brokensandals 's review for:

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

3.0

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Viewed from this distance, the blastoff looked like a sped-up sunrise. The floodlights did not follow the rocket as it lifted off, leaving its massive body indistinct except for the spurting flames. From its hiding place in the dark of night, the world burst forth into a magnificent light show, and golden waves whipped up on the inky black surface of the lake as if the flames had ignited the water itself.

Like the first book in the series, this one is a bizarre mix of brilliant and cringeworthy.

Spoiler

Luo Ji’s tryst with an imaginary lover is treated with an absurd level of gravitas. The betrayal of one of the characters by his wife is done without any of the foreshadowing or character development that would be needed to render it emotionally affecting. The same character's decision to repeat an experiment on himself immediately after seeing it have dire consequences on someone else is completely ridiculous. The most groan-inducing moment, though, is when humanity decides to send its entire space fleet to make first contact with an alien probe; the author doesn’t even bother to an invent an excuse for this to be necessary. Gosh, I wonder what’s going to happen?

The novel's premise - how do you deal with a more powerful enemy, determined to destroy you, who can see your every action? - confronts the reader like a sort of impossible logic puzzle, and to some extent the book’s success rides on whether the author can present a satisfying solution. He does… sort of.

Spoiler

He has to soften the situation a little bit immediately (we learn that the sophons cannot read human minds), and part of Luo Ji’s final plan depends on the Trisolarans simply not noticing his construction of a dead man’s switch, which stretches credulity. But the concept of a “dark forest” universe in which simply drawing the attention of the other civilizations is an existential threat is fascinating.

And along the way, a number of interesting ideas about how humanity might respond to this situation are explored. One tangent I find particularly thought-provoking is how, in one era, the humans decide that maintaining a humane and civilized culture in the present is more important than attempting to ensure their survival into the future.