The Three-Body Problem

I admit I flipped through the first few pages at the bookstore and noped it right back on the shelf. I've little knowledge of the Cultural Revolution and it seemed a far cry from the expansive sci-fi promised on the cover. But Ye Wenjie witnessing the death of her father in these opening chapters informs her motivations going forward as she becomes an astrophysicist who makes first contact.

I've never really examined my pollyanna notions of first contact, informed by Zefram Cochrane and his contact with the Vulcans in Star Trek lore. Rationally it would be more akin to colonizers landing in the new world spreading small pox, religious indoctrination and mass genocide - Earth, just another world ripe for plunder. And of course there would some among us hungry for this alien annihilation believing it a punishment we so rightly deserve.

And then there's the alien Trisolarans who, understanding that an invasion will take 400 years, can admit that our current explosive technological progress might quickly outpace their alien knowledge in the ensuring centuries. That something must be done. That they must kill our science.

I'm giddy with the slow burn of first contact and the ideas explored here. This is hard-sci-fi that still manages to be absolutely wild with a wonderful translation by Ken Liu.