
By: Neal Stephenson
-
Seveneves
- A Novel
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal, Will Damron
- Length: 31 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.
-
-
Odd narrator choice
- By Josh Mitchell on 05-30-15
By: Neal Stephenson
-
A Memory Called Empire
- Teixcalaan, Book 1
- By: Arkady Martine
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident - or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion.
-
-
Story is great, weird editing, not great narration
- By Nadia on 06-10-19
By: Arkady Martine
-
Dune
- By: Frank Herbert
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Orlagh Cassidy, Euan Morton, and others
- Length: 21 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.
-
-
This classic deserves better
- By Matthew Salvo on 07-01-21
By: Frank Herbert
-
Spin
- By: Robert Charles Wilson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One night when he was 10, Tyler stood in his backyard and watched the stars go out. They flared into brilliance, then disappeared, replaced by an empty black barrier. He and his best friends, Jason and Diane Lawton, had seen what became known as the Big Blackout. It would shape their lives.
-
-
Great Listen!
- By pems-integ-tests on 03-28-08
What listeners say about The Three-Body Problem
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Josh P
- 12-07-14
They create a computer using a 30 million man Army
Any additional comments?
It's very difficult to describe this book. It's reminds me of the book "Spin" by Robert Wilson. It takes many strange science related events and use many characters smaller stories to relate these events, which in the end add up to something big and sinister going on. This book was apparently translated from Mandarin to English. I am 1/2 chinese, growing up up in America but my family spoke Hakka do I can't really say how well the translation is done. I will say that if I wasn't told it was translated, I would have assumed it was originally written in English by someone with a Mandarin background.
While reading, I had to do a lot of searching on Wikipedia as large portions of the story occurs during the 1960 - 1980's. I personally did not know much about the cultural revolution, youth red guard, or the period known as the Great Leap Forward, and other things that occurred in China during that time but this book made me want to find out. I don't think you have too do a lot of research to enjoy the story, for example if you don't know what a "Struggle Session" is (I didnt), the story gives you enough information to infer what it is. Though if you do a little research I personally think you will enjoy it a lot more.
The other portion of the book takes place in a modern to slightly futuristic setting. Say a state that the world could theoretically reach in the next 10 years. During this period, strange this are happening in the areas of science both in academia and industrial application. These strange things almost seem to have a supernatural force causing/guiding them from the background. To unravel the mystery a bunch of smaller stories of these strange occurrence are told from multiple characters and eventually they are slowly linked up to help you get a larger understanding.
I wish I could describe it better but like I said the closest book I've read to this type of story telling is "Spin" by Robert Wilson. The book is a little slow so I'd suggest trying to get a least 2 hours in before you decide whether you like it or not.
Luke Daniels does a great job narrating. I actually liked the fact that he didn't use a lot of Chinese accents when reading. As the bulk of the characters are Chinese and they are supposed to be speaking Mandarin, Mr. Daniels just chooses to to different voices with no accents. Rough throaty voice voice for the hard boiled detective, soft we'll spoken voice for the academic professor, nonchalant blasé voice for the lazy uncaring stay at home husband. It works well.
Two personal things I really enjoyed about this book is if you were heavy into math or science in college, this will probably trigger some memories. I learned both assembly and machine code in college and as I stated in the reviews title, there is a scene where they create a human computer using a 30 million man Chinese army holding flags to represent or/x-or, and/n-and gates. I pretty much died laughing during that scene. Wish my college professor would have made us do that when I took the class. Would've made understanding logic gates and transistors so much easier. Also this is the first book I think I've read where China, the U.S., and U.K. are all on the same side working together. While the book does show the differences in ideological views between the east and west and doesn't try to hide past and modern animosity, it does portray a situation where the governments recognize their differences and are able to work past them due to a larger issue being at stake. It was really nice to not have the stereotype of the eastern block as being the enemies. It was pretty cool for the author to imagine what could be done if east and west were able to work together as allies and equals.
Apparently this book is the first of a trilogy and I believe while all 3 books are complete only the 1st book has been translated to English. I believe the 2nd book is being translated now for written release but no word yet on a audio release. If you enjoy the book like I did please send audible a content request for the remainder of the series.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
474 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tango
- 03-17-15
Not in love, but definitely intrigued
No science fiction works without a great plot/concept driving it and The Three-Body Problem has zero problem on that score - an experiment, done out of a kind of desperation, actually results in first contact with an interstellar alien community and sets up a pending crisis. But even a great concept still needs good characters, setting, and fluid writing to make for a great sci-fi read.
