Streaming Free: 'Three-Body Problem' Sci-Fi Novel Adaptation by Tencent Video (esquireme.com) 64
"One of the most beloved sci-fi novels of the 21st century finally has been adapted for television to huge acclaim," writes Esquire, "and it's out now." Their article includes embedded videos of Tencent Video's live-action adaptation of Three-Body Problem, which is streaming free on YouTube with English subtitles. "They're already getting great reviews online, with an 8.7 IMDb score for the adaptation that is being acclaimed for its faithfulness to the original bestselling novel."
Long-time Slashdot reader gordm writes: The YouTube playlist offers the first 4 episodes (of a 30 episode series) for free, although the videos include Chinese ads.... Be sure your YouTube subtitles are turned on.
I've only watched episode one and noted the most unpleasant reaction I had during my first-read of the book is front-loaded into episode one of the show... that is, it is suggested GMO and advanced technologies are a blight upon humanity. I kept reading, and I'm glad I did. But for any viewers put off by that moment, and not knowing what Three-Body Problem is about... that moment pays off later.
Esquire calls the original book "not only the most successful Chinese science fiction novel of the century so far, but likely the most successful and acclaimed science fiction series in the world since 2000, winning the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novel..."
Netflix says its own adaptation of Three-Body Problem will also be released before the end of 2023.
Long-time Slashdot reader gordm writes: The YouTube playlist offers the first 4 episodes (of a 30 episode series) for free, although the videos include Chinese ads.... Be sure your YouTube subtitles are turned on.
I've only watched episode one and noted the most unpleasant reaction I had during my first-read of the book is front-loaded into episode one of the show... that is, it is suggested GMO and advanced technologies are a blight upon humanity. I kept reading, and I'm glad I did. But for any viewers put off by that moment, and not knowing what Three-Body Problem is about... that moment pays off later.
Esquire calls the original book "not only the most successful Chinese science fiction novel of the century so far, but likely the most successful and acclaimed science fiction series in the world since 2000, winning the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for Best Novel..."
Netflix says its own adaptation of Three-Body Problem will also be released before the end of 2023.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
In a way it reminded me of "The Forever War"
No way. Haldemann is original, insightful and has reasonable characters. The Three-Body Problem ha noting of that.
Re: (Score:2)
I found the book entirely reasonable and timely. You have people who don't trust the government, factions within those, and worldwide secret organizations dedicated to keeping the status quo. You have scientists caught up in the middle, eco terrorists and nihilists.. There is even a rough around the edges detective working the case... Its got a lot in it for everyone. That the aliens use a game as a recruiting tool was well done as well. I enjoyed the fictitious planet of the aliens in 3body and thought tha
Re: (Score:1)
Granted I am only 3 episodes in, but I am very happy with the series so far. Episode 3 spends nearly the entire episode covering the countdown timer, so that gives me hope the important elements will be given the time they require/deserve.
Re: (Score:2)
The characters make sense as Chinese people. If you try to evaluate their behaviour using Western standards, they will seem strange an unreasonable to you.
Europeans get a less jarring version of it with American media sometimes. People just accept things that would be unacceptable here, act as if they are some kind of natural law instead of a decision they should be questioning.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I agree that American "stupid" is often different from European "stupid" and I can accept that Chinese "stupid" is something else again. It is still stupid in all three cases and if I want to read about stupid people, I can just read the news. (No, I do not watch TV. Even European TV is far over my pain-threshold for intellectual failure.)
Re: (Score:2)
Can you give us a specific example from the book?
Re: (Score:2)
I was referring to your characterization. Rational behavior is not culture-dependent. Irrational behavior is.
Creative Perhaps, but not at all Smart (Score:2)
I loved it, probably the smartest scifi I've read.
