If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission.
Following the buzzy Netflix debut of “3 Body Problem” this past weekend, the sci-fi series off of which the show is based, “Remembrance of Earth’s Past,” in addition to a title frequently mentioned throughout the first season, “Silent Spring,” are now bestsellers on Amazon.
“Remembrance of Earth’s Past,” a sci-fi book series by Chinese author Liu Cixin, grapples with some of the most fundamental questions about the nature of the universe. The series, which begins with the titular “The 3-Body Problem,” details humanity’s discovery of and preparation for an alien invasion force from the planet Trisolaris. In the show, adapted to the screen by “Game of Thrones” masterminds David Benioff and D.B. Weiss with Alexander Woo, the world’s top physicists are not only befuddled but driven mad by the inexplicable scientific phenomena caused by this invasion, kicking off an investigation that leads to one woman’s decision made in the wake of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 1960s.
The show was met with mixed reviews upon a screening at Lille’s Series Mania last Friday, although most agreed on its ambition and likelihood to earn cult status. “This show is really all about literature,” journalist François Busnel, told Variety at the screening.” It’s choral: You have so many characters and they are well-written, but it’s also slow and very intellectual. Personally, I love the fact that we have all this time. It’s a little too much, it’s true, but it doesn’t matter.”
It’s clear from the first episode that the plot was derived from the ultra-detailed and fantastical world created by Cixin, so it makes sense that a slew of people rushed to Amazon to buy the series from Amazon, where it’s now a No. 1 bestseller.
The book “Silent Spring,” which plays an integral role in the show’s storyline, also rocketed to No. 1 on Amazon following the show’s release. Like the book, the sci-fi drama begins with a woman named Ye Wenjie, who works at a mysterious military base which she eventually learns is trying to make extraterrestrial contact, and her work there ripples into the present, when a group of scientists connect the base’s work to mysterious deaths in their community. In the first episode, she receives the book “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson and she resonates deeply with the text’s notions about humanity’s role in the universe. She reads aloud, “In nature, nothing exists alone.”
First published in 1962, “Silent Spring” is widely credited with sounding the alarm and raising awareness of humankind’s collective impact on its own future through chemical pollution. The book’s most haunting and famous chapter, “A Fable for Tomorrow,” depicts a nameless American town where all life—from fish to birds to apple blossoms to human children—had been “silenced” by the insidious effects of DDT.
Purchase “3-Body Problem” and “Silent Spring” on Amazon below:
3-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
