Originally published in 2005 by Sichaun Science & Technology Press in Chengdu, China

When Chens 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 Chens 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

"The first three chapters of this translation appeared in the online magazine Words Without Borders in a slightly different form in 2009."

"A Tom Doherty Associates book."