Like 3 years ago, it is conceptually a good book, fascinating actually but the writing style is so robotic and don’t get me wrong, but for me at least, it was at first a little disorienting to follow Chinese names.
I had to push through to finish it.
A month and a half ago I started reading again, something light, Murderbot diaries, follow it with Project Hail Mary, then All Tomorrows. The first one very short, fast paced, PHM not that short but very entertaining, it kept me glued to the page, the All Tomorrows, not my cup of tea but short and somewhat bizarre.
People kept telling me The Dark Forest was better than TBP, with my reading slump over, I decided to give it a try.
With the 3 first books I read every second I had free, I finished them in two weeks, started TDF almost a 3 weeks ago and I’m starting to feel like I felt with The Three Body Problem made feel before, a little bored and like I have to push through.
I don’t like books that I don’t feel compelled to read and feel more like a chore. Anyways, rant over.
You turned around and read Murderbot and Project Hail Mary, two of the best pieces of science fiction (including the whole Murderbot series in that) I’ve read in years. That’s a rough comparison for almost any book.
Maybe a little hard to compare TBP with those…
3 body problem. I thought was pants. Just finished ‘The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August’ By Clare North, bally brilliant !
Crazy, I have the exact same experience. TDF sitting on my side table for 3 weeks and don’t want to pick it up. I’m going to scrap it.
I have only refunded 2 book series ever, and TBP is one of them. Good idea, but the rest is nothing special, saddly. And I really tried to like those books.
TBP starts as a good story and becomes a sci-fi essay. From act 2 all the way to the end, that’s what it is. I would have dropped it if I hadn’t read it as part of a book club. Everyone else in the club felt the same way.
If you don’t like it, move on. Some books aren’t for everyone and that’s fine.
I found the only character I enjoyed was Da Shi, I struggled through TBP too, and haven’t bothered with TDF yet.
I knew I was interested in the concepts but would have trouble reading such mechanical writing do I listened on audiobook. It was much easier to consume this way.
I liked 3BP and was bored to death by the dark forest. I don’t plan on reading the third book.
Life is too short to be bored by your book - DNF and stick it on the shelf for another try down the road, no shame in that!
When I first picked up PHM, it didn’t really grab me and I couldn’t get past the main characters “Gee Golly!” talk. I picked it back up after a year or so and I’m so glad I did! I was in a better mindset, left my judgements behind and it was great - it started to make sense why he’d be the type of person who would talk that way.
Sometimes you’re just not in the right mindset, sometimes you are and sometimes the book actually is just really freaking boring lol
There must some disconnect somewhere because on Reddit it seems this book series is not well liked but on goodreads it’s praise is near universal. Personally I think the first book is difficult to get though and the second and third are amazing
I loved The Three Body series. The third book was definitely my favourite. It’s weird to read a book with almost no character development, but conceptually it was so interesting. I generally read character heavy books, so I thought it was almost a nice break. I do usually read 2-3 books at a time however, so maybe it helps to “take breaks” that way. It seems like you like sci-fi, I’d say push through to the end! The third book is wild.
I really kept on reading TBP because of the potential pay off. I started TDF for the same, people here kept recommending it and they all agreed on giving it a chance to get better around the third árt of the book. That´s why I started reading it even after the bore it was TBP, because the pay off and I think that is why people seem to love it, because they focus on the end result but don´t give a second thought about how did they get there.
All you can do is listen to your own response and if you feel bored or like it’s a push, pick up something else and see if it suits your mood/interests better.
I’m almost in the same boat. I read the first one and I got the second on audio book. The concept is fascinating but I can’t focus on this type of book with audio. I’ll have to wait til I get a physical or kindle copy.
I personally loved The Three Body Problem, it took a while to get through it but that was mostly because I didn’t have a lot of time to read. The Dark Forest wasn’t bad in my opinion but I didn’t like it as much as The Three Body Problem. I gave my best friend The Three Body Problem and she did not like it at all…
I find that books that I got bored reading were a lot more enjoyable on audiobook.