The Three Body Problem

Translated by Ken Liu.
Featuring a full-color dust jacket and full-color interior illustrations by Marc Simonetti.

Cixin Liu, China’s preeminent science fiction writer for more than twenty years, first came to the attention of English speaking readers with the 2014 publication of The Three-Body Problem, the opening movement of a dazzling, dizzying trilogy called The Remembrance of Earth’s Past. Its appearance here was an immediate cultural event, and it became the first work in translation ever to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel. It isn’t hard to understand why.

The book takes its title from a classical physics problem involving the effects – gravitational and climatic – of three celestial bodies occupying a limited space. It also refers to an immensely sophisticated “game” in which players enter a world (Trisolaris) dominated by three different suns. Under the shifting influence of these suns, Trisolaris cycles repeatedly between “Chaotic Eras” and “Stable Eras” as their planet moves inexorably toward destruction. When a signal from Earth—a compatible planet—reaches them, the Trisolarians initiate an extremely long-range plan to vacate their dying planet and make Earth their new home.

This is the central element in an enormously erudite narrative that ranges from the Cultural Revolution of 1967 to the imperiled present, illuminating events from the alternating perspectives of its human and non-human protagonists. Seamlessly combining politics, social history, and rigorous hard science, The Three-Body Problem is an alien invasion story unlike any you have ever read. It offers the sort of speculative pleasures only science fiction can provide, and leaves us waiting, satisfied and anxious, for the unpredictable pleasures still to come.

The Subterranean Press edition of The Three-Body Problem will be oversize, printed in two colors throughout on 80# Finch, and feature a number of full-page full-color interior illustrations. 

Limited: 500 signed numbered copies, oversized, printed in two colors
 

The Dark Forest

Translated by Joel Martinsen.

Featuring a full-color dust jacket and full-color interior illustrations by Marc Simonetti.

Important Note: There is a limit of one copy per person/household, so if you have already ordered a copy of The Dark Forest, please do not order another.

About the Book:

In The Three-Body Problem, the opening volume in Cixin Liu’s magnificent trilogy, Remembrance of Earth’s Past, Earth’s population found itself facing an unprecedented threat. Trisolarans, technically advanced inhabitants of a dying planet, have focused their attention on Earth, and are determined to make it their new home. As this astonishing second volume opens, the Trisolarian fleet has just been launched. Their journey will take more than 400 years to complete, but they are on their way. And that fact changes everything.

In an epic narrative spanning centuries, The Dark Forest examines the effects of a remote but very real threat on the citizens of Earth, effects that are at once spiritual, psychological, and pragmatic. Science and technology make concerted efforts to rise to the occasion, but encounter a single, insurmountable problem. The Trisolarans have littered the earth with sub-atomic particles known as “sophons” that have two functions. They place unbreakable limits on human technological development, and they reveal every secret strategy and plan to the invading forces. Faced with an obstacle they cannot overcome, the leaders of Earth develop a desperate, last-ditch plan called The Wallfacer Project, in which four individuals are given unlimited resources to develop—in absolute secrecy—a feasible defense against an immensely superior enemy. One of these four—an insignificant astronomer named Luo Ji—may hold the key to human survival in the dark, predatory forest of the universe.

Seamlessly blending rigorous hard science with a fundamental—and ultimately moving—humanism,The Dark Forest is, quite simply, a masterpiece. For decades, Cixin Liu has been one of the leading figures in China’s literary community. With Remembrance of Earth’s Past, he has made a spectacular English language debut. Although we didn’t know it, we’ve needed Cixin Liu for a very long time, and now he’s here. He couldn’t be more welcome.

Death's End

The publication of Death’s End brings to a close one of the grandest, most intellectually rigorous accomplishments of recent decades: Remembrance of Earth’s Past. This remarkable, multi-award-winning trilogy stands as a high-water mark of Chinese science fiction, and it established its author, Cixin Liu, as a major player on the international stage.

The opening volume, The Three-Body Problem, introduced the central premise of the series: the not-so-imminent arrival of a technically advanced alien race—the Trisolarians—who plan to abandon their dying home world and take control of Earth, a compatible planet. Their journey to Earth will take hundreds of years, but the threat, however distant, remains real, and its effects will be felt everywhere on Earth.

