Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Remembrance of Earth's Past / Three-Body / El recuerdo del pasado de la Tierra

I haven't read a lot of science fiction

I got started this summer with Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury

The online recommendations about Cixin Liu's trilogy came appearing

So I decided to give it a try, I thought probably I would read

at least the first book: The Three-Body Problem.

Which is based on the problem in physics of tracing the trajectory of three bodies interacting with one another

this problem doesn't have a closed form solution!

I am very lucky to be able to read in both Spanish and English

I read books in their original language (only for those languages of course!)

Being the original books written in Chinese

And catalogued as "hard science fiction"

A subgenre of sci-fi that focuses more on scientific details, math, physics

I thought it would be easier to understand these concepts in Spanish

I also did a combination of audiobook while following the paper back in Spanish at night.

The Spanish version is narrated spectacularly by Francesc Belda.

Yet, I couldn't resist to buy used books of the English translations

I've been having a great time comparing chapters in both languages, jumping from Spanish to English print editions to audio in Spanish

I have finished books 1 and 2, The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest

Both are highly recommended!

I don't know much about science fiction but I am in awe of the concepts, the visuals, and the stories that Cixin Liu have created

I have read that the characters are flat, and yes, this is not literary fiction (which is one of my favorite genres) yet, the narrative feels like a thriller, a space but also early 1960's Chinese thriller, full of mystery and archetypical passages

The imagery is mind-blowing and so the scientific concepts! 

But also the books are full of philosophical analysis of our species, moral concepts, sociology, including cosmic sociology (what a concept!) and more

The concept of the 'sophons' on The Three-Body Problem was mind-blowing and that was just the beginning

The concept behind The Dark Forest itself is "espeluznante" truly nightmarish

The imagery is superb too!

I could keep on writing about these books, but rather get started with

Death's End / El fin de la muerte, the last of the trilogy... and the longest.

Estuche con la trilogía Recuerdo del pasado de la Tierra y los libros en inglés The Three-body Problem and The Dark Forest


How it all got started: El Problema de los Tres Cuerpos

Capítulos en Español e Inglés

Excelente libro: The Dark Forest, El Bosque Oscuro, muy entretenido leer en inglés y español alternadamente

Following both translations, sometimes switching back in the same reading session, but mostly I read one of the other language, didn't repeat chapters in both languages.

Los 'infamous' Vallados, The Wallfacers, what a thing!