The Estonian version of The Three-Body Problem, a science fiction trilogy written by sci-fi author Liu Cixin from Yangquan city in North China's Shanxi province recently won the Stalker Award for the Best Translated Novel, presented by the Estonian Science Fiction Association at the Estonian Science Fiction Convention.

Estonia -- together with Latvia and Lithuania -- make up the Baltic nations which lie behind Sweden in Europe and which on the other side, border Russia.

The Stalker Award for Best Translated Novel was created to acknowledge the best translated sci-fi, fantasy and horror fiction published in Estonian. Stalker prizes for fiction are awarded based on the Estonian readers' votes.

The award suggests that Asian science fiction works are gradually gaining more widespread recognition among Western readers.

To date, Liu's trilogy has won several international sci-fi literature awards -- including the highly esteemed Hugo Award in 2015 and the Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society in 2018 -- and has been translated into English, German, Japanese, Spanish and other languages for sale worldwide.