Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Dark Forest

I almost never like sequels more than the first but I enjoyed The Dark Forest a lot more than The Three Body Problem.

This novel was a lot less hard scientists fiction (which I struggled a bit with the first one not understanding all of the physics concepts), and goes much more into speculative fiction and examines a lot of different perspectives re the aftermath of the first novel (like psychology, economics, etc).

It is meandering in the beginning and a bit in the middle but I really enjoyed the meandering, I like the writing style and I enjoyed the literary wandering we were doing.

And then what a build up the whole first 2 parts are to the third! The buildup really pays off.

I loved the weird parts of this novel: Space assassination using meteriorite bullets,Luo Ji getting almost murdered like 8 times by a computer virus targeting him, That ball thing just straight up blowing everything up! The future's description with the social dynamics and just the structure of the buildings and the clothes, Loved the book opening and ending with ants

Female characters non-spoiler rant:
The one thing that almost held me back from giving this book a five stars is the writing of it's female characters. In my opinion, it really drops the ball on this especially given that I thought the portrayal of women in the first was pretty good! Especially given the context of that story. Female characters in this story do not have their own goals, motivations, or desires that exist beyond the male characters they interact with. Just so disappointing.

I almost stopped at around 30% because I was offended by what the actual fuck was happening with a female character lol. The way a specific woman was described just felt nauseating, weird, patronizing and too child-like. I'm hoping that maybe the descriptors were lost in translation a bit. Because I did notice near the beginning it said something like a character "had a naughty problem" and naughty did not make sense to use there at all.
But I'm really glad I pushed through because the scenes that are like this don't last that long and I loved the rest of the book.

Spoilers:

Like repeatedly talking about how delicate and dainty and pure and innocent and making Zhuang Yan, a grown women, sound like a child. Also its not just her, the book often uses weird patronizing language to describe other women.

And I enjoyed Luo Ji having an imaginary girlfriend! I thought it was weird and fun and I thought it worked in the story because it shows the reader that he is able to have an extremely complicated inner world that would make him a good candidate to be a wall facer. But then the fact that he makes someone find him a real girl who fits his imagination is like gross-weird not fun-weird. And then it feels really uncomfortable before you find out much later that this woman is like in on the plan and apparently had her own motives. Because at first you're like, did this woman get kidnapped? Why is she so fucking chill about being kidnapped?? Like where did they find her and why does she not seem to have any agency or care wtf is happening to her!!

Content Warnings

scytheria's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

meganpbell's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I really do love the hard, challenging science in this sci-fi, the big ideas about the nature of the universe and human and alien culture and behavior, however bleak, but Liu’s characters are sacrificed to this and are just so flat and shallow. That would be fine if it weren’t for the ridiculously misogynistic way he writes about women. I.E. science professor’s “dream girl” is “slender,” (Liu’s fav word to describe women), “angelicly” beautiful, “naive,” 20-something who immediately falls for him…shocking 🙄 Add to that the popular opinion that it’s a real slog to get to the pay off…I won’t be reading the last one.

Content Warnings

cloud_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

Content Warnings

mlewis's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

geraldinerowe's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This is the second in the Three Body Problem trilogy, and the scope of the novel is vast. Having said that, it didn't need to be this long. It had some exciting scenes, but far more long, turgid parts and a few completely unnecessary episodes. It also had a rather hurried ending for a book which went round the houses the rest of the time. Nor was I entirely convinced by the philosophical proposition upon which the entire novel hangs. But it had lots of fascinating ideas that will keep you thinking long after you've finished the book. I loved it and will be reading the (even longer) concluding part. (I should also mention the main character has some rather problematic attitudes towards women in places which you're asked to overlook. It's nothing major, but I could never quite shake it.)

Content Warnings

solanum's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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