The Dark Forest

The probable solution for Fermi Paradox; this book explores this concept and put it into a thrilling story. When the solution is revealed, this story is turning into “cosmic horror”, and this is really what I felt when I learned the logic derivations.

Well, the scary part is not about the supernatural and the unknowable like Lovecraftian stories, but it is the hopelessness and knowing that there is literally no way out. We are just tiny, powerless, helpless creatures inside the Dark Forest. Possibly there are millions of millions “hunters” scattered within our unlimited size of the universe, hiding, lurking, and ready for total annihilation of our fragile civilization.

While the main idea of the story is super interesting, however, the execution of the story is otherwise. First of all, the book can be shrunk in half (or even less!), there are sooo many “side” stories that don't really add value to the main story. You can literally skip them and the story is unchanged. Second, the story seems so slow; stark contrast with The Three-body Problem which has a very fast pace and dense story. So many up-and-down and it also less “hard-science” than the preceding.

Unpopular opinion, I like The Three-body Problem more than The Dark Forest.