The holidays are always a little rough for me. This year, I’ve been working on my escape via books and reading. It’s December 21 and I’ve read about five books this month already, with several more in-progress on the periphery. My most recent book was The Three Body Problem, by Cixin Liu.

Let me begin by saying that I have had a complicated relationship with science fiction. I love good science fiction, but for the last decade and change I have had a really hard time picking up a sci-fi book and finishing it. I’m not sure why that’s been the case for me: I suspect my therapist could find a rich seam for analysis here, but the point is that I haven’t really enjoyed any sci-fi for years. The Three Body Problem helped me fall back in love with science fiction.

This book was originally written in Chinese. Mr. Cixin is a Chinese author, and this book has been lovingly translated to English by Ken Liu. The translation is incredible. I am deeply ignorant of Chinese literature and know next to nothing about Chinese culture, but I will venture to say that the prose in this book is almost poetic. There were several times that passages from this book resonated so powerfully with me that I had to put the book down and reflect on my feelings. I read a lot of books; I felt this one.

When I read the teaser for this story, I thought it would be another tale of alien invasion and the human response to it. And while there is certainly an element of that in this story – indeed, it is critical to the plot – Cixin avoids the tropes and stereotypes of Alien Invasion stories in this book. The story is viewed through the intersecting timelines, past and present, of multiple characters who are involved in various ways with the distant-pending invasion of earth by an ambiguous, difficult-to-know adversary who is acting in sophisticated ways to foil humanity.

The events of the story are told from the perspective of Chinese characters living in China, both in the modern time and in the time of the Cultural Revolution. As an American who is broadly ignorant of Chinese history, I really enjoyed this aspect of the story. So much of my experience of the world is anchored in American culture. Getting to read a book in which America is a peripheral character and not the center of attention was kind of a treat.

Geographical and cultural situations aside, the story is super engaging. The pacing of the story is perfect, and the exposition is masterful. As the story evolves, a lot of complicated ideas about space, astrophysics, and particle physics become highly relevant. While Cixin seems to have a deep knowledge of these topics, he manages to present the information to the reader in an approachable and believable way. The science part of this science-fiction seemed well-grounded in reality without being so lost in the sauce as to be unapproachable.

The rising action of the book was impossible for me to ignore. I found myself picking this book up every time I had a free minute. In fact, I was so engaged in this book that I finished it in less than 48 hours, and want to read it again and again.

The Three Body Problem was a rollicking good read for me. I found myself absorbed in the stories and ideas, and occasionally found myself transported by the prose. I got a lot of joy out of reading this book, and I intend to read it again. Cixin has apparently written several other books as well, all of which are now on my TBR list. If you’re in the market for a fantastic and thought-provoking piece of science fiction, pick up a copy of The Three Body Problem.