A review by danaisreading
The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I almost bailed during the first part. The Wallfacers were an interesting idea, but I didn't like or care about any of them, so I thought following them through the entire book would be a slog. (I also didn't like the fact that Wang Miao does not appear anywhere in the book except as an oblique reference which I almost missed.)

BUT. The second part is where things picked up and got interesting.

I didn't expect the time jump 200 years in the future. I think the book should have started here instead. Introducing Luo Ji as a Wallfacer here, coming out of hibernation with others (including Da Shi!) and with minimal backstory, might have helped his overall arc. I still don't quite understand why he is the person the Trisolarans are so afraid of and why they wanted him dead so very badly, but it does move the story along.

I thought Liu was going to avoid the trope of "alien objects = bad" and have the droplet actually be a mechanism for peace. But no, he leans into it by having the droplet annihilate the entire Space Fleet except for 7 ships, 5 of whom then destroy each other in the Battle of Darkness. I have no idea if this book will also make it into a miniseries (I saw the Chinese 30 episode one, not the Netflix reimagining), but I bet these scenes will look spectacular onscreen.