The Three-Body Problem, Part One by Cai Jin, Ge Wendi, BO MU & Caojijiuridong

a graphic adaptation of Liu Cixin’s bestselling sci-fi novel of the same name, which I adored. This, tho… I very much did not love this.

A large part of the problem with this adaptation of The Three-Body Problem is the fact that it strips out much of Mr Liu’s writing save the dialog, which was never the strong point of the books to begin with. I’m not sure who did the translations for this into English, but it feels very workmanlike in comparison with Ken Liu’s thoughtful prose translation of the original. Shorn of much of its language, the weaknesses of the source text stand out far more starkly.

I desperately loved the original T3BP when I first read it because it’s very much a novel of ideas. The application of science to extraterrestrial life was mind bending. Perhaps I’m not recollecting how long it took for the original to get to that point, but I can safely say that this graphic adaptation gets to over 300 pages without a word of alien life even being suspected. In fact, this book basically seems to be about a bunch of scientists, cops and military personnel in China, running around having mysterious encounters and eventually playing video games. It’s a lot of pages to convey very little story, and not very well at that.

I truly appreciate the effort to make what can feel like a dense, science-heavy novel feel more accessible to different kinds of readers. The art is meant to appeal to those who already enjoy manhua, and definitely hits that mark (even if I rolled my eyes at the stereotypical depiction of all the women being nubile and doe-eyed.) But the graphic series is even more of a slow burn than the novel itself, and feels way more abrupt in its transitions. This volume collects the first fourteen illustrated chapters, and if I hadn’t already read the source material and been forced to read this for the Hugos this year, I would have abandoned this far sooner. It’s not fun, and not a word is said about aliens, which is just a truly baffling choice. Like, I kinda get why they skipped the depiction of the Cultural Revolution scenes that open the novel, but without them, this is just dudes wondering after enigmatic women, visions and video games. Boring.

That said, I know of at least two other graphic adaptations of T3BP publishing in the near future, so maybe one of those does better. And I have no idea where you would buy this particular version outside of China, not that I’d recommend it, tbh. Just read Ken Liu’s translation, if you’re gonna read this in English. I promise that that, at least, is worth your time.