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Comment by edanm | Hacker News Reader

Happy to see some great books recommended there. Specifically, let me call out:

The Three Body problem. The Lathe of Heaven.

And while I haven't read Parable of the Sower yet, everything I've read of Octavia Butler has ranged from really good to some of my favorite books ever, so I'm sure it's a good one.

One anti-recommendation (kind of): I recently read Finite and Infinite Games, after many (many) recommendations for it, and didn't particularly like it. Obviously I'm in the minority on this, but I really wonder what other people saw in it.

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The three body problem:

I found this book fascinating how the cultural revolution was weaved in to the story. It really highlighted my ignorance of recent Chinese history, and many times found myself turning to Wikipedia to learn more of the specific events mentioned. The English translation also includes several lengthy footnotes and see-also's when historical characters or events are mentioned, as I'm sure many western readers are less familiar with the details of the events and historical characters.

Without giving away anything, I also found the Egyptian scene truly awesome.

I basically read the whole trilogy at one go. The first book in particular is a page-turner.

Three Body Problem trilogy is being turned into an Amazon Prime Video tentpole, with a reported $1 billion budget.

I’ve read the first book, I really enjoyed it.

Yeah I was super hyped when I saw that announcement. I am excited to see how they portray some of the things in the second and third books (you will know what I mean when you read them) that will require some truly special effects.

Completely agree with you about "Finite and Infinite Games".

Also read it recently and was disappointed. It's written in a style that I associate with continental philosophy. Obtuse language that can be difficult to follow.

That wouldn't be the end of the world if the underlying ideas were really brilliant, but I wasn't convinced.

I'm going to go against the grain here regarding The Three Body Problem, not because it's a bad book, but because it fails to live up to its billing in a subtle but disappointing way. The book is often touted as a "hard sci fi" masterpiece, and to me (and wikipedia and most definitions I've seen), "hard" means remaining faithful to the boundaries of plausible physics. T3BP almost entirely respects these limits, even while exploring daring and fascinating ideas, but (without spoiling anything) the author does make one very common concession. It's disappointing because he does so well otherwise that it feels very authentic and convincing. Then when the violation is revealed, it totally spoils the illusion and feels like such a let down.

Can you Rot13 what you're talking about? It's been a while but not sure what you're referring to.

I am guessing they are referring to the fbcubaf (ROT13).

I guess it doesn't spoil anything to say it was FTL. Sorry, but nothing can travel faster than light, not even information, and no, quantum entanglement doesn't help.

I have to say, I just didn't "get" The Three Body Problem. I got the impression I was reading an allegory I didn't have the cultural background to understand - so much of the surface plot seemed like it must have some important meaning but I couldn't decipher it. It was an odd experience, but maybe the translation of words wasn't enough in this case for me to get the content.

Agree on Finite and Infinite Games anti-recommendation. Like someone else stated the book is written in an unnecessarily obtuse style.

I loved Octavia Butler's Kindred. More than the science fiction, its cultural importance cannot be emphasized enough.

Agree! Great book.

Agree.

But question - when you say cultural importance, do you mean in terms of what it talks about? Or was the book itself important culturally? (I'm not sure how well-known the book itself was, I've always gotten the impression that Octavia Butler is a less-known SF author).

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