Beginning when astrophysicist Ye Wenjie, working at a secret Cultural Revolution-era radio base, makes contact with an alien civilization, the novel follows nanomaterials researcher Wang Miao as he investigates a wave of scientist suicides and the virtual-reality game Three Body, which encodes the plight of the Trisolaran civilization.
Books mentioned in The Three-Body Problem (3)
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson: “Silent Spring, she read on the cover, by Rachel Carson. 'Where did you get this?'... 'This was published in 1962 and was very influential in the West.'”
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle: “My teacher took out a book, The Collected Cases of Sherlock Holmes. He turned to one story— 'A Study in Scarlet,' I think.”
Animal Liberation by Peter Singer: “A pile of books, most of which dealt with biology, sat on his bed. Ye noticed a copy of Peter Singer's Animal Liberation.”