The Dark Forest

I am a big fan of Cixin's skill of blending the small and personal with the philosophical and the big-picture humanity- and centuries-spanning arcs. The wallfacer challenge was intriguing and the final reveal of what the “dark forest” stands for, was fascinating. And darkly devastating.

Yet his depiction of women in this installment absolutely tainted my reading experience. His main protagonist dreams up his personal perfect woman (educated, but not too educated) and then absolutely creepily proceeds to use international funds to find a close double of this woman, and ultimately ends up starting a family with her. The woman turns out quite inconsequential and uninteresting, and the narration never condemns the act in any way. This fairy-tale style misogyny might fit into a more magical whimsical novel, but it was really off-putting and cringe-worthy here. I kept waiting for it to explode into consequences, but those never came. And henceforth, I kept noticing more and more how low in numbers and inconsequential women were to his plot. My enjoyment of the second half of the book lessened considerably. Even though I could still admire its brilliance.

Now I am not that eager to continue to the last book of the trilogy. I will probably get there eventually. To see how it all ends.

3.5