What a journey Liu Cixin takes us on. Ball Lightning is science fiction without the spaceships or time travel, but at a more abstract, magical and even philosophical level. The character of the book are vastly different from each other, unconventional in their own ways. Chen, the narrator of the book, is obsessed and unravels ball lightning piece by piece, while he himself develops into another person too. The book blurs the boundaries between science and warfare, as do conventional and unconventional thinking. And you may require a bit of both while reading this book, but it’s well worth it.