This just became one of my all-time favorite books!

How would humankind react to the discovery of intelligent extraterrestrials? Liu explores this idea with both great imagination and restraint. For a sci-fi novel, it had a lot more science than I was expecting, and I loved it. It was very much grounded in reality, or as close to it as one could get when writing in this space. While I adore the premise, the narrative, and the world Liu has built, I felt like the weak point was the characters. I didn't feel invested in any of the central characters, be it Ye Wenjie or Wang Miao. It's nevertheless a worthwhile read for how expertly it navigates the big questions.