Say a state that the world could theoretically reach in the next 10 years. The other portion of the book takes place in a modern to slightly futuristic setting.

Though if you do a little research I personally think you will enjoy it a lot more. I don't think you have too do a lot of research to enjoy the story, for example if you don't know what a 'Struggle Session' is (I didnt), the story gives you enough information to infer what it is. I personally did not know much about the cultural revolution, youth red guard, or the period known as the Great Leap Forward, and other things that occurred in China during that time but this book made me want to find out. While reading, I had to do a lot of searching on Wikipedia as large portions of the story occurs during the 1960 - 1980's. I will say that if I wasn't told it was translated, I would have assumed it was originally written in English by someone with a Mandarin background. I am 1/2 chinese, growing up up in America but my family spoke Hakka do I can't really say how well the translation is done. This book was apparently translated from Mandarin to English. It takes many strange science related events and use many characters smaller stories to relate these events, which in the end add up to something big and sinister going on. It's reminds me of the book 'Spin' by Robert Wilson.

It's very difficult to describe this book. They create a computer using a 30 million man Army

The three body problem by cixin liu