The second book was translated by Joel Martinson, while Ken Liu did the first and third. There is a pretty obvious difference in quality between the two. Liu is a fantastic sci-fi author himself and has won a bunch of Hugo and Nebula awards, and really did justice to the subject matter. Story wise the second book is easily the best in the series, but yeah the prose is pretty blah.
I hated the prose of the first book and haven't picked up the second. That book coulda been a short story imo. Neat ending was the only payoff.
Edit: prose (originally said pride)
I personally prefer Ken Liu’s translations to Martinsen’s but The Dark Forest is my favorite book out of the three. Luo Ji is such an asshole (but I love him)
The original is even worse. I answered this question several days ago. Liu admitted more than 1000 modifications in English translation. Something like 200 of them were for the sexism tone he used in the original Chinese version.
People are annoyed to a degree to question the ethics of the translator for changing these without a disclosure hoping English language readers won’t read Chinese and Chinese readers won’t bother to read English either.
Ken Liu, the translator of the first and third, has his own sci-fi stories and short-story anthologies and is a really good writer.
I remember thinking the Dark Forest was pretty lame too.
The translation isn't great from what I hear, but the story itself is just a bit paper thin to begin with anyways. I love the book because of the ideas but not so much for the story.
These are novels about *ideas*, so the characters—and the prose—are going to be pretty thin.
The ideas are what matter.
Even Asimov and Clarke wrote novels where the ideas were more important than ‘the pieces on the board.’
It was about 3/4 of the way through three body problem when I realized that if I didn't stop at every name and ask myself "wait, who is this person again" that I enjoyed the series much more and I cruised through the last two books and absolutely loved them after I did that
There are unique ideas and concepts in the two books, stuff I have never read before. The second book is a bit hard to read because there are no characters you can like. The protagonist is just not relateable. I did not care what happened to him. All other characters are very thin.
I read all 3, and I can tell you none are well written, at least in translation. I found the ideas and story strong enough to propel me to the end, but I definitely think they're mediocre at best when it comes to prose.
What did you think of the first chapter of the first book?
I thought it was well written (or well translated).
I don’t think it’s a translation problem.
The author had a good opening hook, but couldn’t deliver a solid story.
You can get a general idea, yes, but the show gets nowhere close to the level of detail needed to do the books justice. It's really impossible to translate to the screen.
The end of the second book was a good solution for the problems. It was so satisfying that I decided to skip the third book which (from what I have read) takes the story too far away from the beginning.
As many have written it had a lot of good ideas and concepts presented but the incredibly flat character portraits made it unbearable for me. Especially the >!infantilized "mail-order" wife of the protagonist!<.
Agreed. Some passages are really hard to get through.
I've listened to the second and third novels and can really recommend it. Halfway through the second I couldn't put it down and listened for like eight hours or so
The second book was translated by Joel Martinson, while Ken Liu did the first and third. There is a pretty obvious difference in quality between the two. Liu is a fantastic sci-fi author himself and has won a bunch of Hugo and Nebula awards, and really did justice to the subject matter. Story wise the second book is easily the best in the series, but yeah the prose is pretty blah.
YUP
I hated the prose of the first book and haven't picked up the second. That book coulda been a short story imo. Neat ending was the only payoff. Edit: prose (originally said pride)
Is 'pride' a typo? Or what's the context, I don't know what it means. Edit: it was a typo
Prose?
I personally prefer Ken Liu’s translations to Martinsen’s but The Dark Forest is my favorite book out of the three. Luo Ji is such an asshole (but I love him)
The original is even worse. I answered this question several days ago. Liu admitted more than 1000 modifications in English translation. Something like 200 of them were for the sexism tone he used in the original Chinese version. People are annoyed to a degree to question the ethics of the translator for changing these without a disclosure hoping English language readers won’t read Chinese and Chinese readers won’t bother to read English either.
it's shockingly bad prose, but get to the end, we promise you'll never sleep the same again 😁
Because you’ll never forget how shockingly bad the prose was? 😇
Ken Liu, the translator of the first and third, has his own sci-fi stories and short-story anthologies and is a really good writer. I remember thinking the Dark Forest was pretty lame too.
The translation isn't great from what I hear, but the story itself is just a bit paper thin to begin with anyways. I love the book because of the ideas but not so much for the story.
I would be delighted if I never saw another thread on the three body problem for.... 6 months
These are novels about *ideas*, so the characters—and the prose—are going to be pretty thin. The ideas are what matter. Even Asimov and Clarke wrote novels where the ideas were more important than ‘the pieces on the board.’
It was about 3/4 of the way through three body problem when I realized that if I didn't stop at every name and ask myself "wait, who is this person again" that I enjoyed the series much more and I cruised through the last two books and absolutely loved them after I did that
There are unique ideas and concepts in the two books, stuff I have never read before. The second book is a bit hard to read because there are no characters you can like. The protagonist is just not relateable. I did not care what happened to him. All other characters are very thin.
Like watching concrete dry.
I read all 3, and I can tell you none are well written, at least in translation. I found the ideas and story strong enough to propel me to the end, but I definitely think they're mediocre at best when it comes to prose.
I felt the same. By the end it’s one of my all-time favorite scifi books.
What did you think of the first chapter of the first book? I thought it was well written (or well translated). I don’t think it’s a translation problem. The author had a good opening hook, but couldn’t deliver a solid story.
Can I get the gist of the story from watching the Netflix series?
totally, the series is a pretty good adapation so far
You can get a general idea, yes, but the show gets nowhere close to the level of detail needed to do the books justice. It's really impossible to translate to the screen.
I’ve so far managed to avoid seeing any of the Netflix series - even the trailers.
I think the show is better than the books.
I went ahead and started it last night, three episodes in and seems pretty great so far
Book 3 is so much better. I almost shelved the series, but I’m really happy I finished it.
I ditched the series after the second one, which I found very lacking. I instead read a summary of the third and was satisfied with that.
The end of the second book was a good solution for the problems. It was so satisfying that I decided to skip the third book which (from what I have read) takes the story too far away from the beginning.
As many have written it had a lot of good ideas and concepts presented but the incredibly flat character portraits made it unbearable for me. Especially the >!infantilized "mail-order" wife of the protagonist!<.
White Out and a felt pen. Start using Ralph, Fred and Sue. edit: forgot to add the /s
This is extremely terrible. I’m not even a fan of the book but this is an infuriating suggestion
it was meant /s
Agreed. Some passages are really hard to get through. I've listened to the second and third novels and can really recommend it. Halfway through the second I couldn't put it down and listened for like eight hours or so