The Dark Forest
I'm back again having gone another step further through the trilogy of The Three Body Problem (or as it is officially titled: Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy) by Liu Cixin with the second book of the series: The Dark Forest.
Before diving into some likely spoilers, I'll give my general thoughts. I really did enjoy this book, and found it much more fulfilling than The Three Body Problem. It touches a lot more into "true" science fiction and what the stereotypical sci-fi book looks like, but it also has really well done touches of interpersonal relationships and strategy. I also really enjoyed some of the twists which I had never seen coming. I'd definitely recommend it to absolutely any science-fiction fan, and give it 4.5 stars.
Warning! Potential spoilers ahead - read at your own risk!
Getting more into the meat of the story, I really enjoyed the mystery of trying to figure out Wallfacers strategies before the Wallbreakers showed up. I had a hard time solving the mystery on my own for parts, especially on Rey Diaz's plan - and so having a twist that was unexpected is a nice change of pace for me. I usually manage to figure out the twist well in advance!
When it comes to the Wallfacer's plans themselves though - I wasn't a huge fan. I think Liu is shooting for a reflection on the nature of humanity, but I think it might be putting it a bit too dark to have every plan hinge on humanity's potential demise. Even Luo Ji's final plan would have been detrimental to Earth - there's really no other method of deterrence than mutual destruction?
I did, however, enjoy the story of Luo Ji himself and the odd curve his character development takes. The detailing of his relationships, fictional and real, struck me as quite odd although it explained a lot about his character so I let it slide a bit. The depth and length of the story of his fictional true love was a bit of an odd turn, and I understand it for the reader to truly understand his feelings of loss when his family was taken from him, but it felt like a short transition into a romance short story rather than a sci-fi novel and a bit out of place. But, his initial dedication to avoiding the responsibility of humanity I feel can resonate with how most people would react. I certainly would avoid having the weight of the world put on me like that.
The one place I think the story lacks is in the ending - so much time is spent on these complex and intricate strategies being built up just to crumble, and yet the winning strategy we don't see being built almost at all. It felt like a sudden or abrupt ending, although I give it points for still being logical for the universe. Although, Amin has told me the final book of the trilogy resolves some gaps I may have felt in the ending, so hopefully it all culminates as I finish it out.
I think it's interesting how the future is portrayed - it feels very akin to the way the world is headed. The constant stimulation from technology now turning into constant stimulation on every possible flat surface feels almost inevitable - and we don't even have the blocks on technological advancement! It is a bit of a dark thought to imagine the world reaching that kind of point, but it isn't a hard conclusion to reach.
Lastly, I just want to note that Liu's writing is absolutely incredible. The amount of detail he puts in to describe a vivid scene paints an almost perfect picture in my mind as I read. The prologue of the ant as the point of focus for the conversation between Ye Wenjie and Luo Ji is almost poetic in a sense, but I think the best descriptions in this book is the scene of the droplet attack. What may seem from the outside as such a long portion of the story dedicated to such a relatively short event, paints a picture of a three-dimensional space battle that I could have never imagined myself.
Once again, this is an absolutely fantastic book and I can't wait to start reading Death's End and finishing the trilogy1.
At the time of writing this, I'm already 25 pages in. But who's counting ;)↩