The Most Horrifying Science Fiction Series of All | The Three-Body Problem Series

Recently I had the pleasure of reading what is likely the most terrifying science fiction book series I’ve ever read. I’ve always enjoyed scary stories. As a kid, I read anthologies like goosebumps or Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. But I didn’t know true fear until I encountered the works of Stephen King, and H.P. Lovecraft in my teenage years. Lovecraft’s works opened up such terrifying vistas of thought that I would while reading them become transfixed and filled with ultimate existential dread. The cosmic terrors he wrote about in his stories struck me as somehow more real than the monsters and ghosts of goosebumps and that is probably because in truth Lovecraft, being the flawed man he was, was expressing a very simple fear, fear of the unknown. And what is more unknown than the blackness of space. I must admit that not since my early teenage years have I felt such poignant terror while reading as I did when first encountering the work of Lovecraft. That Is until I read the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy.

There are three books in this series, The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Deaths End, there is also an additional book not written by Cixin Liu himself, called Redemption of Time. The first books in the series The Three-Body Problems start off as a mystery. As the story unfolds it starts to feel as though we are reading the unfolding of some grand conspiracy, a conspiracy written into the fabric of the universe itself. Early on in the story, you find out that scientists around the world have been killing themselves. A note left behind by one of the late scientists, Yang Dong ominously added to the mysteries, saying only:

All the evidence points to a single conclusion: Physics has never existed, and will never exist. I know what I’m doing is irresponsible. But I have no choice.

We base so much of our own perception of what we consider to be a reality on what we can observe. We look upon the universe as it is and extrapolate from that point. But what if we will never be able to know the truth about the universe. What if the universal constants are not constant. What if the laws of physics are not laws, what if reality isn’t real. Before we get any further into the video I have to give a spoiler warning. If you have not read the series I highly recommend you stop this video and do so. If you’ve read the series, or just don’t care about spoilers then continue forth. Now we won’t be getting into all of the details of the series, I’ll be giving context to why exactly I think this series is so unnerving.

🎨Cover art: The Fourth Dimension by Marc Simonetti

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[QuinnsIdeas]

The Cover Art to this video is by Marc Simonetti. The wrong attribution is given in the video, my apologies.

[RenegadeLife]

reminds me of a short story i've read that went: after decades of sending messages out there we finally got one back. It said "Quiet. They are listening"

[nsaik]

My favourite part of this series is the notion that after all the collective effort of human research and technological advancement, that the most enduring way to capture information is carving it in stone.

[rotkev]

I introduced one of my best friends to the series. He’s currently reading The Dark Forest - not even halfway through - and he called me and I listened to his existential crisis for 30 mins. I told him, not to worry, you’ll soon forget about your crisis because it will be replaced by pure terror. 😬

[enzoliu]

When it comes to aliens or something like that, we always consider ourselves somehow prepared for the first contact and ought to seek for it. Liu Cixin reminds us of the simple fact: we are not, not even close.

[astralcai]

One of my favourite quotes from the series: Weakness and ignorance are not barriers to survival, but arrogance is

[tohafi]

When the "universe blinked" in the first book, i was intrigued.
When the Dark Forest theory was explained in the second book, i hid under my bed.
When they started to use cosmological constants as weapons in the third book, i lost my mind.
These books are intense!

[ar]

Just finished the first book. To those worried about spoilers in this video, rest assured: these books are so good that learning more about what's going on in the story's universe ahead of time only increases the enjoyment of reading them.

[o--formerlycalvinlucien]

I'd like to note that Trisolaris was the first to make contact. A group of people sympathetic to other civilizations essentially asked Earth to stay quiet so that the rest of Trisolaris wouldn't find them. Yi Wenjie then sent a message back essentially saying "come get me bro" notifying the rest of Trisolaris, and the rest is history.

[electricattika]

The Dark Forest fucked me up so badly that it took me three days to get through the first contact battle with the teardrop. It’s such an emotionally draining story to get through, but so good that it’s completely worth it.

[renard]

The "Dark forest" theory reminds of another Sci-fi story I read long ago: The killing star, by Charles Pellegrino.

In it, humanity discovers light-speed travel, and is attacked without provocation and brought to near-extinction by an unknown alien species, using light-speed missiles impossible to track, impossible to intercept or dodge, and devastatingly powerful.

The motivation of the alien invaders was simple: Protection. It was a pre-emptive strike against humanity, because a species with light-speed travel is far too dangerous to keep as a neighbor.

[fulerage]

Just finished reading the main Trilogy... I have to say thank you for exposing me to such a thoughtful story. The books really helped expand my views on civilization, society, the actions of individuals, responsibility and our place in the universe. Even though the story might get sad and dark sometimes, by the end of the third book, my outlook on life was somehow more positive

[xtryptaminex]

This trilogy was absolutely incredible. It legitimately changed the way I look at the universe and terrified me in a way I didn’t think possible. Hands down the best sci-fi I’ve experienced

[evensgrey]

My favorite thing about Lovecraft's works is he wasn't afraid to make his aliens ALIEN. He had aliens made of exotic matter. He had aliens that could only be perceived as a color. One of his less alien aliens are equal parts fungus and shrimp.

[davidbutterworth]

I’m so happy you read this, I’ve been trying to sell this series off to friends for years. Another culture’s take on the genre is interesting enough, but the depth of the story and horrific reality is immense

[ybemad]

One of the things that I love about science fiction is how often these sci-fi scenarios are used to explore the nature of humanity, or the human experience from a fresh perspective.

The Netflix series really brought to the forefront the concept of lying. We do it knowing it is not good, and also take it for granted that everyone does it. It is a striking plot point in the Netflix series.

[SethLunchquest]

I started reading the first book not knowing it was about aliens. It was a wild trip when the reveal happened.

[noparty]

Quinn, there's another implication that can be drawn from this series: Dimension Strikes destroy dimensions, therefore it's only a matter of time before life destroys all dimensions. Total collapse of the universe might imply another Big Bang and the recreation of life which would ultimately destroy that universe and the cycle would continue ad infinitum.

[DarkLadyAthena]

I started reading Lovecraft because I was sad. I was warned that this would make me sadder but instead, it made me momentarily forget my own issues. The fear of the unknown and that everything one believes is a lie or is twisted upon its head to reveal something so unfathomable and horrifying was wondrous and interesting concept for me at a young age of nine.
I haven't read this trilogy but now I want to. I have been looking for a good science fiction horror series for this Halloween season. Thanks for the recommendation Quinn.
Keep up the good cosmic horror content.

[toxicsquirrelboy]

Thanks for introducing me to this series. I finished it 2 weeks ago, went through the existential crisis and am finally ready to watch the rest of your videos about it. I have never seen such a compelling argument for the dark forest hypothesis and I am now a firm believer that we should stop broadcasting our existence into space. It was awesome, thank you.