Paperback, 550 pages
English language
Published Aug. 1, 2016 by Head of Zeus.
This is the second novel in the "Remembrance of Earth’s Past" near-future trilogy. Written by the China's multiple-award-winning science fiction author, Cixin Liu.
In Dark Forest, Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasion—four centuries in the future. The aliens' human collaborators have been defeated, but the presence of the sophons, the subatomic particles that allow Trisolaris instant access to all human information, means that Earth's defense plans are exposed to the enemy. Only the human mind remains a secret.
This is the motivation for the Wallfacer Project, a daring plan that grants four men enormous resources to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from Earth and Trisolaris alike. Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is a total unknown. Luo Ji, an unambitious Chinese astronomer and sociologist, is baffled by his new status. All he knows is that he's …
This is the second novel in the "Remembrance of Earth’s Past" near-future trilogy. Written by the China's multiple-award-winning science fiction author, Cixin Liu.
In Dark Forest, Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasion—four centuries in the future. The aliens' human collaborators have been defeated, but the presence of the sophons, the subatomic particles that allow Trisolaris instant access to all human information, means that Earth's defense plans are exposed to the enemy. Only the human mind remains a secret.
This is the motivation for the Wallfacer Project, a daring plan that grants four men enormous resources to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from Earth and Trisolaris alike. Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is a total unknown. Luo Ji, an unambitious Chinese astronomer and sociologist, is baffled by his new status. All he knows is that he's the one Wallfacer that Trisolaris wants dead.
Где-то на девятой странице пролога вы подумаете, что прочитали достаточно, чтобы предугадать основную сюжетную линию, главный твист, и концовку. Потом может быть отбросите эту мысль из-за банальности догадки, но нет, вы всё поняли правильно.
Переводчик на этот раз несколько меньше похож на робота, но ситуацию это в целом не спасает.
Maybe too many committee meetings to be truly riveting?
I read the Three Body Problem some time back, and while I really liked the hard sci-fi ideas in the book and their presentation, I found the writing to be slow and ponderous. I enjoyed the book, but I didn't find the second half very gripping. So I wasn't very keen on picking up The Dark Forest.
Dark Forest also starts out a bit slow. I'd picked it up a while ago and read a bit of it, but then I felt that it would never pick up pace and was distracted by other books.
I finally picked it up again last week, because I didn't have anything else to read, and boy am I glad I did. The Dark Forest is the best kind of sci-fi - a gripping story that explores truly wonderful ideas, science and philosophy.
If you're a science fiction fan, I would recommend the Dark …
I read the Three Body Problem some time back, and while I really liked the hard sci-fi ideas in the book and their presentation, I found the writing to be slow and ponderous. I enjoyed the book, but I didn't find the second half very gripping. So I wasn't very keen on picking up The Dark Forest.
Dark Forest also starts out a bit slow. I'd picked it up a while ago and read a bit of it, but then I felt that it would never pick up pace and was distracted by other books.
I finally picked it up again last week, because I didn't have anything else to read, and boy am I glad I did. The Dark Forest is the best kind of sci-fi - a gripping story that explores truly wonderful ideas, science and philosophy.
If you're a science fiction fan, I would recommend the Dark Forest very highly. This second book makes the entire journey so far worthwhile.
This is the sequel to The Three Body Problem, and apparently there's a third book to come, although the ending of this one didn't feel unresolved. Definitely read the first book first. In this sequel, humanity is aware that Trisolaris has a powerful colonization fleet on the way to earth. They can watch the fleet's progress, and know they have about 400 years to prepare. However, Trisolaris being vastly more technologically advanced than earth has sent Sophons ahead of the fleet to prevent any significant technological advancement of humanity in the mean time. Humans can watch their doom coming, but are stuck with a technology basically what we have now and no hope of improving it.
The book looks at the many different reactions to this - some factions decide to worship the arriving aliens as gods and try to help them, welcoming the end of humanity. Some sink into …
This is the sequel to The Three Body Problem, and apparently there's a third book to come, although the ending of this one didn't feel unresolved. Definitely read the first book first. In this sequel, humanity is aware that Trisolaris has a powerful colonization fleet on the way to earth. They can watch the fleet's progress, and know they have about 400 years to prepare. However, Trisolaris being vastly more technologically advanced than earth has sent Sophons ahead of the fleet to prevent any significant technological advancement of humanity in the mean time. Humans can watch their doom coming, but are stuck with a technology basically what we have now and no hope of improving it.
The book looks at the many different reactions to this - some factions decide to worship the arriving aliens as gods and try to help them, welcoming the end of humanity. Some sink into despair. Some cling to denial. The planetary defense council learns that the one advantage humans have over Trisolarans is the ability to lie - as Trisolarans communicate by direct thought waves, they are incapable of deception or even truly understanding it. The council initiates the Wallfacer project; a handful of outstanding individuals are appointed to the position of Wallfacers, given access to near unlimited funds and resources, and told to come up with and implement plans to thwart the Trisolarans, but without revealing the details to anyone. They must disguise their actual plans so well that even the other humans implementing them don't know them, since any method of human communication can be monitored by the Sophons.
The book basically revolves around the different attempts to save humanity, by Wallfacers and others. It's really a book about ideas and concepts; the characters aren't particularly strong and often quite unlikeable (which makes the first half of the book a bit of a struggle) and also almost entirely male - the author doesn't appear to have any use for female characters except as motivations or foils for the men. Many of the ideas and views of humanity are also quite dark and depressing. However, props to the author for tackling head on the question of why we haven't made contact with any aliens yet, and drawing an extremely logical and believable conclusion.
Basically, read this and 'three body problem'.
3.5* mebbe 3.75 hehe. To stay spoiler free I liked the ideas presented but not necessarily how they were presented. I felt some things happened just to move the plot forward, a bit too much synchronicity or simplified timing of events than I'd have preferred. After also reading Stephensons SevenEves recently my idea of orbital mechanics has been refined enough that it amazed me how easy space seemed to be to work in. There was also some character tropes which both was overplayed and sometimes sojourned in too deeply.
Really though I can wipe all of that aside. It was a fun ride, I really enjoyed some of the philosophizing and ideation therein. There was a myriad of things that could be possible and that brought those elements home vividly even more.
With how it ends I was both surprised--and in both a satisfying and unsatisfying way--which makes me really …
3.5* mebbe 3.75 hehe. To stay spoiler free I liked the ideas presented but not necessarily how they were presented. I felt some things happened just to move the plot forward, a bit too much synchronicity or simplified timing of events than I'd have preferred. After also reading Stephensons SevenEves recently my idea of orbital mechanics has been refined enough that it amazed me how easy space seemed to be to work in. There was also some character tropes which both was overplayed and sometimes sojourned in too deeply.
Really though I can wipe all of that aside. It was a fun ride, I really enjoyed some of the philosophizing and ideation therein. There was a myriad of things that could be possible and that brought those elements home vividly even more.
With how it ends I was both surprised--and in both a satisfying and unsatisfying way--which makes me really ponder what the last book could be about. I didn't grasp enough allusions to get a firm grasp of it.
Oh well. Enjoy it for what it is and from where it is coming from. I did.
A follow up to The Three Body Problem that exceeds it in every way. Immense in scope and brilliantly plotted. Wonderful stuff.