Really? Its science is complete garbage and the plot has gaping holes in it. It postulates a civilization that is incapable of predicting the orbits of the bodies in its own solar system and yet is capable of building a planet-sized computer the size of a proton (which is not at all how postulated extra-dimension theories work, but fine, it is fiction but hardly smart fiction). However, today we can predict the orbits of at least the suns of Alpha Centauri far more accurately than it seems they can despite
Re: (Score:2)
On the other hand, I remember large portions of the book reading like an HR geiger fever dream, and not particularly caring for those segments (on the alien planet) so I may have glossed over and missed something incredibly stupid along the way.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: Started reading it, then stopped (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
must be the prompt, and I quote
"The Three-Body Problem is a science fiction novel by Chinese author Liu Cixin. The story is set in the near future and follows a group of scientists as they attempt to understand and communicate with an alien civilization that is sending a signal to Earth. The novel explores themes of science, technology, and the fate of humanity. It is the first book in the "Remembrance of Earth's Past" trilogy. The book deals with the concept of the "Three-body problem" which is a concept f
Re: (Score:3)
I found it to be low-quality SF that explored derivative, old ideas in a poor manner with no good rationale (really, aliens can build folded-dimension spacecraft but can't numerically integrate orbital motions for a few thousand years?).
Re:Started reading it, then stopped (Score:4, Funny)
aliens can build folded-dimension spacecraft but can't numerically integrate orbital motions for a few thousand years?).
That's kind of the thing with chaotic systems. Doesn't matter how good your measurements and precision are, they are never goo enough because the defining thing about chaos is the exponential growth in divergence from a perturbation.
Re:Started reading it, then stopped (Score:5, Informative)
Alpha Centauri isn't chaotic. The author couldn't even bother to look up the real orbital dynamics of the star system he pretended to be writing about. Two stars orbit each other about every 70 years. The third completes an orbit around those two every half million years. It's completely regular. That's the "chaotic" "unpredictable" "three body problem" he named his book after.
Re: Started reading it, then stopped (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I remember that the distance was the same, but I don't recall it ever explicitly being referenced as Alpha Centauri. So I simply put it up to fiction and continued.
Re: (Score:2)
If those orbits happened in a perfect vacuum, there were no other objects in the universe, and the stars in question did not age, you might have a point.
Over interstellar timescales those orbits will be influenced in unpredictable ways, and even minute measurement errors will cause predictions to be off by ever increasing amounts.
Re: (Score:2)
You clearly haven't read the book. (That's good. Keep it that way.) It isn't talking about millions of years. It presents the motion as being chaotic on a timescale of days.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Doesn't matter how good your measurements and precision are, they are never goo enough
Yes, it is good enough. Your precision limits how far into the future your prediction is valid but frankly even 50 or 100 years would be more than enough so that you could construct solar shields etc. to prepare for whatever what going to happen. That's actually how you solve the 3-body problem: you can't solve it perfectly but you absolutely can make numerical predictions that are valid for years based on current observations.
Re: (Score:2)
Your precision limits how far into the future your prediction is valid but frankly even 50 or 100 years would be more than enough so that you could construct solar shields etc.
For an entire planet? Your reasoning sees to be "your fiction is inaccurate, so take my inaccurate fiction instead", which, sure, suspension of disbelief and all but it's not very insightful.
Re: (Score:2)
For an entire planet?
If you can put enough ships into space to move your population to another solar system you can certainly put solar shields in orbit around your planet. Some people have suggested putting up satellites to reflect some fraction of our solar radiation for Earth to combat global warming and that's with our current technology.
Your reasoning sees to be "your fiction is inaccurate, so take my inaccurate fiction instead"
No, my reasoning is that with our current level of space technology, we can feasibly put up satellites that would reflect some fraction of solar radiation so it is not believable that a r
Re: (Score:2)
aliens can build folded-dimension spacecraft but can't numerically integrate orbital motions for a few thousand years?).
That's kind of the thing with chaotic systems. Doesn't matter how good your measurements and precision are, they are never goo enough because the defining thing about chaos is the exponential growth in divergence from a perturbation.
But if you are talking about a few thousand years, the chaotic nature of orbital mechanics in a system like our solar system, this is not an issue. Maybe on the multi-million year time frame, but not thousands.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Your review was much too kind. It had the stupidest, worst written technobabble I've ever seen. If he'd just called it "magic" that would have been ok. Instead he pretended it was hard sci-fi, then explained everything with garbage pseudo-science that had nothing to do with real physics.
I read it seemed very overrated (Score:2)
Most of the science fiction ideas were retreads from old works, (think 1950s and 60s) and the overall plot wasn't particularly interesting.
I really have to wonder what all the hype is about.
Re: (Score:2)
I really do not get the hype. Apparently many people think this is good, but why? I mean even if you ignore that it is like 100% old stuff rehashed, it is still not good. It is basically mediocre or worse in every aspect. Maybe that is what you need today to be successful?
