The Three-Body Problem

During the Cultural Revolution, astrophysicist Ye Wenjie watches her father die and ends up at a secret military base searching for life beyond Earth. She sends a message and gets a reply from Trisolaris, a planet with three suns. Decades later, scientists are killing themselves, and researcher Wang Miao sees a countdown. With detective Shi Qiang, he enters a virtual reality game and learns that Ye helped plan an invasion. Operation Guzheng slices through the Earth-Trisolaris Organization's ship and exposes the sophons, which block human physics. The fleet arrives in four centuries. The Trisolarans call humans bugs. Shi Qiang shows Wang a field of locusts.

1. ChangeWang Miao became five

   In the book, almost everything runs through one protagonist, nanomaterials researcher Wang Miao. Netflix splits his role among the Oxford Five: Auggie gets the nanofibers and the countdown, Jin gets the game.

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2. ChangeFrom Beijing to London

   The book is set almost entirely in China. The show keeps 1960s China but moves the present-day story to London and Oxford, with an international cast and English dialogue.

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3. ChangeShi Qiang becomes Clarence

   Detective Shi Qiang, whom everyone calls Da Shi, becomes Clarence "Da" Shi, played by Benedict Wong. The nickname stayed; now he works with Thomas Wade.

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4. ChangeThe Chinese version sticks to the book

   Three-Body (2023) keeps Wang Miao, Beijing and the order of the chapters. Over 30 episodes, Chinese viewers praised how faithful it was, and The New York Times found the virtual reality game simpler than the book's.

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