The Dark Forest

I am gobbledy smacked screaming crying throwing up, this book slaps you in all the unexpected ways that real life does.

Surprisingly this book is very different to the first in its series, but absolutely not in a bad way. It's grown organically to adapt to the new setting - given that the twist in the first book completely alters the fundamental environment that the book is set in, and yet somehow manages to slap in an equally mindbending revelation in this book. I've gushed loads in my review of the first book about how real the writing is, and I think that really excels in this book as well. I'm still marvelling at how well the sense of nothing you thought mattered matters anymore after 200 years of 'time travel', yet it's not even mentioned explicitly. Dude, like, I feel like I time travelled. also loved the not-so-subtle calls to classic Chinese sci-fi that I read growing up, very fun :)).

A note that I did read the original in Chinese, and while I thought the translation of the first book was kinda difficult to read, I had a quick peek at the tranlation of this second book, and actually thought it seemed pretty fab (and I don't often say that about translated works from Chinese ahaha. I know it's difficult to produce a translation that makes a native speaker happy!).

No frickin clue where the third book is going to go, from a quick look at the contents page, it appears to take on a completely different spin again and I'm all here for it. I guess that's part of the charm, and that is just how life goes.

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.

DNF at page 294.

I'm so sorry that I've spent any time on this book at all. Where first book had more or less some plot, here it felt like never ending rambling. Over and over again. And again. And one more time.
By the way, cardboard characters have more personality than characters in this book.

After reading these books multiple times over the last couple of years, the second book remains undisputedly
My favourite.

It's hard reviewing a sequel immediately after reading the first book as you immediately draw parallels or judge it to a different set of circumstances. While reading this I felt my self falling towards the idea that the first book was far superior due to its ideas and exploration of an entirely new world. However, once the first part of the book was over I felt this start to change and my fascination with the story grow massively. It's gripping that's for sure and the idea it proposes is stark to say the least. However, one serious issue that nearly through me off the book altogether was some of the prose being absolutely insufferable in parts. It felt child-like and far too simplistic for a story of this scale. Luckily I wasn't put off and the reward for persevering felt justified coming towards the end.

It did truly feel like reading another one of the great Sci-fi stories of our times.

Re-read. Genuinely better on a second pass, like a Greek tragedy. I also appreciate the sociology a lot more this time around - it’s the sociology in the background that brings this book to life, not its central thesis. Audiobook narrator wasn’t great, but listening to this book was also an incredible experience, highly recommend for a second time.

On ne sait pas d'où il a sorti la théorie de la forêt sombre mais honnêtement et comme on dit chez nous BSAHTEK. Zhang Beihai et Luo Ji, vous êtes ces deux chinois que vous pensez être.

First half is a bit slow.
But ater-half is brilliant!

In the vast unknown, every step must be silent, every breath careful, for danger lurks unseen in the shadows.

Again, the technicality of the science went right over my head! The first 75% of this second book was boring - However, the last part was very suspenseful! I’m off to finish the final book! 3 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️!

Ignoring the way women are characterized as beautiful objects to be admired, the revelations of the characters inner thoughts which even the reader aren't privy to is what made the book so entertaining. The rollercoaster of hope and despair wasn't just one note; it happened many times, never in ways I expected which kept me on the edge. Great thought invoking read.

Much better than the first part in terms of the quality of translation. With multiple similar sounding names and people having multiple names (a cultural thing), it's bit hard to immerse in the story. There were also some (IMO) stupid and frenzied decisions by SJF that I didn't find plausible. Still, a very realistic sci-fi!

Book one was okay. This book was amazing. A new favorite.

LuoJi is my goat

This is a book with a lot of great moments and ideas. It's sci fi at its best.

Unfortunately, everything between those things is just a meandering and slow read.

much preferred this to the first one, better character development , more interesting plot etc but it still retained the hard science fiction from the first book

Once again I'm incredibly bored with the writing but the concepts are so unique that I can't help but continue.

4.5

The story expands a lot and it explodes in a great ending.

Parts of this are really good. However, there is so much exposition I wanted to DNF this.

TL;DR

I haven't read Death's End but I've seen many reviews saying that this is the best book in the series. Now after reading it I can confidently say that all of those people are delusional and shouldn't be taken seriously. The only good part about this book is the ending, the last 40/50 pages is where everything important happens. I will explain more in the extensive review but I hope the last entry is better than this.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: The actual story in this book is good when I get to read about it that is.

