this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2025
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[–] kionay@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I didn't read books 2 or 3 either, and just limped to the end of book 1, but they do make it quite clear that the things depicted in the game are meant to be strange but not totally alien to the players. that's why the leader was some ancient well know Chinese figure from folklore, despite that not being the actual name of the alien

figuring out binary logic wasn't with flags, it explained in the book that in reality they reflected light with their bodies, but that's super alien to humans so they used flags as an equivalent in the game

I agree though that the science and logic don't follow with their decision making regarding earth. you could argue that with this godlike AI why didn't they just go to the nearest uninhabited livable world instead of earth, and they kinda addressed it by explaining that the trisolarians (which is a way better name than the san-ti, Netflix) were scared of humanity so want to squash us before we can become another interstellar superpower

but I don't buy it. I'm watching through the netflix adaptation now and I'm already disappointed in it. better in some ways for sure, but also presents its own brand new problems.

it's a real shame, honestly, because the history of an alien civilization evolving on a planet in an unstable orbit of a three-body star system sounds really interesting, but the book cares less about world building than it does about political allegory 🤷

Thanks for your take on this! So much better than "you should watch it" or whatever. I'm going to give it a shot just so I can have an honest opinion.