Three Body Problem

As a longtime fan of science fiction, from pulpy schlock to the deep, literary works, I was quite curious to read this Chinese book that has become a bestseller, and see how it might differ. It doesn't, really, though it is completely and totally Chinese, from well footnoted history to the language used. I particularly appreciated the translator's hard work to maintain the Chinese spirit of the book while creating something understandable for Americans.

This brief book provides an overview of the gravitational orbital evolution of few-body systems, in particular those consisting of three bodies. The authors present the historical context that begins with the origin of the problem as defined by Newton, which was followed up by Euler, Lagrange, Laplace, and many others. Additionally, they consider the modern works from the 20th and 21st centuries that describe the development of powerful analytical methods by Poincare and others.