The Three-Body Problem cover
Science Fiction

The Three-Body Problem

Mood
Contemplative, Suspenseful
Protagonist
Ye Wenjie, an astrophysicist whose father is killed.
Parental Rating
PG-13
Pace
Medium

Themes & atmosphere

The reading map

Books in conversation with The Three-Body Problem

A few of the closest reads from our full list.

Common questions

What you might want to know about The Three-Body Problem

The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.

During the Cultural Revolution, young astrophysicist Ye Wenjie watches her father killed by Red Guards and is later sent to a remote radar base on a Mongolian mountain. Decades on, Beijing nanotech researcher Wang Miao is asked by police to play a strange virtual reality game called Three Body.

Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy has three books: The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End. The trilogy is complete. Several novella collections expand the world.

Yes. Netflix released 3 Body Problem in 2024, with Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss adapting. Tencent also released a 30-episode Chinese-language adaptation in 2023, widely considered more faithful to the novel.

The Three-Body Problem was written by Liu Cixin, published in 2008 by mukawa.

The Three-Body Problem is a standalone novel by Liu Cixin, not part of a series.

The Three-Body Problem is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.

Get AI picks