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Published Aug 17, 2026, 12:00 PM EDT
The Three-Body Problem Trilogy is packed with illustrations and scientific models
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Liu Cixin’s highly ambitious Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy became an international sensation, winning Hugo and Locus awards and inspiring the 3 Body Problem Netflix series, which is expected to return for a second season this year. Originally published in China from 2006 to 2010 and translated into English by Ken Liu for Tor Books in 2014, the hard sci-fi series has sold millions of copies. Now it’s getting a premium illustrated edition, and Polygon has an exclusive first look at some of the stunning art.
The Three-Body Problem Trilogy: Remembrance of Earth's Past includes The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest and Death's End combined into one 1,344-page book. Matt Griffin, who has provided art for Star Wars and Dune books, created three black and white title-page spreads along with 15 color illustrations. The limited-edition volume opens with an introduction by the author previously unpublished in English before and comes with a bookplate signed by both Liu and Griffin.
The Three-Body Problem takes its name from an astrophysics model designed to track three interconnected orbits – originally the Earth, Moon, and Sun. In Liu’s book, an alien species living on a planet with three suns cannot find a way to predict their movement to plan for catastrophic changes in climate. When they make contact with Earth, some of the Trisolarans hope that humans might be able to help them solve their problem, while others want to colonize Earth to escape their unstable world. The lining of the special edition features real three-body simulations Griffin created using an MIT program.
“Starting with the Chinese Cultural Revolution and spanning some 18 million years into the future, Liu Cixin's masterpiece is as broad as it is compelling,” Folio Society editor James Rose wrote in a press release. “A tale of humanity's struggle, and that of a civilization fighting for its very existence, this dares to answer the question: 'Are we alone in the universe?' Beautifully and brilliant evoked in Matt Griffin's artwork, this is the ultimate edition of a science-fiction phenomenon. Fans of the series, anyone interested in sci-fi and hard science, and new readers alike will be awestruck by this edition.”
The Three-Body Problem Trilogy: Remembrance of Earth's Past will be sold for $780 through the Folio Society’s website beginning at 11 a.m. ET Sept. 8. That’s a heavy price tag, but a $2,200 version of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire The Folio Society published last month sold out within three hours.
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