I didn't have much trouble with setting. This first book of a trilogy draws on the Chinese Cultural Revolution, past and current geopolitics, and current and theoretical quantum physics to set the stage for the saga - interesting, with plenty of potential to sustain the trilogy. My only quibble with the setting used was with the sequences that take place within an on-line game. It is in the game that characters attempt to resolve the Three Body Problem and I found those segments of the book to be rather dull and confusing. No doubt some of the information in those sections will come into play in later books, but they read like bad dream sequences where you don't have any context to make sense of what is going on. And, there is no plot or character development happening during those passages so I just wasn't engaged during those sections.
The flow of the writing feels a bit choppy, but I would chalk that up to the fact that this is a translation. The translation seems pretty good in that the meaning is clear, but English and Chinese are such very different languages there is bound to be some loss of fluidity. Ultimately, my biggest difficulty with The Three-Body Problem is the characters. The book starts with Ye Wenjie during the Cultural Revolution and she is a very interesting character throughout the book and the only character that is ever really fleshed out. Much of the book is from the POV of Wang Miao, a character that gets little back story and is hard to connect with, and none of the other characters is more than sketched. The Aliens may have some potential in the sequels, but ruthlessness is about the only characteristic they show in this first book.
Luke Daniels does his normal phenomenal job of creating great character voices which is a huge help with a book with unfamiliar names and he adds much to making this a good listen.
Bottom line, The Three-Body Problem is challenging, but intriguing and I will listen to the sequels when Audible has them available.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
122 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jeff Koeppen
- 06-06-20
Harder Science Fiction Than I Could Handle
I'm a fan of hard science fiction. I knew only of the basic concept of the novel, which sounded interesting, and saw that it was narrated by Luke Daniels who always does a great job. This was translated from Chinese by well-known science fiction author Ken Liu and won the 2015 Hugo Award. I had high hopes going in.
I thought the book started out strong. The novel's beginning is set back in the Chinese Cultural Revolution and is fittingly dark and full of some neat Cold War era science. As the book progresses, the science becomes increasingly more complex and hard to follow, and caused me to tune out for long stretches at a time as my brain numbed. It was incomprehensible to the point where I just didn't care anymore.
There is a video game which plays a major role in the plot which also lost me. Called "Three Body" it was a kind of virtual reality game in which scientists try to solve problems for a world with three suns. I found the video game play to be annoying as it made no sense to me and was too long.
Towards the end, the plot finally began to appeal to me and hold my interest, and the finale had me considering reading the next book in the trilogy. But since I found most of the book to be confusing and/or uninteresting I'll probably pass. I don't want to take another chance. I really wanted to like this but I'm in the very small minority of those who did not.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
105 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tom Dullemond
- 11-23-15
Not for people who expect a book to contain a story
3 Body Problem isn't terrible, but it's only the introduction to a trilogy. It cannot stand on its own in any way, which made me feel angry and cheated as a reader. The entire book is really only a reveal. Like an origin story without a subplot. By the end of the book the baseline for the rest of the series has been established, that's all.
I don't find that acceptable as a reader, sorry. The rest of it is passable, and I will read the next two so that I actually get any resolution, as there is none to be found in this book. So I guess everyone wins right? The reader reads more books and the writer gets to sell more books, or something.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
97 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- A reader
- 04-20-15
Intriguing novel of ideas, at the expense of story
This book reminds me very much of classic "Golden Age" science fiction (Asimov, Clarke, Poul), with some interesting historical twists. Like many Golden Age books it is primarily a novel of ideas, some of which are very technical and others purely philosophic. And, it may be partially due to the translation, but it also feels like it was written by an author who was a scientist first and a writer second. - character interactions, romance, and emotion all take a back seat to the ideas in the book.
And the ideas are really interesting! The setting of the Cultural Revolution is fascinating and horrifying in itself, but it also informs the way in which the book grapples with common SF-tropes (SETI, the advancement of science, environmental degradation) in ways that make these topics feel strange and fresh. At the same time, however, while the structure of the novel (flashbacks, seemingly unusual switches in the focal characters, etc.) helps make the ideas more powerful, it creates a lot of additional alienation from the human side of the story, which was already a bit thin.
