Liu Cixin Archives

3 Body Problem: That Einstein Joke is the Key to Everything
Warning: You should finish watching Netflix's adaptation of Liu Cixin's 3 Body Problem before reading this because it's ALL spoilers… for the night is dark and full of spoilers Seriously We jump right into spoilers from the start to after this; there's no turning back You've been warned… 3 Body Problem (L to R) Rosalind Chao[...]
3 Body Problem Books and Silent Spring Sell Out Thanks to Netflix
If you look up Amazon, every print edition of The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death's End by Liu Cixin is sold out This is the hardcovers, the paperbacks, the paperback boxset, the UK editions, the UK paperback boxset, and the UK omnibus editions The Chinese versions are available, though The paperback edition of[...]
3 Body Problem: Video Games Legend Hideo Kojima Praises Netflix Series
The Netflix adaptation of Liu Cixin's epic science fiction novel 3 Body Problem is now on Netflix, and reviews are mostly positive but mixed Turning the hard SciFi novel filled with Hard Science and sometimes obtuse storytelling can be tricky Some viewers are into it; others not so much Now video game designer and creator[...]
3 Body Problem is a Flawed but Surprisingly Emotional Adaptation
The Netflix adaptation of Liu Cixin's epic Science Fiction saga 3 Body Problem has finally premiered To say it was eagerly and nervously anticipated is an understatement For starters, the book is the Eastern equivalent of Dune, often considered impossible to adapt For another thing, China premiered its own TV adaptation a year ago with[...]
3 Body Problem: They’re Putting Silver Underwear on Their Heads
I know it's been a long, hard road to adapt Liu Cixin's epic trilogy of highly dense and difficult novels But, you know, it's kind of embarrassing that all that expensive work to bring 3 Body Problem will be defined by, well, upside-down silver underwear This could become a new drinking game Every time someone[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep10 Review: The Mystery of the Ye Women
Here's a Chinese New Year (or should it be Lunar New Year since other parts of Asia celebrate it too?) surprise: the original Chinese TV series adaptation of Liu Cixin's epic Science Fiction saga The Three-Body Problem is going to stream on Peacock on February 10th, a month ahead of the Netflix adaptation All thirty[...]
3 Body Problem: Netflix Finally Releases Trailer and Premiere date
Information on the Netflix adaptation of Liu Cixin's popular Science Fiction novel 3 Body Problem has been scarce with fans digging for every little tidbit they can grab, including breaking down every frame of the teaser trailer the streamer released back in summer Now Game of Thrones veteran Liam Cunningham has spoken about playing a[...]
3 Body Problem: Netflix Finally Releases Trailer and Premiere date
Netflix has finally released a trailer for their version of  Liu Cixin's epic Chinese Science Fiction saga 3 Body Problem, with the first season premiering in January 2024 The showrunners are David Benioff and D.B Weiss, as part of their overall deal with Netflix, and Alexander Woo 3 Body Problem stars Jess Hong, Benedict Wong, Eiza González,[...]
The Wandering Earth 2: WellGoUSA  Releases China SciFi Epic on VOD
Adapted from Liu Cixin's novella The Wandering Earth, China's first Science Fiction blockbuster franchise is set in the future where the Earth has been equipped with massive rocket engines to propel it out of the solar system to escape getting destroyed by the dying sun and find a new home in a distant galaxy where[...]
The Three-Body Problem: The TV Series Teases What's Next for Season 2
The television adaptation of Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem has ended its thirty-episode run, adapting the entire novel, barring the parts the censors insisted the producers cut out of the show However, studio Tencent announced that it would be getting not only a second season adapting the second book in the trilogy, The Dark Forest,[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep17 Review: Science Grandma’s Haunted House
Screenwriter Tian Liang Liang, along with director Yang Lei and the producers, are obviously fans of Liu Cixin's original novel and know it inside-out, enough to pick the story apart and put it back together again with additions and expansion to the story that make it better She found the emotional connections that made the[...]
Three-Body Problem Episode One is Slick but Conventional
The Chinese television adaptation of Liu Cixin's epic Chinese Science Fiction novel The Three-Body Problem has completed its thirty-episode run on both broadcast television and streaming In an act of possibly masochistic insanity, we reviewed all thirty episodes and became the only outlet in the West to do that Why did we do that? Because[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep 30 Review Part 2: The End of the Beginning
Wang Miao sees a photo of the female scientist who researched ball lightning that's an easter egg nodding at Liu Cixin's novel before The Three-Body Problem and Iqiyi's upcoming series adaptation That puts Ball Lightning in the same universe suggesting a Li Cixin universe. "The Three-Body Problem" still, Tencent Science Grandma Ye Wen Jie is sentenced to[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep 30 Finale Review Part One: We’re So Screwed
Liu Cixin's novel is a huge deal in China, heralding the country's entry into the annals of the global Science Fiction scene and a signpost of modern China The first book in a trilogy, it reinvents the alien invasion genre from scratch, starting as a murder mystery and investigation, a commentary on a chapter in[...]
