The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

*some spoilers ahead*

If you, like me, had never heard of this book until Netflix aired the eponymous series, it's ok. Sometimes we watch the movie/tv show/whatever and then read the book, even though it feels weird. 

Three-Body Problem is a concept in classical mechanics that describes the motion of three masses that orbit each other in space. The problem is that there is no solution to always accurately describe their motion (thanks wikipedia). 

So now imagine there is a planet, called Trisolaris, with three suns. The positions of the suns are unpredicable and can result in times of stability or chaos, depending on how close each of the suns gets to the planet. In fact, multiple civilizations have evolved and died out on Trisolaris. Some exist for relatively short periods of time, some long enough to get to the stone age, or the industrial age, before a chaotic period begins and destroys all of civilization.

But this book is less about Trisolaris and its inhabitants and more about earth and its inhabitants. What if there was a group of people who knew about Trisolaris? What if they wanted to help the Trisolarins find a new planet to inhabit? Much like the political climate today, there are some who would say, "bring 'em here! I don't care if humanity is destroyed in the process!" and others who would try to solve the three-body problem so they could stay where they are.

But part of the problem is that someone has already invited them to earth. And even though the journey is 450 years out, the toothpaste is out of the tube, as they say. But 450 years is a lot of time for Earth's civilization to evolve and improve while the Trisolarins remain static in their journey. So the Trisolarins invent a unique solution to stall scientific progress on earth. And this is where the story begins, with the suicide of several notable scientists, and a task force created to understand why.

This book blends a lot of scientific principles in a fairly easy to read story. It also deals with issues related to China's cultural revolution, environmental preservation, and scientific progress. While it's not my favorite sci-fi book I've read this year, I'll be picking up the second part of this trilogy to see what happens next.

Children of Time by Adirian Tchaikosky

I read this book to get my brother to stop talking about alien *insert creepy animal here (I don't want to spoil it)*. Every time I'd see him, he would ask if I read Children of Time and then proceed to explain the premise as if he hadn't explained it to me the last time I saw him. After maybe the fourth or fifth time I decided to read the book to shut him up.

Look, I'm not a big sci-fi reader, but this one did actually sound interesting to me. It's about how Earth begins terraforming planets to prepare them as possible future homesteads for humans. Part of this plan involved developing a nanovirus to speed evolution in a selected species, allowing it to quickly evolve on one of these planets. This was a hail Mary in case the human species didn't survive.

Most of the book occurs thousands of years after these efforts, when humans only have faint memories of the "old empire" that carried out the terraforming and nanovirus projects. A spaceship of hundreds of cryogenically sleeping people has set out to find one of these planets and inhabit it, as Earth is increasingly becoming uninhabitable. After finding a potential planet, they are stopped from landing by what seems to be a keeper of the planet. It's unclear if they are communicating with a human, AI, or a combination of the two. But what is clear, is the entity will do everything in its power to protect the planet and its children.

A great aspect of this book is that we get the perspective of the inhabitants on the spaceship but also the inhabitants of the terraformed planet. While I was less interested in their day to day life and politics (which was still interesting), I was fascinated by their idea of religion, which involved the mysterious keeper of their race. The premise provided a great way to explore the idea of a species origins and the development of religion. While it seems plausible to understand how this civilization came to its beliefs, it really makes you wonder about your own.

This is the first of three books in the Children of Time series, which was awarded the Hugo award for best series in 2023. I liked this one so much, I'll pick up the next, Children of Ruin, which is about a different terraformed planet. I haven't heard anything more about the plot, which probably means my brother hasn't read it yet. I'll have to read it first and tell him all about it! 

The Women by Kristin Hannah

So there's good news and bad news. Good news is, I loved this book. Bad new is that I had my top five already written up before I finished The Women, and now I have to rewrite it. It's definitely worth the extra work though (although the book that got booted might disagree).

The Women is set during the Vietnam war and follows the path of Frankie McGrath, who comes from an affluent family that proudly celebrated military service. Following the path her brother took, in 1966, idealistic 20-year old Frankie impetuously enlists to serve as a combat nurse. Her experience is so minimal that the only branch that will take her is the Army. And it's with them that she spends two years in Vietnam, treating not only servicemen wounded from the war, but local Vietnamese as well. In addition to seeing the horrific wounds caused by guns, bombs, and napalm, Frankie experiences attacks on the hospital and the loss of loved ones.

I couldn't believe Frankie's time in service took up only about a third of the book. It was so packed with information and so fascinating that I just couldn't understand what more there could be that was as memorable. But Hannah delivers from the first page to the last, continuing Frankie's story until 1982. 

