THE SCIENCE OF A GOOD STORY

Acclaimed author Liu Cixin's latest book translated into English is a cautionary tale of unchecked scientific obsession - and is already proving to be a hit, Mei Jia reports.

Two months after the English version of Ball Lightning hit the international book market in August, sci-fi writer Liu Cixin headed for the 2018 Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany.

There, following the book fair, Liu met with fans and gave talks and interviews at a university, in an old coal mine and several more venues across four German cities over the course of a week. According to local reports, he was received enthusiastically, as the second book of his Three Body trilogy, The Dark Forest, was still hot off the presses after its German-language release.