Three-Body Problem Ep 29 Review: Slicing a Ship
As Wang Miao and Shi Qiang witness the beginning of the campaign to invade Earth, he glimpses that Ye Wen Jie has also logged into the game to see how wrong she was to reveal Earth's location by answering. Still from "The Three-Body Problem", Tencent Now we have the finale of The Three-Body Problem coming next as[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep 28 Review Part 2: The Cop Steals the Show
His desire to discover why Yang Dong died might come from this, though Shi Qiang ribs him for having a crush, which might be true – original author Liu Cixin never really explained why Wang Miao would want to investigate her death. "The Three-Body Problem" still, Tencent But the rest of this hour belongs to Shi Qiang[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep 28 Review Part 1: Answers to the Crime Drama
She's another victim of intergenerational trauma from the Cultural Revolution. "The Three-Body Problem" still, Tencent Liu Cixin's novel seemed to drop this reason for Yang Dong's suicide, sticking to the pulpy notion that physicists were committing suicide because they discovered that "Physics doesn't exist" when in real life, scientists would be more excited to test and research[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep 27 Review: Meet Mike Evans, Evil White Guy
"Evans" is really a Welsh name, but author Liu Cixin probably picked it because it sounded so white What's interesting is that Mike Evans is not a military man or an evil capitalist but a man who hates capitalism and blames it for the destruction of the environment and other species He is, in his[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep26 Review: Science Grandma’s Lack of Closure
It would have provided a more complete portrait of what drove Ye Wen Jie to do what she did. "The Three-Body Problem" still, Tencent The Real Heart of The Three-Body Problem The Three-Body Problem may be author Liu Cixin's rumination on the Fermi Paradox, alien invasion, and Hard Science Fiction, but at the story's centre is his[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep25 Review: A Nuke in the Face
But anyway, it's following the order of events in Liu Cixin's book faithfully, so that's how it's going to be. "The Three-Body Problem" still, Tencent First, we get to the end of last week's cliffhanger in Science Grandma Ye Wen Jie's origin story at the Red Coast base She received a transmission from an alien civilization imploring,[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep24 Review: Science Grandma’s Long Road
The adaptation of Liu Cixin's original book is mostly faithful but has minor but interesting changes Commissar Lei does not seem to be as much of a self-serving careerist as he is in the book, where he planned to claim sole credit for any of Ye's findings for himself Here he talks to Chief Engineer[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep23 Review: Science Grandma Goes, Bond Villain
It's remarkable that the show has filled the viewer with dread every time Chen Xue shows up, because that means she's going to murder someone with her bare hands. Chen Xue is the biggest change from Liu Cixin's original novel In The Three-Body Problem, the character was just a nameless fanatic who appears just once in[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep22 Review: Coffee is Bitter!
Episode twenty-two of The Three-Body Problem is almost all new material not in Liu Cixin's original novel It was created for the show by screenwriter Tian Liang Liang who, along with the producer and director, know the book inside-out and is one of the best episodes that make the story better It also features the[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep21 Review: Alien Invasion! Ask Me Anything!
Every scene with Mu Xing is new since she's not really in the book, and every scene of Wang Miao bonding with his daughter to remind him what the real stakes are is new, and all of them massively improve upon Liu Cixin's novel. Episode twenty-one of The Three-Body Problem opens with a twist: turns[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep19 Review: Cult Leaders and Math Whizzes
Author Liu Cixin seems to have a thing for the name "Mike" for his white characters It pops up again in The Wandering Earth 2. "The Three-Body Problem" still, Tencent The Time of the Math Weirdo Wang Miao and Shi Qiang get back to Beijing to find Shen Yu Fei's math genius husband, Wei Cheng, at headquarters asking[...]
The Wandering Earth 2: Chinese SciFi Blockbuster is a Flawed Epic
It's closer to Liu Cixin's original novella, covering the decades where the world discovers the sun will destroy the solar system in a hundred years and how the governments unite under a Chinese government proposal that over ten thousand giant rocket engines are built all over the Earth to push it out of the sun's[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep18 Review: Calling All Spacemen
And she's the most compelling character in the story, even in Liu Cixin's book. "The Three-Body Problem" still, Tencent We're back in the 1970s when Young Ye Wen Jie (Wang Zi Wen) gets transferred to work in the Monitoring Department It's Political Commissar Lei's idea, and Chief Engineer Wang Yei Ning is dead set against it, even[...]
The Three-Body Problem Ep17 Review: Science Grandma’s Haunted House
It has more action than Liu Cixin's book. "The Three-Body Problem" still, Tencent One More Clue for The Three-Body Problem The episode opens with Shi Qiang (Yu He Wei) badgering General Chang for the classified files on Ye Wen Jie, aka Science Grandma (Chen Jia), especially when he and Wang Miao are about to chase her and Shen[...]