Ball Lightning Book Cover

Ball Lightning


A Science Fiction Novel


Subgenres & Tropes:

  • Hard Science Fiction,
  • Military Science Fiction
Buy from Amazon

This book is for you if you're into...

  • Obsessive quests sparked by personal tragedy and scientific mystery
  • Science fiction where military ambition collides with ethical boundaries
  • Storm-chasing experiments and shadowy Soviet-era research stations
Publisher Description

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Three-Body Trilogy, Cixin Liu's Ball Lightning is the story of what happens when the beauty of scientific inquiry runs up against the drive to harness new discoveries with no consideration of their possible consequences.

When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of this mysterious natural phenomenon. His search takes him to stormy mountaintops, an experimental military weapons lab, and an old Soviet science station.

The more he learns, the more he comes to realize that ball lightning is just the tip of an entirely new frontier. While Chen’s quest for answers gives purpose to his lonely life, it also pits him against soldiers and scientists with motives of their own: a beautiful army major with an obsession with dangerous weaponry, and a physicist who has no place for ethical considerations in his single-minded pursuit of knowledge.

More Cixin Liu

Follow This Author

Sign up & we'll email you when a new title is available for pre-order or hits the bookshelf

Little Stacks of Science Fiction

Get Free & Discounted eBooks

Curated reads, irresistible prices—subscribe now

Add this book to your To Be Read list

Sign up to build your personal library

Archive This Book

Sign up to build your personal library