Need book title/author: three stories interwoven in one

[Flashcrimson]

Got it - Thanks!

I read this a long time ago and can't remember the title or author. It is a single book, but there are three sections that at first appear to be separate stories but at the end all tie together. I don't remember much about the first section. The second section features a race of aliens who soak up the sunlight for sustenence and mate as triads, producing three offspring, one of each gender. They do so by a way of joining that has them all energetically occupying the same body. After the third mating, they are permanently joined and become one of the "solids" on the planet. In the third part of the book, we are on Earth (I think, or an Earth-like planet), and we've discovered some sort of technology that allows us to communicate or move matter or something over astronimically long distances. But unbeknownst to us, it is building up an atomic inbalance that is going to destroy our planet. One of the "solids" from the second part of the book attempts to warn us before it's too late.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

This is definitely The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov. Your description matches exactly.

(And welcome from a fellow inhabitant of Tennessee.)

 

[Flashcrimson]

Ah, Thank you! I googled it and yes, that's it. Strange, I thought it would be something hard to find, not Asimov, for gosshake! Been jonsing to read that one again, and I just couldn't figure out how to describe it so the internet could find it for me.

And Hello from down the street, fellow Tennessean!