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. Same here. I got maybe to page 50. The problem with it is that it is utterly boring if you are a regular SF reader. There are just no new ideas in there. The "great" ideas in it were already present in SF 30 years or longer ago. And the writing and characters are not very engaging either. I have no idea why this gets hyped. It simply does not merit it.
Re: (Score:2)
"Believe me, Canada is crap. I went there once. Actually after 1/100 of the way it already felt crap, so I turned around."
It was a bumpy read but I think it was worthwhile, perhaps because of the bumps that provided some material for discussion and criticism.
Re: (Score:2)
Bullshit. After those 50 pages I looked at reviews because I was surprised at how bad it was. And they all said (good and bad ones) it continues pretty much one the same level. Only a Masochist would continue reading after that. Now, I am not into kink-shaming, but I am not a Masochist.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Trying ... and trying ... to finish it. All those Red Cloud Dawn Engineering Academy National District Campaign -like references just stops me cold in my tracks. Unfortunately, it's on every page, practically every paragraph. It's probably just a cultural thing. The West doesn't go in for those kinds of hyper-accurate names, we just use acronymns or made-up short names.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Always cracks me up on BBC shows, one would guess based on watching them that England is like 30% black and 20% Southeast Asian, then your face when you look up the actual demographics.
What are the actual demographics?
Re: Made in China? (Score:2)
82% of UK residents are white.
Re: (Score:2)
Is that some kind of feline Ron Jeremy?
Let's hope not. It won't remember anything [yahoo.com].
Like a trafficker: the first one... (Score:1)
Re: Like a trafficker: the first one... (Score:1)
I loved the series (Score:2)
I read all three books. The series can be dense at points, but certain scenes blew me away. And there are concepts in the second book that may have you question the wisdom of any outward signals of our civilization. The third book got a little out-there theoretically toward the end but it was a take on the far, far-future.
There was one space battle scene in the second book that was so cool I read it a few times. I enjoyed book two the most.
Re: (Score:2)
To me it's the Amber of SciFi - it isn't afraid to think large, then totally dwarf that in the 2nd book, and then go way beyond that in the 3rd. It doesn't introduce some bullshit to keep its story small, but pushes out constantly.
Could definitely make an awesome SciFi series (Score:2)
These days we want our serial TV stories to go on and on for 9 seasons or more, and this book is really tailor-made for that kind of treatment. The plot has a huge arc, there are back-stories galore, huge cast, big buildup to a spectacle, etc. Sure, I'd watch that.
Don't read the 4th book, is fan-fiction. (Score:2)
Took me a couple of false starts, but eventually.. (Score:4, Informative)
...the book grabbed me when I grokked that the underlying assumptions about how people act / react reflected Chinese culture rather than western culture. I don't know if the TV version has the same problem.
Once I figured out how to understand the characters, I ended up powering through the whole series in record time. In fact, the books got me fascinated with China - and subsequently banned from some sub-reddits because my "well, actually" replies upset the dominant anti-China group think.
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah as someone fairly well-versed in history including chinese history, knowing a lot of the culture, I found it troubling with all the recent anti-China group think being so prevalent. There's lots of valid criticisms about them, but a lot of what's being said were based on plain ignorance, bordering on xenophobia even. Although if I think about it, it's not entirely surprising, given the tribalism and polarization that's happening in politics these days, it's happening with tons of other groups as well.
T
I miss HK movies (Score:2)
Every Chinese movie from my childhood were in cantonese. Watched them with subtitles of course. I don't think I will ever get used to mandarin, for me this makes these movie unwatchable.
Re: (Score:2)
More video details... (Score:2)
It can be watched on https://wetv.vip/en/search?q=T... [wetv.vip], https://www.youtube.com/playli... [youtube.com], and https://www.viki.com/tv/39255c... [viki.com]. First five episodes are currently free (#5 went free today). However, the rest requires payments. They have subtitles like English. Also, the episodes are region blocked India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. :( It was quite good. :) Also, Happy Lunar/Chinese New Year (4721) with its water/h2o black (w/r)abbit/bunny!
#6 (Score:2)
Episode #6 is out now for free. It seems like the rest will be free daily.
Episodes are not daily. (Score:2)
From its YouTube descriptions:
"... ..."
âzFor Membership, Update Every Sun-Fri from January 15th
âzFor Non-Membership, Update Every Sun-Wed from January 15th