The Dark Forest

The second part of The Three-Body Problem.

For the most part the plot feels slow and mystical, very similar to some classic sci-fi—like Foundation and Childhood’s End—where you and some characters don’t know what’s going on or going to happen next. Or it’s just you and the author doesn’t reveal some character’s plans. Also there are some unique—to me—alien features, which has a big impact on their communication with humans and perception of the world.

The intro (the first third) is kinda slow and I’m like "where are the aliens or some cool sci-fi stuff?", cause mostly it’s just discovering how ordinary human lives may change in that kind of alien situation. And then, as always, after the intro the plot accelerates to the first cosmic velocity. We also get some time jumps here, the last of which for me is very captivating.

Then there’s that action episode on the 80% mark… It’s just shocking.

And then it’s very devastating and depressing because The Dark Forest finally gets explained to you. But the ending suddenly becomes hopeful during the last 5 pages. Which leaves you with a lot of questions about the next book’s potential story.

Overall it’s a realistic, grounded and even scary science fiction story. Can’t wait to read the conclusion!

If you have never come across the Fermi paradox then this book has a fantastic way to explain one of its solution. The dark forest hypothesis.

I consider this one of those slow but great books in speculative fiction. Much better than the previous one in my opinion due solely to its sheer scale.

The aliens found in the previous book, called Trisolarans, are coming and will reach the planet in roughly in 400 years. They become substantially dangerous as they are able to send subatomic particles that allows them instant knowledge of all human information, leaving us with barely anything to protect us as everything we can think of is already known by them and therefore end up sabotaged. The only thing they cannot know is what is inside peoples mind.

How do humans deal with Trisolarans with just that is the main plot of the book .

There are too many things here that are utterly insane. Reading the book for the first time was quite an experience. If you like mind bending ideas, plot twist, don't care much about the characters and are fascinated by old school Sci Fi, then this book is a must read.

After reading The Three Body Problem, I was split. On the one hand, the story had some amazing, innovate takes on science fiction – but on the other I didn't identify with any of the characters. The Dark Forest elevates the sci-fi even more while creating flawed but interesting characters I wanted to see what happened to. The concept of the “Wall Climbers” and the “Wall Breakers” was a welcomed addition – and allowed for a hidden motive to an otherwise linear story. When I think about the wide variety of topics covered, this book has parts that are Battlestar Galactica, Foundation, Caves of Steel, Rendezvous with Rama, Dan Simmons and more.