The result is a fascinating novel, but one which is not always immediately listenable and compelling. It has taken me a long time to work through this relatively short book, though I have never been particularly bored or regretful of the journey. It is completely worth a listen (or maybe a read? Perhaps some of the problems are less apparent in written form?), but it is not always propulsive. The reader is fine, but adds to the strange drifty quality of which of the work.
In the end, the book offers much of the best of speculative fiction (reflections on big ideas, amazing scenes, a sense of wonder), but has some of the key weaknesses. For me, it was a completely worthwhile trade-off, but you may think differently.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
87 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jim "The Impatient"
- 02-19-16
INTELLETUALS ALWAYS MAKE A FUSS ABOUT NOTHING
THE MORE BOOKS YOU READ THE MORE CONFUSED YOU BECOME
A little bit of Chinese Revolution History and how difficult it was to live in China at that time with a lot of Science Papers. No character development, no story, just science, read like you are listening to Not so Great Courses. If you prefer Scientific American over Discovery mag. than you might like this.
SHOULD PHILOSPHY GUIDE EXPERIMENTS OR EXPERIMENTS GUIDE PHILOSPHY?
I developed a love for Chinese History in High School because of one really great teacher. My love all things Chinese made me buy this. There are better history books and a lot better science fiction books.
QUANTUM PHYSICS
Luke Daniels does a fine job. Not sure he had anywhere to go with this.
PHYSICS HAS NEVER EXISTED AND WILL NEVER EXIST
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
84 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kent
- 08-26-15
Decent science, terrible storytelling.
I found the narration to be a little bit harsh - voices were flat, angular and forced. There were some enjoyable moments, and the narrator seemed to have a consistent grasp of individual characters.
The story, though. Ugh. This is a classic example of a story that "tells" rather than "shows." It seems quite clear to me that the author had a pretty good idea about a science fiction concept, but no clue how to wrap a story around it. The storytelling is somewhat interesting to me as a westerner, as it offers a glimpse into another culture, but other than that small redemptive value the story is bland, childish and shallow.
The vast majority of the story is told in a style of passive observation during which the narrator simply reads an outline of plot points. Boring. This seems like an unfinished sketch of a story that did *not* leave me wanting more.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
70 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- DarthVal
- 03-11-16
Hard science fiction
This is one of those science fiction stories for which the SCIENCE should be capitalized. It is definitely hard science fiction. In fact, the science can bog the story down at times, just a bit, but not enough to detract from what is an amazing story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
64 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- alicia garcia
- 05-06-18
Epic trilogy is one of my all time favorite SciFis
The scope of this series is incredible and makes you feel smaller in the universe with each book you read. Mindblowing sci fi concepts that are well researched. some reviewers say charecter development is 'flat' but the author makes up for it with great imagery and imagination. Great almost seemless translation into english and i like this narrorator better than the one for the 2nd and 3rd book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
53 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mr. Andre
- 11-02-18
Astonishingly bad, tremendously stupid
This book felt more like the work of an ambitious 8th grade creative writing class than an actual, celebrated and successful work of science fiction. The characters are entirely unengaging and flat with one exception, and he is cartoonishly one-dimensional.
The fundamental plot of the book is laughably stupid -- that scientists would start committing suicide when they get unpredicted results from their experiments. It gives the overall impression that the author simply went back and forth between their draft and wikipedia articles on particle physics and tried to force some exposition in along the way.
The dialogue is terrible, and like another reviewer said, a C- grade for show-don't-tell as the author regularly just delivers important aspects of the story development in a matter of fact sort of -also this happened-. On more than one occasion key information is literally delivered in block letters in a video game.
And speaking of the video game, it is the stupidest, most poorly conceived idea for an engaging game. The author tries an "emperor with no clothes" conceit by saying that only intellectuals and elites really got into the game... no, there is no game and the idea is stupid and resonates with several open-world, high-brow MMPORGs that failed miserably.
I could really keep going and going but I've already spent more time than I should on this. I picked up this book because it was on President Obama's reading list and he was effusive in his praise of the book. Now I wish I had never voted for the guy because anybody who would recommend this book [insert nasty comment here]. I only listened to the whole thing because I couldn't return it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
33 people found this helpful