In the midst of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, a young scientist sends a message into the cosmos that brings a desperate, far more advanced civilization hurtling toward the Earth, and humanity begins planning for a Doomsday Battle that won't happen for four hundred years. There are a million reasons to love Liu's storytelling in this first book of his Three-Body trilogy, but his ability to keep the pace and tension humming while also keeping the aliens almost entirely off-stage utterly blew my mind.
If I had the Neuralyzer from "Men in Black" or if I could "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" one sci-fi trilogy from my memory, it would be this. From the opening of the first book, one cannot imagine the distance--both spatially and temporally--that will be traveled by the close of the third. A singular reading experience.
— Max