The Three Body Problem Trilogy by Cixin Liu The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest & Death's End

The Three Body Problem Trilogy by Cixin Liu brings together three connected novels: The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest and Death's End. Spanning decades and reaching far beyond Earth, the collection follows humanity as it confronts scientific mystery, political trauma and an escalating interstellar crisis.

Beginning in 1967 during China’s Cultural Revolution, Ye Wenjie witnesses a defining act of violence that shapes her life and reverberates into the future. Years later, in Beijing, nanotech engineer Wang Miao is drawn into an investigation involving unexplained suicides, a secretive group of scientists and a strange online game. As contact and conflict with the Trisolarans intensify, the series explores survival, secrecy and the fragile possibility of coexistence.

Included titles

• The Three Body Problem
• The Dark Forest
• Death's End

Key details

• Three-book collection by Cixin Liu
• Includes The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest and Death's End
• Set across Earth and a wider interstellar context
• Features multiple viewpoints including Ye Wenjie, Wang Miao and Cheng Xin

Synopses

The Three Body Problem

In 1967, Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China’s Cultural Revolution, an event that shapes her life and humanity’s future. Four decades later, Beijing police ask nanotech engineer Wang Miao to infiltrate a secretive cabal of scientists after a spate of inexplicable suicides. His search leads to a mysterious online game and a virtual world governed by the unpredictable motion of three suns, a puzzle tied to a far-reaching conspiracy and an extinction-level threat.

The Dark Forest

The universe is imagined as a forest filled with predators, where survival depends on remaining hidden and any civilisation that reveals itself becomes prey. Earth has done so, and the predators are coming. The Trisolarians will arrive in four centuries, but their sophons, described as extra-dimensional agents and saboteurs, are already present; only the individual human mind is said to remain beyond their influence.

Death's End

Earth enters a period of unprecedented prosperity through the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, coexistence appears possible, yet peace has made humanity complacent.

Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new era. She carries knowledge of a long-forgotten programme from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her arrival may disrupt the delicate balance between two worlds.