The second volume, The Dark Forest, spans centuries of frantic activity as the citizens of Earth struggle to mount a plausible defense against the coming invaders. Scientists develop a desperate plan called The Wallfacer Project, which may hold the key to human survival in the dark forest of the universe. And now we have Death’s End, in which this vast, intricate narrative comes to its unforeseeable end.

The protagonist, this time, is Cheng Xin, a 21st century scientist awakened from hibernation into a world she can no longer recognize, a world that exists in an uneasy détente with the Trisolarians. An ordinary, unassuming woman, Cheng brings with her some uniquely useful knowledge of 21st century technology, and she will play a crucial role in the gradual unfolding of this immense, constantly surprising narrative.

Crucial as it is, Cheng’s story is just one thread in the complex tapestry that Death’s End ultimately encompasses. Even more than its predecessors, this book contains multitudes, moving playfully but with fierce intelligence through the dazzle and wonder of the universe. This is science fiction on the grandest possible scale, filled with multiple realities, stories within stories, and an endless flow of astounding images and staggeringly original concepts. Death’s End—and the larger work it concludes—is a masterpiece of visionary literature that is worth returning to again and again. In these three books, Liu has created an enduring landmark of 21st century SF. You have never read anything like it. You probably never will again.

The Subterranean Press edition of Death’s End will be oversize, printed in two colors throughout on 80# Finch, and feature a number of full-page full-color interior illustrations. The lettered edition will also include a gatefold illustration not in the limited. Those who purchase Death’s End direct from us will have first rights to preorder the related novel, The Redemption of Time by Baoshu.

The Redemption of Time

by Baoshu

About the Book:

Cixin Liu’s award-winning trilogy Remembrance of Earth’s Past may be the most astonishing, wide-ranging science fiction epic of recent decades. Sometimes known as The Three-Body Problem novels, the trilogy began when word reached Earth that an alien civilization—the Trisolarans—had decided to depart their damaged planet and make Earth, a compatible planet, their new home. The Trisolaran invasion was merely the opening movement in a vast, galaxy spanning adventure that would alter both the human future and the future of the universe itself. And the story is not yet finished.

The Redemption of Time by Baoshu is an authorized addition to the original series that takes place in the aftermath of Death’s End, the final volume in the trilogy. The protagonist is the now familiar figure of Yun Tianming, an unwilling participant in the Trisolaran’s plans. Yun has lived for several hundred years, in and out of hibernation. He has been sent into space as a disembodied brain, been made to serve as a spy and traitor to humanity and has been systematically tortured by his Trisolaran captors. As the new book begins, he and his wife are living solitary lives on a private world known only as the Blue Planet. Following the death of his wife, Yun himself prepares to die, but is thwarted by a mysterious entity known only as the Spirit. This Spirit has one last task for Yun: to find and destroy a malignant, omnipotent force called the Lurker, a force capable of completing the destruction of all human—and non-human—life. 

Yun agrees to take on this task, but is determined to do so in his own fashion. What follows is a brilliantly conceived excursion into the mysteries and miracles of “the grand universe” that surrounds us. No mere piece of fan fiction, Baoshu’s novel is both an independent creation and a unique act of collaboration that expands our understanding of Cixin Liu’s incredible achievement. This is science fiction for the true connoisseur: fearless, visionary and endlessly inventive. For the many admirers of Cixin Liu’s masterpiece, The Redemption of Time is an unexpected—and most welcome—gift.

Supernova Era

With the publication of his magnificent trilogy, Remembrance of Earth’s Past, Cixin Liu emerged as a major player on the international stage. Long before the appearance of that landmark work, Liu had already established himself as the most popular and innovative SF writer in China. With the belated arrival of his 2004 novel, Supernova Era, he has given his many readers a compelling new look at one of the most extraordinary imaginations of our time.

Just as he did in the Three-Body Problem novels, Liu rests his narrative on a premise so striking that it will forever alter the nature and direction of the human project. Lethal radiation from a long dead star has entered Earth’s atmosphere, with apocalyptic results. Within a year, all adults on the planet will be dead. Only children under the age of thirteen will have the physical capacity to survive. With the advent of this cataclysmic event, the Supernova Era—also known as the Children’s Era—begins.

