The Three-Body Problem

Opening the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy, this novel traces the consequences of a clandestine military project during China's Cultural Revolution that inadvertently broadcasts a signal into deep space. The transmission is intercepted by a dying alien civilization, triggering a countdown to an invasion that will reshape humanity's fate. As the crisis unfolds, Earth fractures into competing factions: some advocate for submission to the superior extraterrestrial intelligence, viewing it as a necessary purge of human corruption, while others prepare for a desperate struggle for survival. The narrative weaves together the personal trauma of the Cultural Revolution with the cold, hard logic of physics and game theory, exploring how the universe's fundamental laws might be used as weapons against a species that has not yet mastered them.

Description adapted from Open Library ↗.