Netflix’s adaptation of one of science fiction’s most mind-bending books is drawing in massive crowds, and sparking interest in the story 3 Body Problem is based on.
That novel shares a name — sporting slightly different stylization — with the Netflix series, and it’s brilliant story is unfolding on thousands of screens as people tune in to the enthralling world set down in the 2008 release. Its actually the first of several, all of which make up the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy. The first book in the series is broadly considered one of China’s most-successful releases of the last few decades, and its all thanks to the brilliant man who put the story to page.
The writer behind China’s most successful novel of the 21st century
In the western world, familiarity with The Three-Body Problem didn’t reach most people until Netflix’s adaptation released. With the debut of 3 Body Problem, however, the door was opened for people from all walks of life to step into the stunning and cerebral world created by Liu Cixin.
Cixin penned the first novel, initially serialized in Science Fiction World, in 2006, but it was later published as a standalone novel, releasing to shelves in 2008. The story’s complex approach, which relies on the three-body problem in orbital mechanics, was inspired by Cixin’s love for science fiction and his background as an engineer. He cites some of sci-fi’s best — George Orwell and Arthur C. Clarke — as his inspirations, and that love for the genre bleeds through every word of his captivating books.
