A review by outcolder
The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

3.0

The nearly suicidal nature of hope in a universe that is “the dark forest” is examined from several angles but despite the gravity of that theme the tone tended more towards goofy than to the heaviness of the Cultural Revolution scenes in the first book, even if it never got as goofy as the video game or “Big Shi” scenes. Also the female characters are all problematic, I don’t know what is worse: all female characters are enemies of humanity or all but one and she’s a childish puppet? The suspense or narrative tension or whatever is more about solving the puzzles set in this thought experiment then about any particular character and the author’s repeated appeals to solidarity as the solution to inequality make me want to see if we get galactic communism at the end of the trilogy or if the darkness of the forest prevails, so despite the shortcomings I will press on.