The Three Body Problem captures your imagination and uses science as a plot point that I haven’t seen before. Some spoilers ahead.
I loved that the book is framed around the Cultural Revolution in China and told in unforgiving detail. It was a unique experience for me to have science fiction told through the lens of Chinese politics and history.
The dimension of time becomes a mind bending consideration for the decisions Earth and Trisolaris make. It’s interesting to think about how things might play out when the incoming danger is 400 years away and the advancement of technology in the intervening time between launching an invasion fleet and arriving at the destination. (Although, this does presume that no advancement can be made along the journey when matter, energy, and evidence are all that’s needed for knowledge creation).
Some of it is admittedly far fetched. The proton computer is super cool, but it’s stretched to the absolute limit—AI + multi-dimensional transformation + quantum sensing, and so on.