An interesting view into what it was like to live and work in PRC during Mao's reign of terror. Switching back and forth between the two cultures (alien and earth) was interesting. I didn't have as much of a problem with the "gimmick" used by the alien culture to communicate with earth but boy did my friends who were physicists. They categorically reject the book. I liked it enough but not enough to watch the series being made of it or read the the rest of the books in the series. YMMV.