The Dark Forest

For book two in the series my criticisms of the previous book largely apply here as well but to a lesser degree. There are still info dumps, but they are less frequent and are not quite as long winded as in the previous book. The ending in particular in this go around is written in a much better and easier to understand way while still getting the pertinent information out.

The characters still are not the strong point of the novel, however several of them do feel a bit more fleshed out than previous iterations. Zhang Beihai and Dai Shi in particular being two I enjoyed. It's still very much a series of big ideas and little characters though. Common enough in hard sci-fi and while there's nothing inherently wrong with it, my preferences typically don't lean this way.

Not everything is improved though. Where the first novel did have significant female characters, this one really doesn't. Not only does it forgo the stronger female character but it takes two steps back in many ways for the females that do exist. Luo Ji's storyline in particular, just struck me as extremely odd. Keeping away from spoilers, I can only say that it's very creepy and there are some tropes present that I was uncomfortable with as they do dip into sexist territory imo. This can work if there's a compelling reason for it or if there's repercussions for characters attitudes, but neither are true in this case. It doesn't add anything to the novel and it's not important to the little characterization that does exist. So that was a bit off putting.

After slogging through the first 200 pages, the book really opens up. It deals with some of the same themes as the previous novel, minus religion, as the ETO is largely gone from the novel. Watching humans teeter between defeatism, escapism, and triumphalism was very compelling to read through out parts 2 and 3. It's often very bleak, but in a way that you could see playing out to some degree in real life. It's that balance that is just very intriguing to me and kept me glued from part 2 onwards. And the Dark Forest itself tied everything up beautifully and that theory just on it's own provides so much to think about. 

It's not without it's flaws, but if you can make it through the first 200 pages, it's definitely a hell of a ride.