Slashdot Mirror
Amazon Plans Blockbuster TV Series Based On Chinese Sci-Fi Trilogy 'The Three-Body Problem' (medium.com)
hackingbear writes from a report: Amazon is reportedly likely to earmark $1 billion for a television series (Warning: source paywalled, alternative source) based on the ultra-popular Chinese science fiction trilogy The Three Body Problem. The American video subscription service will likely acquire the rights to the Yugo-winning, extremely popular trilogy of novels written by Liu Cixin and produce three seasons of episodes. The rights to the trilogy are currently owned by Lin Qi, the chairman of Youzu Interactive, a Chinese developer and publisher that typically focuses on online and mobile games.
Is Yugo the Chinese version of the Hugo award?
The Three Body Problem won a HUGO award: http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2015-hugo-awards/
Main protagonist characters are Chinese. The antagonists are not Chinese.
Just when you'd think everything on the small/big screen would suck forever. The announcement that they're making the Martian came as I still had vivid in my mind the book, so with this trilogy.
And this is really, really, really good for a series - and I mean for people with attention spans longer than 30 seconds. The book(s) just don't seem to end - in a very good way. I did have quite a few times the sensation that things are winding down and "this is it", nope - here comes more. And more. And more.
It sounds good and I will definitely watch it on my 55in streaming.
I don't read much sci-fi any more, but I like to think I at least know of the major authors. I've never heard of this person, or series,
Then you live under an SF rock. It was/is a major bestseller.
Or even that Chinese sci-fi was a thing.
There is about 2 times as many Chinese as Europeans and USians combined. They probably have a good dose of everything we know of ;-). This was one of the rare cases of a breakout into the West.
Anyone can comment on what they thought of it, or what the basic premise is, given TFS doesn't say anything about that? I presume it takes place beyond Earth, given the title.
I only read the first part ("The Three-Body-Problem"). It basically has three main strands of action - one set during the Chinese cultural revolution, one in the here and now, and the third describing an alien civilisation in what is hinted to be the Alpha Centauri system. Since this is a ternary star system, movement of the alien's planet is chaotic, and they have to deal with alternating periods of (hard to predict) stability and wildly fluctuating climate, destroying all or most of their civilisation over and over again. The aliens are communicating with Earth, and most of their story is told via parables in a video game.
It is an impressive read, and certainly different from much western SF - in a good, or at least interesting way.
Stephan
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
It is hard to describe what is about without giving out major spoilers. It starts with something about first contact, earth politics, cold war, early space exploration stuff, virtual reality and goes to more than "sky's the limit". The plot for each of the books is easy to find and skim through but I strongly recommend you just go and read the books, they are available in English from all the usual places, including in digital form (and even audiobooks).
If you liked any of Greg Bear, Heinlein/Clarke/Asimov, Peter Hamilton, Joe Haldeman, Hal Clement - just get the books and enjoy them without any spoilers. Highly recommended. There might be especially at the beginning and in the first book parts you don't care about - just hang in there. The pace is changing quite a few times and everything is well explained. And I was so sad when it was over (not to say the end was sad just that I dreaded that there isn't anything more coming).
Book 1 is just the warmup. The trilogy ends with the heat death of the universe.
It will be interesting to see if Amazon tries to change the setting to the west. The novel deals with events that are well known in China but which most people in Amazon's markets have never heard of. Plus, there is a reluctance among TV execs to have a Chinese lead with a cast of Chinese actors.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
The theme I liked best was the idea of aliens softening Earth up for attack by messing with terrestrial politics, crippling society with defeatist anti-scientific movements like the Maoist Cultural Revolution.
Plus, there is a reluctance among TV execs to have a Chinese lead with a cast of Chinese actors.
Well, there was Memoirs of a Geisha, a successful English language film with a Chinese lead and mostly Chinese cast ... in a movie about Japan.
And a parkway isn't where you park and a driveway isn't where you drive.
Whining about how people use language won''t make them use it the way you want them to. It just makes them dislike you and listen to you less.
At an auto garage:
-Hi, I'd like an exhaust for my Yugo.
(after several seconds of deep thought on the part of the mechanic)
-OK, sounds like a fair trade...
-How do you double the price of a Yugo?
-You fill it up with gas. (that's petrol in the UK)
-Why does the Yugo come with rear windshield heaters?
-To warm the hands of the people pushing it.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
I really tried to like this. There were some good ideas and plot points, but it felt stilted and clunky. I think the translation was to blame. I didn't like it enough to read the second one.
The cultural part is fascinating.
The science does not make a lick of sense. Weirdly cool in some places, but not science.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
If you liked any of Greg Bear, Heinlein/Clarke/Asimov, Peter Hamilton, Joe Haldeman, Hal Clement - just get the books and enjoy them without any spoilers..
With the caveat here that if you like Hal Clement for the science, don't expect to find that here. There is some gosh-wow superscience, perhaps reminiscent of Peter Hamilton, but only the superficial appearance of based-in-real-physics worked-out science that Hal Clement was famous for.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
The only thing I would remove is this : as opposed to "a "Literary" faction" and puppies I view both puppies : the left puppies and the right puppies both pushing an agenda of their own. Both have at time applauded literary work for reason other than pure literature, be it gender promotion or whatever. If you ignore both of them and judge work on their own literary merit, you are better off.
;-), and this is why I am still enjoying call of cthulhu in spite of lvoecraft ebing an obnoxious mysoginistic racist.
After having read the some of the controversial "book" the right puppies accused the left puppies of pushing, I could agree at least on some point, that some were obviously pushed for reason other than literature, I can remember one about transgender issue I found the writing so poor I could not see why this book was promoted for Hugo novel. But the same way hold the other way around the right puppies having so obnoxious agenda pushing that you gotta vomit.
In the end my recommendation is : ignore both puppies, ignore the gender or sexuality of an author, enjoy the story and writing. Only the story content should matter. Which is why I am still reading Orson scott card in spite of its view , I just refuse to pay money for it and loan it from library
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Book 1 is just the warmup. The trilogy ends with the heat death of the universe.
Jesus fucking Christ have you never heard of spoiler alerts?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
It is sci-fi for people who don't read sci-fi. It is about what I would expect out of a 50s sci-fi writer with a few bits of updated pseudo-science and quantum woo and some serious social axes to grind. If you do try it, the first book is actually reasonably good, but I would not recommend the second and the 3rd was a serious slog that I wanted to throw across the room multiple times.
Yeah, I would more describe it as science fantasy, there was a lot of mysticism involved. It reminded me of the stuff I read on conspiracy theory sites about how 'science actually works'.