After her 2nd tour, Frankie returns home to people spitting on her and cursing her for her service. Her  family denies she was ever in Vietnam, having told their friends she was studying abroad. Even the VA turns Frankie away after she seeks help dealing with her nightmares and anxiety, telling her "women weren't in Vietnam." 

With her family's refusal to acknowledge the war, the military's lack of support, and her closest friends hundreds of miles away, Frankie doesn't know how to keep her life together. And being with her through it all is captivating. Sure, this book is about the Vietnam war, but it's more about trauma. Hannah manages to remove the stigma of a lot of things Frankie deals with, like drug abuse, PTSD, and psychosis. She walks us through the metamorphosis of a bright-eyed, naive young girl to a broken, lost woman. And it all makes sense and feels so deeply personal.  

While the story is primarily about Frankie, The Women is ultimately about all the women who served in Vietnam, like Frankie's best friends Barb and Ethel. Although they and other characters play a smaller role, Hannah gives all of them dimension. And while they are all far from perfect, they are perfectly written. 

This is not just a good story, it has historical significance with themes that are still relevant today. Hannah's dedication to her research and to the women she honors is fully realized in The Women and I couldn't recommend it more!

I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

 

This is an unusual take of the slasher genre that I found refreshing. Is that an appropriate word to use when talking about slashers? Probably not, but I'm not sure what would work better...it was gruesomely delightful. How's that?

I can't say it's the first of its kind - the story reminds me of Scream, or even, to a lesser extent, Cabin in the Woods, where there was a comical self-awareness of the genre embedded in the story. 

I was a Teenage Slasher is narrated by Tolly Driver, who was a teenager in a small town in Texas in 1989. He's looking back and telling us how he became a slasher whose killing spree ended up spawning the to be expected media storm but also a movie! If there's a trope involved in slasher stories, it will likely be in this book, but in a tongue and cheek way. And while Tolly isn't super knowledgeable about horror and slasher lore, his best friend, Amber, is. 

The event that preceeds Tolly's metamorphosis is a story in itself...a revenge massacre that is too out there to believe. And after that night, Tolly experiences strange symptoms that seem to give him superpowers, like night vision and super strength. But with these enhancements come a realization that they aren't to be used for good. Tolly and Amber try to understand what is going on and to prevent him from acting out, but nothing seems to stop his transformation. It's inevitable and there are rules that must be followed. But can he learn the rules and circumvent them somehow?

One comment about Tolly's narration, he speaks in a way that I found difficult to follow. His thoughts seemed disjointed and lacking in context. There were also a lot of characters who would say something and then say, "what" at the end, which I didn't really get. For example: "She break up with you already, what?" I don't know if that's a regional thing or not, but it seemed strange.

Or there would be a phrase or description I just didn't get, like this one: "We went all the way down to the gate then walked back along the fence to take the steps up like a citizen." Or there was this sentence, "Too, though?"

I think it's partially Tolly's way of speaking but there were a lot of these little things I'd come upon while reading that just made the book a little harder to get through. The story itself was okay, but more a vehicle to explore the premise, which is what I really enjoyed. It was overall a fun and clever read.   

One Puzzling Afternoon by Emily Crutchley

This book follows what I find to be a common formula: an (arguably) unreliable narrator, and two different timelines: one in the 50s and the other in the 2010s. So we get bits and pieces of a mystery about a missing girl in alternating chapters. 

Our narrator is 82-year-old Edie (or 15 years old in the 1950's time-line). As a child, Edie is an outcast. She's poor and has an unusual home-life, as her mother performs seances. Edie meets Lucy, the mayor's daughter, and they become friends. While Edie adores Lucy and finds her life glamorous in many ways, Edie knows Lucy's love-life is a mess. While the handsome, popular boy is enamored with Lucy, she only has eyes for a much older, married man.

As an 82 year-old woman, Edie struggles with the onset of dementia. Thinking she sees Lucy one day sets her on an obsessive search of her own mind to remember what happened the day Lucy disappeared.

What works for me in this book is how Crutchley portrays Edie's dementia...how we see things from her perspective. Edie might say something that seems nonsensical to anyone else who doesn't know what she's thinking about at the time. But it makes sense to us, because we are privy to her thoughts. But that's not to say Edie is simply misunderstood, she's still suffering from dementia. So she might think she's in the 1950s timeline when it's 2018. But knowing that makes her responses make sense. 

I also like Edie's mother, who we don't really know is a fraud or not. There are definite indications that she is, but also indications she isn't. Is she accidentally right some of the time? Or does she have the gift of third sight without knowing it or fully understanding it? In some ways, she's like 82 year-old Edie. Not always making sense in the moment, but time has a way of bringing things together. 

While it's a good book, it wasn't one I couldn't put down. And much like those with that formula, it's fun in the moment and an easy read, but not one of my year's best.