Author: Cixin Liu
Translator: Ken Liu
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates 2014
Ye Wenjie observed the killing of her father, a professor and a theoretical physicist, by unruly young red guard girls during the cultural revolution in China. She, herself, an astrophysicist was sent to Inner Mongolia to clear forests and 'to learn from workers and farmers'.
There was a secret Governmental facility near the village she was 'serving', and she was recruited to this facility due to her astrophysics background. Through hard work, she earned the trust of the authorities and was cleared to participate in the “sending” and “receiving” functions of the facility.
She managed to send a radio message vastly amplified by the sun acting as a mirror and an amplifier. A few years later, she received a reply to this message. It said “Do not reply” three times. She has grown quite disenchanted with humankind. Despite the warning, she might choose to ignore it and put the entire biosphere in danger by replying.
Soon into the book, before the author revealed it towards the end, I realized this 'three-body problem' he was writing about. It refers to the nearest star system to our sun, which is also a triple star system: namely, Alpha Centauri A (a slightly larger star than our sun), Alpha Centauri B (a bit smaller than our sun), and Proxima Centauri or Alpha Centauri C (a very small star compared to our sun—a red dwarf). Proxima Centauri b is an Earth-sized planet orbiting Proxima Centauri within its habitable zone.
I remember all the excitement about this exoplanet when it was found—Earth-sized and in the habitable zone, etc. It orbits Proxima Centauri in approximately 11 Earth days and is tidally-locked with its sun. This means one side always faces the sun, much like one side of the Moon always faces the Earth (the Moon is tidally-locked with Earth).
However, the excitement soon waned when people learned about the hazardous environment of the planet. Close-in planets orbiting low-mass stars are exposed to intense energetic photons, particle radiation, and harsh space weather.
Proxima Centauri b was discovered in 2016, decades after Liu Cixin wrote this book. In other words, Liu Cixin had imagined such a planet orbiting the three-star system before its discovery.
The translator Ken Liu has written the following in his postscript.
When I was asked to translate the Three-body problem, I was incredibly honored, but also full of trepidation: Translating another writer’s work is a heavy responsibility. It is almost like being asked to care for someone’s child.
I’ve also tried, whenever possible to avoid shading Western interpretations into those passages dealing with Chinese history and politics.
In translating, my goal is to act as a faithful interpreter, preserving much of the original’s nuances of meaning as possible without embellishment or omission. Yet a translator must also balance fidelity to the source, aptness of expression, and beauty of style.
I would say Liu Cixin is well-versed in both science and science fiction, standing on the shoulders of scientists and some renowned science fiction writers while crafting this marvelous story. The translator has added footnotes to explain certain aspects in the book, which proved very helpful. It was through these footnotes that I learned about Isaac Asimov’s 'The Billiard Ball' (Footnote 13 on page 70). Similarly, I discovered Alain Chenciner and Richard Montgomery’s 'A Remarkable periodic solution of the three-body problem in the case of equal masses,' published in Annals of Mathematics, 152 (2000), 881-901 (Footnote 30 on page 199).
However, on page 321, there was no footnote explaining 'Bill Mathers’s ‘contact as symbol’ theory,' and I found myself perplexed. After spending some time searching for this theory, I eventually discovered that it was a ruse crafted by the author.
(See Bill Mathers.)
I am confident that Liu Cixin must have read 'The Physics of Star Trek' by Lawrence Krauss when estimating that it would take 450 years to travel from Proxima Centauri b to Earth at ten percent of the speed of light (the distance between Proxima Centauri and the sun is about 4 light years). I am also certain he delved into Arthur C. Clarke’s 'The Fountain of Paradise' when contemplating space elevators.
This book is an excellent piece of science fiction, and I look forward to exploring the next installment in the series soon.
