Someone recently strongly recommended I check out Hyperion. Apparently it's a series of books, but it's fine if you just read the first book. I'm short-listing it.
Oh, I also finished Excession several months ago. It was a bit of a slow burn, but well worth the effort.
Just finished reading the Three-Body Problem Trilogy. Figured I should add to this thread. I attempt to be largely spoiler-free here, but may be some minor spoilers, so proceed as you will.
The first book (Three-Body Problem) - This is kind of a weird one, it stumbles about trying to find itself, weaving together intrigue, mystery, and hard sci-fi between two timelines. Modern day (including a somewhat hand-wavy version of VR as projected from 2008 when this was originally written) where science is apparently broken, and a few decades prior during the cultural revolution in China. Honestly for me as an American somewhat distant from history class, it was the latter that held my attention. Reading about the revolution from a Chinese author in a fictional account is interesting. I read some other book by a Chinese author that was more of an autobiography (name escapes me), but fiction has a unique ability to say much more beyond its word. The modern day plot stumbled around, just barely managing a sense of intrigue and curiosity into where it was going. The book sorta goes off the rails at the end, to me feeling like it could've spent a bit longer in the oven & could have pulled the threads together better. Some of the characters, groups, and motivations are superficial and I struggled to take them seriously. Glad I read the book, but mostly so I could get to...
The second book (Dark Forest) - If you've ever heard this term (the idea that civilizations are abundant across the galaxy, but stay quiet to avoid being wiped out by each other) it was apparently coined by the title of this book, though the idea itself far predates it as an explanation to the Fermi paradox. That aside, this book represents a fairly substantial improvement over the prior in terms of character complexity, motivations, and ideas. Here we are taken into the future & cultural impacts are explored once knowledge of alien life is made public. Taking a page out of Asimov's Foundation, we jump ahead a few times, seeing culture through different crisis points and different modes in their response to the result of knowing aliens are on their way (but it'll be a while cuz space is biiig). The ideas around how culture changes, how hubris takes it off-path, and colliding with reality results in strong redirects is interesting. I think some of the ideas come off as a bit paternalistic, and there are a few ideas about the way human societies behave the author is a little heavy-handed with, but overall this was an enjoyable read. I've heard people say this was their favorite of the series and I can see why, though I don't ultimately feel the same. I did read the book mostly in a single sitting, but after reflection I do think the best was...
The third book (Death's End) - Overall I found this book to challenge me most as the reader. Not in being difficult from a prose perspective, just the ideas gave me the most to munch on. Whereas I flew through the second book, the third one took me almost a month to parse through, requiring multiple breaks to reflect on the ideas I'd just read. While being projected furthest out in the future, some aspects of society have actually returned to something more closely reflecting current day, with some key differences. There is a continued theme of hubris and blind spots, and this book takes on a bleaker, more tragic tone than the prior, though ultimately leaving you on an upward note that makes the difficult journey through the last several bits worth it. To avoid spoiling it I've left this mostly vague, but I'll say this is one that'll stick with me for a while. There was a chapter or two that I just skimmed, as it was fairly painful from a conceptual level. The author is not shy about his opinion that humans need to rely on each other, not expecting anyone to come in and save us (this is in the author bio of the first book, so not spoiling). If you go in ready for this, the series explores some interesting ideas, and isn't shy in punishing its characters to get across how the author feels in a way that you'll understand, regardless of whether you agree. This isn't comfy feel-good scifi, it's one that doesn't hold it's punches in presenting a stance on the universe and science and how these are interwoven with human values and decision making.
I recommend the series, don't take book one too seriously, if some aspect of it doesn't sit with you, it's alright to breeze over it. Second book can be consumed whenever, largely being a fun & fascinating read (still with some difficult stuff, the series never takes it too easy on the human race). Third book I recommend when you have the space of mind to digest some difficult but interesting concepts & endure a fair bit of emotional turbulence.
As far as the tv adaptations, I can't speak directly to the netflix version, have heard it drifts significantly from the books. The tencent one I watched, and in a lot of ways its mostly a direct conversion, which is kind of weird. Book are usually adapted to the screen, whereas this was just converted (with a few small differences). If you've read the book idk that the tv show adds much, the book is more conceptual than visual spectacle imo, though I think the actor who plays the cop does a good job bringing the character to life.
