Last Christmas, I came across a New York Times article titled Obama’s Secret to Surviving the White House Years: Books. It was published back in January 2017 as President Obama prepared to leave the White House. In it the former president revealed some of his favorite reads from his time in office--Liu Cixin's "The Three-Body Problem" was one of them. I've always enjoyed the escapism and imaginative challenge of science fiction (e.g., Orson Scott Card, Hugh Howey etc.) and was intrigued by the notion of Liu Cixin being the most popular science fiction writer that you've never heard of...because he'd only been recently translated into English.
"The Three-Body Problem" is a trippy novel that's not easily summarized and it's easy to get lost in the more technical aspects that Cixin explores in depth (i.e., nanotechnology, metaphysics, quantum mechanics etc.), particularly when listening to it in 45 minutes blocks on Audible in D.C. traffic over a month's time). The basic premise, though, is that a technologically superior alien civilization has decided to colonize earth. The story, however, unfolds amidst a narrative that jumps from the 1960's Chinese cultural revolution, to present day China, to an online VR world/game that the aliens may be using as a communication mechanism. This is a book that requires mental engagement but one which rewards the reader with a gripping story that readers will grapple with long after they've finished the novel's last pages.
See our 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.
Key References:
How Chinese Sci-Fi Conquered America (NYT Magazine)
Supernova Era
(latest novel from Liu Cixin)https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/24/liu-cixins-war-of-the-worlds?verso=true
never disappoints--his books are a welcome respite from much of the drier reading that I do related to my work as an Africanist and Foreign Area Officer.