First contact with the world

The Three-Body Problem, Hardcover By: Cixin Liu (another), Ken Liu (translator)

As earthlings broadcast signals to other planets in hopes of contacting extraterrestrial life, Chinese science-fiction writer Liu Cixin has made first contact with the English-speaking world with his Three-Body trilogy—and the response has been positive.

The first installment of the series landed in the United States on Nov 11 as the only Chinese sci-fi book published in the country, which is the planet's biggest sci-fi market.

The English version published by US-based Tor Books has quickly become the best-selling Asian literary work on Amazon.com, where it's rated 4.5 out of 5. The first run printed 15,000 copies.

"We could view this as a good start," Liu says.

"But I don't expect huge success. After all, the US is the global center of science fiction, where more than 1,000 sci-fi works are published a year."

Each installment of the Chinese version has sold more than 500,000 copies and is being adapted for film.

Liu wrote the trilogy during his spare time when he was working as a computer engineer at a power plant in Shanxi province's Yangquan between 2006 and 2010.

He was born in 1963 and experienced difficulty obtaining sci-fi books early in life, since the genre was banned during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

His first taste came when he read Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth.

The story of Liu's first book follows scientists Ye Wenjie and Wang Miao through the madness of the "cultural revolution" until the present.

Ye is recruited into a secret military project to establish contact with aliens, while Wang gets caught up in a mysterious online game called Three Body. But Wang discovers the game is more than it seems and threatens humankind's very existence.

While the plotline centers on first contact, Liu sustains suspense and doesn't reveal the aliens too soon. He invites readers to reflect upon human nature and science by portraying different people's responses to the creatures.

American scientist and award-winning sci-fi author David Brin writes: "Vivid, imaginative and rooted in cutting-edge science, The Three-Body Problem ponders several big questions of our time. Liu Cixin stands at the top tier of speculative fiction authors in any language."

The book was translated by Chinese-American sci-fi writer Ken Liu, whose earlier work won the prestigious Nebula and Hugo awards.

Beijing Normal University science fiction literature professor Wu Yan wrote in his 2013 article Great Wall Planet: Introducing Chinese Science Fiction in the journal Science Fiction Studies: "Every nation with a distinctive culture and history is like an alien planet, and visitors can stand on this planet and look up at its sky."

This suggests Liu may provide Western readers a vessel to explore the seemingly alien "Great Wall Planet".