One of the few science fiction stories to come out of China, The Three body problem gives a hard sci-fi modern day telling of alien first contact, and how earth societies could react. 
 Trisolaris (Alpha Centauri) is an solar system with 3 stars. The author is imaginative in how this affects the planet, alien species and cultural development. Several human factions discouraged by our history of cultural persecution (like the Chinese cultural revolution) and lack of environmental stewardship are intent on helping prepare the earth to be conquered. 
 Science fiction stories dealing with advance technology cultures tend to over-utilize the "science appears as magic" trope. For example, if our nearest star system is 4 years away, it would take 4 years for a signal to reach there, another 4 years for a reply signal to get back, and many more years for any space ship to travel that distance. Instead of simply making up some alien tech to avoid this delay, the author embraces these limitation and find clever ways to incorporate them into the story. 
 Being a Chinese story (translated) I was hoping to see insight into Chinese culture and story telling. We are shown some characters persecuted during the Chinese cultural revolution of the 1960s, but not much difference in modern day from what we see in western literature. 
 This is an ideas story, characters are given enough personality to service the story's ideas. Details such as radio signals, society social and technical development are given in much detail. This level of detail will put many readers off. The story is also clearly a beginning of a trilogy and offers no satisfying ending other then making you eager to start the next book. 
 If you like slow ideas stories with intriguing plot and details, give it a read. If you need interesting characters and fast pace this probably isn't for you. Personally I liked it and eager to start the next.