The Three-Body Problem

This is the first book of a trilogy by Chinese science fiction author Cixin Liu, who won the Galaxy Award. This book starts off during the height of the Cultural Revolution, with young Ye Wenjie who is forced to work cutting down trees in remote China. She soon meets up with a young researcher who knows of her work in physics, and he invites her to join him at a radar station examining the cosmos for alien life. The book then jumps to modern times where many scientists have killed themselves because they believe science is dead. With the investigation commencing we soon find out that Ye Wenjie has contacted alien life, and that they are on the way to Earth to take over the planet.

This book moves at its own pace, not quickly like modern military science fiction, and not like experimental Ursula Guin science fiction. This book will appeal to aficionados of this genre, but others might find the sedate pace and heavy use of science jargon off-putting.