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Why it matters
The novel brought a major work of Chinese science fiction to a broad English-language audience with a vast first-contact scenario rooted in physics and history.
A celebrated work
The Three-Body Problem
Cixin Liu2015 selection · Science fiction & fantasy
The Three-Body Problem
A secret military project established during China's Cultural Revolution makes contact with an alien civilization living in an unstable three-sun system. Decades later, physicist Wang Miao encounters impossible experimental results and a virtual world that points toward an approaching planetary crisis.
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Read this if…
You enjoy hard science fiction, intellectual mysteries, and civilization-scale stakes.
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Ideas inside
First contactPhysicsPolitical historyCivilization
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Hugo Award for Best Novel — official winner recordOfficial record↗ (opens in a new tab)