I just finished The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin, and it sure was a lot. In hindsight, it is absolutely nothing like The Three Body problem, which is okay, because this is much better.
And while the prose is as basic as a sci-fi this hard and grand could be, the plot itself is so insane and odd that i have to talk to someone about it.
The pacing goes from absurdly fast, switching perspectives constantly to describing very fast things happening in space over way too many pages, skipping basic worldbuilding for exposition on horrifying worldbuilding. This mostly works in the books favor, as i read the 550 pages in a few weeks, and felt constantly rewarded by new bullshit.
The characters are just fucking awfully written, with the protagonist being a huge asshole and borderline pedophile the entire book, and Zhang having no personality except being the "Epic stoic millitary man".
The plot is incredibly dumb, with the 3 genius Wallfacer strategists all being total losers that just like the rest of the book seems to forget the point of the Wallfacer project very quickly. The first kills himself as soon as his first plan is claimed to be revealed, the second is killed because noone likes his plan (it wouldn't even work, apparently, which made it even more absurd), and the third had a weird secret plan that is litterally not revealed because it becomes so irrelevant.
The insanity is highly entertaining though, and when it goes almost "Sophie's World" with the educational Physics lectures in a sci-fi thriller it is class entertainment. Even the weird and probably bad plot is super cool to follow along with, and the ending is actually a pretty damn cool and convincing way to beat the super advanced Alien bad-guys.
Is this how the book is seen by you? I really want to know how badly you fucked with it, or suffered reading it.
by Kaninenlove
1 Comment
It was my least favorite of the trilogy. It was just too unbelievable. This isn’t a book you read for the characters, but the characters are there and they are awful. The protagonist’s fantasy turned reality girlfriend took up way too much of the plot and was pointless. The Wallfacers I think might be the single dumbest idea I have ever read about, ever. No way in hell would the world ever agree to that. And the real underlying problem I have is that I just don’t believe in the Dark Forest concept.
Those complaints aside, I am glad I read the book. I wouldn’t call it highly entertaining, but there was a lot to think about in it. Also I think the third book was much stronger.