1967: Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China’s Cultural Revolution. This singular event will shape not only the rest of her life but also the future of mankind.

Four decades later, Beijing police ask nanotech engineer Wang Miao to infiltrate a secretive cabal of scientists after a spate of inexplicable suicides. Wang’s investigation will lead him to a mysterious online game and immerse him in a virtual world ruled by the intractable and unpredictable interaction of its three suns.

This is the Three-Body Problem and it is the key to everything: the key to the scientists’ deaths, the key to a conspiracy that spans light-years and the key to the extinction-level threat humanity now faces.

Review:

This is one of the best science-fiction novels I have read in a long time. The author successfully combines first contact with the philosophical and ethical quandaries that come with it.  The depth and knowledge that has gone into the Three Body Problem makes this a truly compelling read and one that I had a lot of trouble putting down.

The science behind it is as fascinating as learning about the alien race that seeks to claim Earth for its own. Yet, despite viewing themselves as superior, like humans individuals struggle with their own moral and ethical reasoning.

I highly recommend this novel to fans of science fiction and I cannot wait to read book 2 in the series.