X - Side Stories (if it applies): Absolute trash and a complete waste of time, none are interesing and don't lead anywhere, please take my suggestion and skip everything in this book that doesn't have to do with the main story.

X - Characters: The only good character is Da Shi, out of the 20 characters we meet and interact with this is not good.

X - Setting/Ambiance: Seeing the world change from normal day to the future wasn't as interesting as I thought. Didn't like where people live in the future either.

✓ - Ending: Easily best part of the book the only saving grace. The last 40/50 pages were really interesing, the idea and implications proposed are amazing.

Extensive Review

Okay I'm not going to be gently about it, The Three-Body Problem has it's problems as well but at least the 500 pages of that book is about 400 pages the main story and 100 pages of side stuff. Here I'm not joking out of the 500 pages I would say that the important stuff having to do with the Trisolarians, their coming and what is humanity doing to prepare for it is about 200 pages if I'm being generous. Almost everything in this book is about inconsequential stuff that doesn't lead anywhere or isn't important to the main story and it's very frustrating.

To put this into perspective there are literal aliens invaders on their way to earth right now at full speed. Meanwhile all I'm reading about is:

- Three old neighbors talking about current events going on in the world and one of them getting scammed..."what?"

- One of our "main" protagonists remembering a memory about him trying to write a book and falling in love with his fictional character..."what?". This one goes a bit further because he actually thinks that's real deep love and breaks up with his current girlfriend over it. Deranged behaviour and absolute degeneracy by our so called "scientist", goes to a psychiatrist and he tell him that's normal and nothing to worry about. "What is this world?".

- One of our "main" protagonists is given a huge ammount of power to solve this crisis and since he didn't want that power he just uses it for his own gain to live comfortably..."what?". On top of being one of the most annoying tropes out there it's not even interesing, he just lives in a house watching TVs and buying random stuff that he sees.

Then we have the biggest side story than has more written about it that the actual main story so I'm not even sure it's a side story anymore, enter Zhang Beihai. EASILY top three biggest dumbass in all the books I've read. When his story concluded I could not believe it, I'm not going to spoil anything but just know that when you're reading about him know that you're wasting your time because it will not pay off in the end.

My sugestion is every time you see any mention of the three old guys, the memories of the fictional girlfriend or Zhang Beihai is to just skim over the pages but don't waste any time on them, skim through them to see if it's finally back to the main problem and read that.

Impossible challenge to complete, every time you read the word "Defeatism" or "Escapism" take a shot. You will die before reaching the end. I can't tell you how boring it is to constantly be reading the exact same thing over and over and over without anything new added in. Every single character in this book talks about those two things and it's always the same.

The main problems from the first book are still here, when you read interactions between characters you know it's just two fictional characters saying words to eachother, it's not two people having a conversation. But I gave my opinion on my The Three-Body Problem review. The writting did not improve at all, and Cixin Lui's ability to streth basic descriptions for over four pages is quite outstanding. Important stuff like a space elevator gets a one paragraph explanation while the building for the UN gets like four pages, talking about how the contour of the statues on the front are and forms that the building has..."who cares? it's just a building where corrupt politicians gather stop wasting time on that."

As I said the only good thing about this book is Da Shi and the ending. When you're reading about the actual Trisolarians and what is being done to prepare for them the book is quite interesting. Too bad those are just sprinkled in between the massive garbage side stories that lead nowhere. Yes, the ending of this book and the idea of our "main" protagonist is very terrifying and amazing at the same time. Endings are important to me but it cannot save it this time.

If this book were 300 pages long, cut all the side stuff and just be about this lunatic scientist who's in love with his fictional girlfriend and Da Shi protecting him from ETO while they're trying to prepare for the Trisolarians then I would believe those people saying this is the best book in the series.

Pretty slow for the most part, and still as unimaginatively written (or translated) as the first one. But full of great ideas. I loved the Wallfacers.

The amount of existential dread and the nihilistic look at humanity really had me on the edge...of a 24 storey building, 1000 / 10, will read again.

This is my second time reading this one, last time I read it, I did not have the technical background to understand the topics and technologies discussed in the book, it demands a bit of basics in Physics, CS (dat CPU made using an army of soldiers was lit...haha), which is why I can appreciate this book much more now.

I keep thinking about the quote “If I destroy you, what business is it of yours?”

If this were the first book in a series I would've given up on it super early. I only kept reading cause book one was so good. It stuck the landing but tthere were some very rough parts