"There was no best-seller in the science fiction genre in China," said Yao Haijun, chief editor of Science Fiction World, the largest sci-fi magazine in the world with a monthly circulation of 100,000 copies.

"Liu Cixin was the right sci-fi writer to make science fiction more popular," Yao said, explaining why his magazine published "The Three-Body Problem."

Yao recalled that letters from readers flooded into his office, most of which were compliments to Liu Cixin.

"The Three-Body Problem" was reprinted in January 2008.

Yao said the trilogy is the best-selling sci-fi novel in China and the first to be translated into English in the past three decades. He said 400,000 copies had been printed in Chinese as of last year, though he said he did not have data about how many copies have been sold.

He believes that "The Three-Body Problem" meets Western readers' expectations for a sci-fi novel and presents Chinese solutions to some future problems.

The science fiction genre has represented a literary minority in China, as highly imaginative works were once thought of as nonsense.

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