The bulk of the narrative takes place in the two years following the end of adult life on Earth, and it is a fascinating journey into a violent, unpredictable future. That journey will lead from China to New York to the rapidly melting continent of Antarctica, and will climax in a series of “war games” that will prove to be as destructive as war itself. Combining cutting edge science and acute social and psychological observation – along with a pointed tip of the hat to Lord of the Flies—Supernova Era is an early SF masterwork by one of the field’s most significant figures. The result, in Joel Martinsen’s admirable translation, is both a gift to English-speaking readers and an affirmation of Cixin Liu’s extraordinary—and inimitable—gifts.

To Hold Up the Sky

Dust jacket and interior illustrations by David Ho.

To Hold Up the Sky will be oversized, printed on premium paper, in two colors throughout. David Ho has contributed a full-color wraparound dust jacket and full-page duotone interior illustration for each story. 

About the Book:

With the publication of the Hugo Award-winning The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu, long one of China’s leading SF writers, emerged as a major figure on the international stage. Together with its successors (The Dark Forest and Death’s End), that extraordinary novel offered one of the most rigorous visions of the human—and post-human—future ever recorded. The protean imagination behind those novels is present on every page of To Hold Up the Sky, a generous and varied collection of Liu’s exceptional short fiction. 

The twelve stories gathered here are tightly constructed narratives that address the largest possible subjects. In his introduction, Liu notes that his work concerns “the direct, tangible relationship” between humanity and the vast, unknowable universe beyond. In Liu’s hands, that disparate relationship fuels some of the most extravagant, high-concept science fiction you will ever encounter. 

The earliest story, “Contraction,” examines the moment when the universe that has been expanding for billions of years begins to contract, with stunning —and unpredictable —results. “The Time Migration” is a unique time travel story that follows a mass of displaced humans moving through a succession of possible futures toward a viable new home for the human race. “2018-04-01” posits a world in which increased longevity is possible and genuine immortality within reach – all at a very steep price. In “Ode to Joy,” the universe itself conducts a concert which leads to an unexpected moment of hope. “The Thinker” imagines a vast, universal consciousness that mirrors the consciousness of the human species. To Hold up the Sky offers all of this – and a great deal more.

Finally, the Subterranean Press edition contains a bonus short story that cannot be found anywhere else. “Moonlight” is the account of a man tasked with altering and preserving the human future three times in the course of a single night. Like the eleven other stories in this remarkable volume, it is the clear product of a master craftsman with a wild, unfettered imagination. To Hold Up the Sky is a gift to Cixin Liu’s many readers, a gift they can return to repeatedly in the years to come.

Limited: 500 signed numbered copies, oversized, printed in two colors

Lettered: 26 specially bound copies, housed in a custom traycase, signed by the author

Important note, The Remembrance of Time will be share the design of Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Pastut will be printed in black ink only, and more lightly illustrated.

The Cretaceous Past

Dust jacket illustration by David Ho.

We’re thrilled to present The Cretaceous Past, a short novel by award-winner Cixin Liu, appearing for the first time in the US.

Please Note: This novel previously appeared in the UK under the title Of Ants and Dinosaurs. 

About the Book:

All the years of human civilization represent an infinitesimal fraction of the time since life first burgeoned on planet Earth. How likely is it, then, in those great depths of time, that humanity alone benefitted from the spark of intelligence which gave rise to culture?

This is the question posed by China’s preeminent science fiction writer for more than twenty years and Hugo-Award-winner for The Three-Body Problem Cixin Liu in his magisterial new short novel, The Cretaceous Past. The answer he offers is unexpected, supposing an unlikely alliance between the largest creatures in the world of the deep past and some of the smallest.

And it all begins with a toothache.

When a Tyrannosaurus rex suffers pain from meat trapped between its enormous teeth, a nearby colony of ants risks entering the great creature’s maw to make their own repast from the remains of the dinosaur’s most recent meal. From this humble beginning, over the course of millennia, a symbiotic civilization achieves amazing advances, reaching dizzying heights in countless endeavors scientific and social, facing dangers and exploiting opportunities at every turn. 

In this absorbing tale, Cixin Liu manages to describe the history of successive epochs of a might-have-been world, doing for the past what Olaf Stapledon’s classic Last and First Men did for the future. Here, Liu embarks on a new journey, sure to please the legions of devoted readers of the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy.

The Cretaceous Past offers Liu at his finest, demonstrating flights of imagination and depths of speculation sure to reward new fans and old alike.

Limited: 250 signed numbered copies, housed in a custom slipcase

Trade: 1500 fully cloth-bound hardcover copies