BEIJING, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The Three Body trilogy, one of the most popular Chinese-language science fiction novels, will be published in English soon, a publishing company said Friday.

The three-part saga, written by award-winning writer Liu Cixin, has sold 400,000 Chinese copies, according to China Educational Publications Import & Export Corporation Ltd, which will cooperate with the Science Fiction World magazine to release the English novel.

The novel's translation and venture into the Western market will mark a major exportation of Chinese sci-fi literature, which is mainly known by the world via sporadic translations of short stories, Liu said.

"We'd like to demonstrate that the image of the Chinese people as an agricultural nation, facing the land and turning our backs to the sky, is changing, and that our view of the universe is expanding," Liu said.

The Three Body trilogy depicts the human race's centuries-long contacts and conflicts with an alien civilization hailing from a three-star system. Its finale, Dead End, came out in 2010.

The novel will be available to Western readers both in paper and digital versions, according to the company.