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This is an epic novel in the best sense of the term. Its predecessor, the Three-Body Problem, was also a “big novel,” but it feels small in comparison. While the first volume feels akin to looking out at sea and seeing amorphous shapes under the sea, the Dark Forest plunges you into the depths of ocean. You feel like you’re miles under, but no closer to touching the bottom.

I came to love the characters of this story, especially Lao Ji and (more than anyone) Da Shi.

Liu Cixin does fall back on clichés, and a few characters (especially in relation to Lao Ji) feels like little more than devices. The book certainly couldn’t pass that gender equality test (unlike the predecessor novel, which felt quite progressive in these terms). Still, the characters that Liu devotes serious attention to tend to be loveable. They might be a little flat at times, being means to get to the high concept stuff, but the concepts themselves are GOOD. I won’t be looking at the night sky in the same way again, that’s for sure.

The first book was grounded in the present, while this one takes off and fits more into the classical genre as it speaks to outer space. But, Liu also managed to weave cosmic horror throughout, and it ramps up to a fever pitch at times.

All this is to say I loved it. I’m not sure about readability, as the book relies on mystery, but I’m reading to devour all of the author’s writing.

Edit: I just remembered the scene where Osama Bin Laden appears as a character and disavows the use of violence. Surreal

I read this novel by accident. I looked it up after hearing about the dark forest hypothesis and I somehow missed the fact that this is the second book in a trilogy. I read the Three-Body Problem few years ago but didn't particularly like it. I found the same faults repeated in this novel too.

This book reads like a story from the science fiction's golden age: it has an interesting sci-fi concept at it's core, and it logically extrapolates from there. Cixin Liu does a really good job at this; at times it feels like Asimov's Foundation. Unlike the previous book, this one takes the plot into the farther future, and Liu gets to flex his creative muscle. The depiction of future cities and spaceships is well thought out and realistic. As a whole this book felt like reading through a game of chess.

Which leads me to the first of my objections: characters seem robotic. Even when they cite emotion as a factor in their decision-making process, this citation itself appears as a line in a logical proof. The characters just don't read as emotional beings.

The same "logic first" approach is applied to societies at large. As plot progresses through time we see countries taking actions which would fill entire novels seemingly "by decree". This simplifications feels like something Clarke would do, to help him explore an idea without getting lost in minutia of every-day reality. Unfortunately, it is this reality that makes for a more convincing story.

While these things are excusable as valid stylistic choices, and even necessary for Liu to tell the kind of story that he wants, my final qualm does not. It relates to portrayal of female characters.

There are few of them in the novel, the most prominent one being positioned squarely as a love interest of a male protagonist. What's worse, more pages have been devoted to his fantasizing about a "perfect woman" than to her actual character. When she does eventually appear it's because she has been kidnapped and brought as a some sort of a gift for the protagonist. She has been picked for this honor predominately based on her appearance. She is there for a chapter or two, in which time she falls in love with the protagonist, and is then kidnapped yet again and held as a hostage to ensure his cooperation. He proceeds to lament this turn of events until the end of the novel, but reflects on his fantasy more often than on the actual woman.

There is one more notable female character, and she is admittedly inflicted by fewer tropes. Although she too gets manipulated by another male protagonist, begrudges him at first, but then realizes the superiority of his idea and goes along with it. She ends up thinking of him as a fatherly figure.

All this seems fine to the rest of the characters and the narrator, and that is what makes it objectionable. It's one thing for a book to critique this treatment, or to omit it entirely. But the way it is presented here just feels wrong to me.

That was my first thought after finishing the first novel in the trilogy. This second book didn't change that much in my thinking. It's still okay, I liked some aspects, such as the whole 'Wallfacer' idea, but it still had a few very weird subplots, that just seem so out of place. The whole romantic subplot made me cringe, it reminded me of mail order brides. The feelings, decisions and personality of the woman in question are unimportant. Maybe that's a cultural thing but there were so many pages about this whole thing and it's just weird.

The whole idea of the dark forest is interesting, the droplet was also a good part. I wish he put more time into the characters and the story, not just into the science. That's the thing, I remember most of the science, but the characters are all very much replaceable.

In the end, I can't recommend this book. It's not bad, but there are so many better sci-fi books out there. It's good to see some non-American sci-fi authors out there, but that doesn't mean we have to blindly praise this one. It's like pumpkin spiced latte: It's fun to have something different once in a while, it's not bad, but on it's own, it's not that great.

I will read the last book, just to get it over with. Maybe it's gonna turn this whole ship around, but I don't have any high hopes. I still don't get why so many people recommend this book.