We’re thrilled to share the cover for Ball Lightning, a new standalone military SF adventure from Cixin Liu, the bestselling and award-winning author of The Three-Body Problem. Translated by Joel Martinsen, this thriller about soldiers, scientists, and the future of particle physics will be published in August 2017 from Tor Books.

Artist Stephan Martiniere has created an electrifying cover—get a look at the full illustration below!

The story:

When Chen’s parents are incinerated before his eyes by a blast of ball lightning, he devotes his life to cracking the secret of 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 in particle physics. Although Chen’s quest provides a purpose for his lonely life, his reasons for chasing his elusive quarry come into conflict with soldiers and scientists who have 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.

And here’s Martiniere’s brilliant art without the type:

Joel Martinsen, who also translated Cixin Liu’s The Dark Forest, is research director for a media intelligence company. His translations have appeared in Words Without Borders, Chutzpah!, and Pathlight. He lives in Beijing.