When a scientist drops dead, the immediate questions are what’s the main reason, and what exactly were they studying. It’s the mystery that drives the popular 3 Body Problem novel by Liu Cixin, which spawned two separate live-action series. Unlike the Western Netflix version, Tencent’s Three-Body sticks close to the source material, devoting more than twice as much time to the events. It’s because of this that Three-Body gets to delve deeper into the novel’s themes over the visuals– it gets to delve deeper into the ways science and tech has been manipulated for certain interests and whether humanity is ready for newer tech when history has proven otherwise. If you’re totally new to the story, the shorter, star-studded Netflix adaptation might be more your jam, but readers who want a more in-depth and faithful adaptation would prefer Tencent’s Three-Body.
Nanotechnology researcher Wang Miao is taken to the Joint Operations Center by police officer Shi Qiang, who's investigating the mysterious suicide wave among scientists worldwide. He is recruited to sneak into an organization called the Frontiers of Science to help the investigation. When Wang Miao is contacted by the leader of the organization, Shen Yufei, she introduces him to a sophisticated VR video game called Three-Body, but soon he discovers that it's more than just a game.
Beijing, 2007. Just before the Olympics, nanomaterials expert Wang Miao is enlisted by detective Shi Qiang to investigate a series of suicides in the scientific community, leading them to discover the existence of The Frontiers of Science and an extraterrestrial world through a strange video game.
The way Three-Body explains the science behind the novel.
Yeah... Did not expect to contemplate the fragility of human science today...
